Thriller genre

A thriller film is a type of film to promote intense excitement, suspense and a high level of anticipation. A genuine thriller is a film, that restlessly pursues a single-minded goal, to provide thrills and keep the audience cliff-hanging at the 'edge of their seats' as the plots builds towards a climax.

Tension is the most important ingredient, tensions arises when the main characters is placed in a frightening situation or mystery where escape seems impossible. Plots of thrillers involve characters which come into conflict with each other of with outside forces.

Generic stereotypical characters:
Convicts
Criminals
Stackers
Assassins
Hit men
Private eye
Fugitive
Terrorists
Drug addicts


Themes:
Greed
Envy
Jealousy
Terrorism
Pursuit
Romantic triangles leading to murder

Generic locations:
Dimly lit often wet narrow urban streets or alleyways
Lifts, staircases, basements
Phone booths
Scrap yards, derelict buildings tunnels, graveyards.

Codes and conventions of thriller genres:
None or low key lighting
Spooky slow music
Often women is the victim
Shadows
Villains have weapons on them and are more numbered then the victim/s.

Alfred Hitchcock
"The purpose of a thriller is to put their 'audiences' totally in the cold water of fear to see what it's like"

learning about all of the themes and the generic characters, made me realise how many thriller films there are, as there are so many themes and characters used. this shocked me as i thought thriller was quite a new genre whereas romance has been around for a long time, this also shocked me knowing that alfred hitchcock was making thrillers in the 1930's. this also gave me alot more ideas for the video i would be making after half term, and made me understand films more rather than just a film i was picking it apart and trying to find out the theme and the characters used.