Section 1: Background to the Thriller Genre =]

A stereotypical thriller is a film that pursues a goal all the way through the film, e.g. to find a killer. This involves plot twists to create suspense and gives thrills to keep the audience intrigued as the plot builds up by using certain enigma codes & making people question their certainty about what is going to happen. Some words that are associated with thrillers are: - Dark, Surreal, Secrecy, Anonymity, Danger, Suspense, Death & Tension Building and the initial affect a thriller tries to generate is suspense and tension. Thrillers are normally characterized by fast pacing, frequent action and there opening scene are often quite slow paced and the lighting is often dark.

Conventions of a thriller genre include the: narrative, characters, locations, use of technical codes and semiotics. Characters in thrillers include criminals, stalkers, assassins, psychotic individuals and the heroes in most thrillers are frequently "hard men" used to danger: law enforcement officers, spies or soldiers. The themes of thrillers frequently include terrorism, political conspiracy, pursuit, or romantic triangles leading to murder.

Thriller films have now been sub categorised (we call these hybrids), Some of these are:- Action thrillers, Psychological thrillers, Adventure thriller, Crime thriller, Drama thriller, Sci-fi thriller and Film-Noir thrillers. A popular director, who has created a large amount of thriller movies, is Alfred Hitchcock. With movies such as "The Birds" and "Vertigo" his movies, were one of the founding and most influential types in the thriller genre. Some recent examples of a Thriller include - The Godfather, Pulp Fiction, The Dark Knight, Fight Club, The Silence of the Lambs and The Matrix.

One film that I have studied, Se7en is a successful thriller because it has all the components of a thriller film, it creates an uncomfortable edgy atmosphere from the start. There are several binary oppositions which creates a tone of conflict between the characters. It's also successful because of the un natural way the film has been put together through imagery and composition.

G.K Chesterton - The Transformed City

He said that the thriller genre was "the poetry of modern life" and how our world is drab and miserable but thrillers attempt to find excitement and adventure in it.

Northrop Frye - Heroic Performance

Frye says how the hero is always "one of us" doing extraordinary things which we tend to believe as they move in a world in which ordinary laws of nature still apply. He also says how the "enchanted forest" has been replaced by the modern city.

John Cawelti - The Exotic

Foreign artifacts/settings which turn a normal environment into an enchanted and mysterious place. Places which are unusual to us.

W.H.Matthews - Mazes & Labyrinths

An old story exampling this is the story of Theseus' quest to kill a minotaur, the hero goes on a journey with many twists as the maze is complex so the solution isn't easy, some examples for some of todays thrillers are films like Davinci Code & Se7en.

Pascal Bonitzer - Partial Vision

He said how what the audience can't see is very important as it builds suspense. He also said how it makes us feel like the answers are just around the killer as there is a need to catch the killer to a certain deadline.

Lars Ole Saurberg - Concealment & Protraction

Concealment is the deliberate hiding of something from the audience while Protraction is delayment of a suspected outcome e.g. Bomb countdown. These techniques are both used to increase suspense and to keep the audiences attention.

Noel Carroll - The Question ~ Answer Model

Developing questions for the audience to answer as there is a limited number of outcomes however the moral factor ('right outcomes') is usually the most desirable. Also the probability factor is a key role in thrillers as it's got to be realistic yet still seen as heroic as battling against the odds.