'The Black Swan' Genre analysis

Black Swan


Black Swan is a 2010 American psychological thriller and horror film. The narrative of the film 

centers around a female ballet dancer Nina Sayers that wins the lead role of 'swan lake' who is perfect

for the role of the 'white swan', although she feels her role is being snatched from her when a new 

dancer Lily (Mila Kunis) joins the cast of the show, who seems to be grabbing the attention of the 

dance teacher who Nina is in love with, this causes an issue and Nina starts to believe that Lily is

after her and her role and slowly loses her mind as she gets into the character more and more, 

becoming 'the black swan', leading to her to psychologically going mental. In which case this film 

links to it's genre extremely well. The way the film creates the mental awareness of the main 

character, shows exactly why this film is a psychological horror

Nina would be seen as the protagonist throughout the film as she is shown to be just a sweet and 

innocent ballet dancer at the beginning. The character is desperate to be the best and perfecting 

herself, but throughout the film she becomes in danger of herself because she starts to get injured and 

losing focus, which shows the audience she is in peril. There are scenes such as after her 

performances in part 1 of swan lake, where she goes into her dressing room to find Lily in there who

teases her about how she performed. Then, in anger she throws her against the mirror. This shows

her weakness in the film. However, stereotypical mind games are portrayed when Nina had actually

stabbed herself and not Lily who she had imagined to be there. Which relies on the characters' fears 

and emotional instability to build tension.