Coventions of Thrillers

What is a thriller?


Thriller- a novel, play, or film with an exciting plot, typically involving crime or espionage: 

• a tense thriller about a diamond heist that goes badly wrong
• spy thrillers

(Oxford Dictionary)

"What gives the variety of thrillers a common ground is the intensity of emotions they create, particularly those of apprehension and exhilaration, of excitement and breathlessness, all designed to generate that all-important thrill. By definition, if a thriller doesn't thrill, it's not doing its job." -James Patterson, June 2009 "Thriller" 

In summary I have found that a thriller is a film that uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements, thrillers use this to stimulate the viewer's moods by giving them a high level of anticipation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and/or terror. The aim for thrillers is to keep the audience alert and on the edge of their seats.

Conventions of thrillers:

• Fast-paced
• The unknown/ narrative enigma
• Plot twists
• Investigation
• Protagonist accustomed to violence and often dis-empowered
• Complex narrative that still abides by Todorov.
• Violent crime
• Everyday setting where something extraordinary happens
• Themes of mirroring, identity, voyeurism.

When making my thriller I should follow the conventions listed above, as by doing this I am able to stick to the genre, allowing the target audience to clearly identify the film as being a thriller.

Examples of thrillers:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (David Fincher, 2011)

Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)

Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010)

The Woman in Black (James Watkins, 2012)

Mission: Impossible -Ghost Protocol (Brad Bird, 2011)

Source- IMDb

In class on Monday we were also told of the common scenes depicted in A-level thriller openings which were;

1. Victim tied up in shed
2. Hooded stalker follows female victim
3. Someone waking up and their daily routine
4. Killer sticking a knife into photos
5. Gangsters playing cards
6. Use of flashbacks or flash forwards.

With knowledge of the 6 most common openings I can have these in mind when brainstorming ideas to ensure that I avoid using them, by doing this I will be ensuring that my thriller opening has originality.