Thriller Genre

Thriller

Thriller Definition

Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, and television programming that uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements. Thriller films tend to be fast- passed and exciting. A thriller film keeps their audience on the "edge of their seats" and there is always something going on either a scene where there’s a lot of tension because the killer is at the scene or false peak of suspense.

Thriller films I have seen: Unbreakable Fast and furious (all) IRobot Underworld Taken (all) Mission impossible The Bourne identity Casino Royale The A team Salt The town Limitless Man on a ledge Ghost rider Se7en

Top 5 Favorite Thriller Films

1	Psycho
2	Se7en
3	Fast & Furious 5
4	Colombian
5	Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

Characters:

In thriller films there are a lot of typical thriller characters. A typical thriller killer/villain is either mentally ill, just wants revenge or is after money. For example the killer in Se7en thinks his doing the right thing by killing the people who commit the seven deadly sins.

Another typical character in Thriller film is the hero who is usually in his 30’s, a detective or police officer and maybe a man who was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

A lot of thriller films end with the hero killing the villain but there is always a different way the film ends for example they get killed by the hero or their partner, they may end up surviving and are not caught.

Not every thriller has a mentally ill or greedy villain sometimes there just average people who are robbers but are in a situation they cannot control.

Iconography:

Every thriller film contains Iconography. Which are props and where the film is set. For example in the film Collateral it contains guns, a taxi and is set in the city.

Iconography is very important because if the killer uses a gun or knife in throughout the film to kill his victims then we can see that’s his weapon. So if we ever see a knife in a scene we know it might foreshadow that they’re going to be killed.  

Themes:

The theme of the film tells us what kind of story the film will be about. For example if we see that there’s a robbery going on in the film we automatically think the film is going to be based on the robbery like the film The Town and how need to make sure they don’t get caught by the cops.

Every thriller film has a theme; different themes are like sex and deduction, power and money. Some of the audiences like a certain theme because they might find it to be better than other themes. Some may like films to do with torture and some may like ones about greed and money.

Narrative

The narrative is the story in the film which tells the audience what may be included for example police chases, a complex plot or maybe shootouts. For example in the film Heat there is a lot of Shootouts and chases and this gets the audience excited to watch because you want to find out will they survive or is the police going to catch them.

In my opinion I enjoy watch a film that has a lot of twist and turns because I may be rooting for someone who I think is the hero but instead they turn out to be the villain and it just blows my mind and proves me wrong. 

Audio and visual style:

In every thriller film the music is very important and has a huge impact on the audience. This is because at one point of the film is all quiet and calm and the next minute the music comes on and someone gets killed, this builds up the suspense. The best example of suspense including the music is Psycho when in the famous shower scene she’s just have a normal calm shower and next minute the curtain opens the thrilling music comes on and she gets killed. This keeps the audience on the edge of their seats and gives them Goosebumps which every director wants.

When you watch a thriller film you expect it to be fast but sometimes thriller films take their time to add in fast pace action because they want to introduce the characters to you and then the thrilling parts come.

In my opinion I think this is a great idea because you don’t want to watch a film where every minute there’s a chase or fight scene because you want to see who the characters are and how are they then you want to see fast pace action.