CONVENTIONS OF A THRILLER By Hyleana Anthony

WHAT IS A THRILLER A thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, gaming and TV. They tend to over lap with numerous sub genres such as mystery and horror. For a thriller to be created, it usually includes a number of ingredients such as: fast pace, frequent action and resourceful heroes who must defeat the villain. Literary devices such as suspense, which can be built up by use of sound are often used. Red herrings are used, when a character is introduced as being something that they’re not. This device mislead the audience, by making them come up with false conclusions. There are usually enigmas of cliff hangers, adding to the mystery and suspense of the film. Through my own research, a typical synopsis of a thriller is that the protagonist is placed in danger at the beginning of the film. It is usually the antagonist that is slowly revealed throughout the film. However the antagonist isn’t always a villain, but in most cases will work against the protagonist, in order for the film to be a thriller.

TYPES OF THRILLERS There are various types of thrillers, these are the sub genres within the thrillers. They follow the same sort of story line that makes a film a thriller, they instead collaborate different genres within this. The aim for thrillers is to keep the audience alert and on the edge of their seats. No matter what the sub-genre a thriller film falls into, it will emphasize the danger the protagonist faces. The tension with the main problem is built on throughout the film and leads to a stressful climax.

As part of my research, I found some results on peoples favourite types of thrillers. I got this information from someone from another school’s blog post, but I thought their results could be representative. On the pie chart, the most popular genre of a thriller is supernatural, and the lowest is mystery. My personal favourite would be psychological as they make your mind wonder, this happens in films such as Shutter Island. Through some more research, I found out what people expect to be in a thriller film. The audience would usually expect most likely to be a lot of drama and investigation. The reason for this is because within a thriller genre, there is usually a good person as well as a bad person. The bad person usually does something wrong and it causes investigation by the good person. However the audience would not usually expect anything joyful to happen until the end, when the antagonist has finally been revealed.

HISTORY OF THRILLERS Alfred Hitchcock often known as the ‘Master of suspense’, was a British film director who made the first ever thriller film. He made created two films before his thriller, then in 1927, his third silent movie was a thriller. The first ever thriller was called “The Lodger”. The film was about a landlady who suspects her new lodger is the madman killing woman in London, according to IMDB. The film sounds like its intended to follow a similar story line as a Jack the Ripper type of movie. Furthermore the first thriller with sound was directed by Hitchcock in 1929. This film is called Blackmail, having read the description on IMDB it seems quite gory.

SPY THRILLERS Spy thrillers contain aspects to the thriller genre, in this sub genre, the focuses on the adventures of agents in either an office, or out in the field. There is usually a hero, who is usually a government agent who must take violent actions against agents of rival government. During spy thriller films, (especially in James Bond), there is likely to be a love story as well. This gives more structure to the film, as when the spy is placed in an impossible situation the viewer is on edge This is because the spy usually has to try to defeat the rival government, whilst saving his love interest. Politics is often associated within spy thrillers, they can be good or bad, depending which side they’re on. Through my own research I have discovered that in 1928, the first spy movie was created, it was called ‘Spies’. This film was created by Fritz Lang, this helped contribute towards the development of James Bond movies.

POLITICAL THRILLERSA political thriller is a thriller that is set against the backdrop of a political power struggle. They usually involve legal plots, designed to give political power to enemy, while protagonist has to try to stop the enemy. They can involve national or international political scenarios. The common themes are: political corruption, terrorism, and warfare. Political thrillers can be based on true facts such as the assassination of John F Kennedy. In political thrillers there is usually a strong overlap with the conspiracy thriller. For example in the 2012 film Argo, the protagonist has to rescue the American hostages from Iran.

MILITARY THRILLERS Military thrillers consist of the hero typically being a military officer, operating behind enemy lines. There is violence and aggression involved, as the film is set in a war zone. They’re usually based on real life wars, for example saving private Ryan is set during the Invasion of Normandy in World War II. When trying to defeat the enemy, the protagonist is either alone, or part of a small military specialist group. The hero often survives against the odds, which fits into the thriller genre as nothing joyful really happens until the end of the film.

CONSPIRACY THRILLERS A Conspiracy Thriller generally has a protagonist unravelling a conspiracy, and having a character in danger. There are many different themes that build up tension to unveil the conspiracy. The protagonist confronts the powerful group of enemies whose true extent and power only s/he recognizes. The protagonist is usually an investigator who finds them self uncovering a mystery about a conspiracy. These thrillers often include the theme of secret history, which sort of overlaps with mystery films. An example of a conspiracy thriller is ‘The Insider’ 1999, where Al Pacino finds himself in the middle of a tobacco industry cover up. He has to defeat the powerful enemy, and expose what they’re doing.

MEDICAL THRILLERS This type of thriller often consists of a hero (protagonist) who is generally a physician, who must fight corrupt drug companies. Or they can fight colleagues engaged in unethical experiments, or it could be a mixture of both. For example in the 2007 film ‘Coma’ is a medical thriller., From what I have read on IMDB in the film the actors have each emerged from their brain injury comas. They’re conscious if they’ll recover or not.

PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLERS Psychological thriller is a thriller story which emphasizes the psychology of its characters. There is often conflict between the protagonist’s mental and emotional state, rather than physical. In terms of classification, the category is a subgenre with similarities to Gothic and detective fiction. Psychological thrillers also often incorporate elements of and overlap with mystery, drama, action, and horror, particularly psychological horror. Psychological thrillers tend play on the viewers mind, making them seem closer to reality. There are often twisted relationships involved in them, for example the 2014 film ‘Gone Girl’. From IMDB, it says the film is about a girl that goes missing, but her husband is accused by the media for her disappearance. This would be the sort of thriller that includes red herrings, to make the audience come to false conclusions about the thriller.

HORROR THRILLER Horror thrillers focus on the conflict between the main characters physical, mental, and emotional state. Usually in horror thrillers, the antagonist is some sort of murderer and wants to cause harm to the protagonist. In horror thrillers, the antagonist is sometimes revealed, however this is sometimes not the case. Sometimes the audience do not find out who the antagonist is until near the end of the film. An example of a horror thriller is the 1991 film ‘the silence of the lambs’. In this horror thriller, there is a psychopath that murders woman in the west, the FBI have to find clues that will lead them to the killer. This again could lap over with mystery thrillers.