Research: What is a Thriller? - Miss Begum

What are genres? Why is it important to know this?

A genre is any category of art or entertainment for example music, whether written or spoken, an audio or visual basic, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Different genres include Romance, Horror, Educational, Adventure and more. I find it important to know this as it helps the audience to differentiate the various aspects of art and entertainment.

Definition of a Thriller?

Thriller is a genre which consists of literature such as books, films, video game plots/story-lines and television programs that use loads of suspense and tension as its main elements in order to draw an audience. Thrillers are created to stimulate the viewer's moods/emotions, giving them a high level of ‘anticipation, surprise, curiosity and terror’.

Examples of thriller films

John Wick is an example of a thriller film as it has features of the genre such as fade cuts, tense moments, a hero vs villain moment and touching scenes of some romance. The narrative of John Wick is similar to a thriller film as it features common conventions of a stereotypical thriller. Movies such as Dark knight, John Wick and Paranormal Activity are part of a list of thriller movies due to their sensitive nature and curious situations. Some thriller films come away from the traditional conventions and try to bring up or add a new spice to thriller by including more anxiety and action.

Sub Genres in thriller

In thriller there are many genres that have so much of an impact in a thriller they create a sub-genre. Examples of these are The Purge as it is a crime thriller and has aspects of crime within the original thriller basis of the film. Sub-genres attract more audiences to the original film as they are just two genres mixed together to create a classical version of the original. Another example of a sub-genre is Prometheus which is a sci-fi thriller and consists of a mix of common conventions of the two genres.

Common conventions of thriller

One of the common conventions in thrillers is the use of dark lighting and humid scenes. This is used to emphasize the tension in scenes and the feeling that may be felt within the scene, it keeps the audience glued to their seats by not revealing too much yet making sure they are asking questions. Another common convention may be a first person shot of their experience in the movie such as every situation from their point of view e.g. a car chase or being chased in the woods. There will always be a main character in a thriller as that is one of several building blocks that hold up a thriller genre, whether it is a protagonist, antagonist, anti-hero or a group, they will always be centre of attention in a thriller.

The locations of thrillers are usually set in wide locations with cities or if a sub-genre then may take place in a house dependent on the sub just to add another affect to the film to increase the tension of the situation and make the audience anxious and feel the same fear as they are seeing through a screen.

Common Themes

One common theme in thriller is death and it normally occurs at the start or halfway through the movie to give off the whisper of a mysterious vibe in the film. If not a mystery then it will just be danger and risks throughout the entire film.

Another theme of thriller may be a potential love interest of the protagonist which is common in most other thrillers yet not all, the potential love interest may add extra spice as they could be included in the danger of the movie.

Response of the audience

The audience of a thriller film may have very different responses to a film, maybe as a group or individually, it varies. The first main response is a psychological response and can mean that the viewer or plural may have a mental response right after or during the film which means that the genre is making an impact on their target audiences. The other response is physiological response which is the feeling that a viewer or plural generates from watching thrillers, for example screaming, hairs on end, jumping from jump scares and goose bumps. The audience of a thriller could pretty much experience both a psychological and physiological response from the thriller genre of movies.

Why thriller is popular

Thriller is how it is because it came from something so little and is now one of the most sought after genres in the film industry because of the endless injection of new ideas and plots and mysterious events/situations. 

Films such as The Dark Knight is a popular example of a thriller as it delivers several plot twists and leaves the audience crawling at the screen for more as they are intrigued by the situation displayed in each scene, as if the producers spent their hard earned free time to put attention to detail. The emphasis used on thriller films are so amazing it is hard to predict most thriller films, I mean some are absolute... But the thriller films which are highly rated by critics are the suspects who help make thriller genre of films so popular.

Conclusion

Thriller in my opinion is something I never really could place movies into until I learnt of common conventions and the modern stereotypes within a thriller. Now it is relatively easy for me and many others alike to watch a thriller film and say yeah that is definitely thriller due to the aspects within the film. Thriller films such as John Wick and Kill Bill vol2 caught my eye by the way they went about the production of the movie.