Research: What is a thriller? - Miss Begum

What are genres?

A genre is a type of something. For example genres of music are like pop, rap, RnB jazz etc. Genres of movies are horror, action adventure, romance, thriller etc. Knowing these genres is important because you need to know the specific genre that you are doing and you need to see the difference between genres so you can know the conventions of your genre.

Definition of thriller

Thriller is a similar genre to horror but has more of an exciting plot. Thriller typically involves crime drugs and weapons. Thriller typically has a psychological effect towards the viewer mainly scaring them and surprising them. Thriller also has a lot of plot twist in the story which makes the audience excited and it gives them pleasure.

Thriller movies

Some examples of thrillers include ‘the exorcist’ ‘the dark knight’ ‘paranormal activity’ the purge and many more. The narrative of the dark knight rises is similar to most thriller movies because it is conventional to have a creepy and sociopathic clown as an antagonist because a lot of people are scared of clowns so thriller movies use them as an antagonist in order to scare people especially the ones that are afraid of clowns. The purge anarchy’s narrative is different than other thriller but it still uses thriller themes such as crime death and violence. The narrative still keeps the audience entertained because in the movie all crime is legal which is a scary thought.

Sub genres in thriller

In thriller there are a lot of sub genres such as action crime sci-fi religion and more. There are sub genres because not everyone is interested in all types of thriller movies so sub genres are there in order to have a wider audience for the thriller genres. ‘The purge’ is an crime thriller which consist of themes such as violence and crime it has people doing what they want because all crime is legal in that night which is exciting for the audience to see.  Terminator is a sci-fi thriller which consist of fictional themes. This makes the audience entertained because it is exciting to see things that don’t normally happen in real life.

Common conventions of thriller

One of the common conventions is thriller movies is that there is low key lighting in most scenes. This is used because it shows that something dangerous is going to happen in the scene and it has a scary effect. Another common convention in thriller is first person/point of view shot during a chase this is because the viewer will feel sympathy with the character which creates tension and fear. Some conventional characters in thriller are a protagonist, antagonist, anti-hero, damsel in distress and child. Protagonist is the main character in the story and usually has heroic features. Anti-hero is still the main character but he lacks heroic features. Antagonist is the main villain of the story and is usually evil. Damsel in distress is usually the female love interest of the protagonist and is usually weak and needs to be protected by the protagonist. Thriller movies are often set in places where there aren’t a lot of people such as warehouses churches forests and houses in order to show that people are most likely not going to be saved by other people.

Common themes in thriller

One common theme in thriller is death this is used to create sad and scary theme to the movie because the viewer feels scared and feel sorry for the character at the same time. Another common theme is violence this is used to create fear and tension to the audience in order to show that the villain of the story is dangerous. Another common theme is supernatural things this is used to create fear because things like ghost and devils is not something you see in real life so seeing that on screen would be scary for the audience.

Audience response to thriller

The audience can have two type of responses to thriller, the first response is a psychological response which means that the viewer has a mental response to the film for example fear sympathy and pity.  Another response to thriller movies is physiological response which means they have a physical response to the movie such as when they’re scared they jump or scream. The audience have either one of them or both when watching thriller.

Why is thriller a popular genre?

Thriller is a popular genre because people like seeing scary and freighting stuff with a good story. People get entertained from watching thriller because of stuff like shocking plot twist and the violence and gore in some scenes.  Also the characters go through changes throughout the films and the audience like seeing character development. The audience like action scenes as well which happens a lot in thriller.

Conclusion

This has helped my understanding because in now know the common conventions of thriller and I now the why the thriller genre is popular and how the audience responds to thriller. This will help me create my own thriller trailer.