SECTION 1: THE THIRLLER GENRE

-The Thriller Genre-



Definition: A genre of fiction that attempts to thrill the audience by putting characters at risk, there is no clear ingredients of what a Thriller should consist of, Thriller is a problematic genre.
Thrillers can be categorized by fast paced editing, action, heroes who must outwit the villain, devices such as cliff hangers and red herrings are common.
Thrillers usually take place in exotic places, the hero is usually a strong masculine figure accustom to danger who originates as your everyday person. Thrillers often overlay mystery stories but on a much grander scale, such as bank robberies and terrorist plots.





-Thriller Sub Genres-



Action Thriller: Race against time, lots of violence, antagonist (When one muscle that relaxes another contracts), Heavy use of guns and pyrotechnics.




Conspiracy Thriller: Hero confronts a powerful group of enemies whose true extent only the hero recognizes.



Crime Thriller: A hybrid genre of both thriller and crime films, projects a suspenseful account of crime, often focused on the criminal, emphasis on action rather than psychological aspects.





Disaster Thriller: Conflict against a natural or artificial disaster.





Drama Thriller: A genre of both thriller and drama film, large amount of character development, slower pace, plot twists.



Eco Thriller: Protagonist (The main character in a play around whom most of the action is based) must rectify environmental problems.



Erotic Thriller: A genre of both Erotica and Thriller, became popular since the 1980’s



Horror Thriller: Conflict between the main character is emotional, physical or mental, fear plays a key element throughout the thriller



Legal Thriller: Lawyer/hero is in jeopardy of not only losing their case but their lives, confronts an enemy.



Medical Thriller: Heroes are of a medical profession working to solve a growing medical problem.



Political Thriller: hero must create stability for the government that employs them.



Psychological Thriller: Conflict between the main character is of a mental and emotional state, rather than physical, often is resolved violently.



Spy Thriller: Hero is typically an agent employed by the government to violently combat agents of an opposing government, recently terrorists have also been used as opposition.



Supernatural Thriller: Conflict is between the main characters, typically one of them has supernatural powers, combines tension of a regular thriller with basic horror oriented ingredients such as ghosts, Supernatural Thrillers combine these elements with frightening but often restrained film. There are more graphic elements in supernatural thrillers to sustain a mood, often protagonists either battling a malevolent ("wishing or appearing to wish evil to others") paranormal force or trapped in a situation seemingly influenced or controlled by an paranormal entity beyond their comprehension.



Techno Thriller: Focuses on technology, typically military technology, It is described in detail to the audience and made essential to their understanding of the plot



-Codes, Conventions. Concepts & Theory’s-



The Transformed City: Simply, where a thriller is set, this is usually large urban environments, It should expose the poetry in modern life, modern life is realistically considered to be drab and mundane, Its the thrillers opportunity to excite this life, the city is transformed in to whatever the writer wishes, exciting, dangerous, unusual etc, the city is transformed.





Hero Romance: The hero is an ordinary person, they are transformed in to a hero because of the extraordinary circumstances they are put in, the hero exists in romance, and the laws of physics and nature are suspended, romantic setting.



The Exotic: Something within the thriller is exotic, for example, the use of middle eastern artefacts, It could also be said that the place within it is set is exotic.




Mazes and Labyrinths: Mazes lead off in many directions and have many dead ends, by the law of thrillers the plot and narrative or the “Maze” should be complex and should be able to, for example, identify a killer through strategy and cues to the audience etc. The audience gains pleasure through prolonging this.



Partial Vision: Things are hidden from view, this achieved by the way the audience is positioned and how its filmed.



Concealment and Protraction: Concealment and protraction are two techniques used together and together act as the theory behind partial vision, concealment is the withholding of information key to the audiences understanding of the film, protraction is a suspense delay technique, it pulls the audiences thoughts in different directions to confuse them.



Question and Answer Model: The question and answer model ensure that audience needs to ask questions about what’s happening. Who? Why?



Moral factor/Probability factor: Moral and probability factors can be used in many different ways for example, a character that is mentally unstable performs an action that is perceived to be morally wrong or highly improbable would emphasize unstable characteristic to the audience. The audience also gets enjoyment out of not seeing what comes next, like the common phrase “I didn’t see that coming” moral and probability factors allow the audience to believe something is going to happen by instinct or what is widely considered correct, this gives the writer of the film the opportunity to trick the audience or present something that is unexpected when the audience is least expecting it.