A Thriller is a broad genre, there are various types of thrillers such as a romantic thriller, a action adventure thriller etc. A thriller Comes in two forms, as a movie or as a book. Thrillers are capturised through fast pacing, frequent action and resourcful heroes who must thwart the plans of more powerful and better equiped villians (this can be described as a power struggle).
A villian will always start off as the most powerful charcter in an attempt to exite the audience, of the action that will occur. The problems that a thriller will present are not small problems such as a few items going missing from a shop, but more like a murder investigation.
One of the main ingredients of a Thriller is suspense (will the person die or will they live) Red herring (the audience being mislead, Cliff hangers, (where could the storyline possibly go from here, will the hero escpape?)
Hitchcock says that Thrillers allow the audience "to put their toe in the cold water of fear and see what its like"
Thrillers often take place in an exotic setting such as in foreign cities.
The hero in a Thriller will often be a "Hard man" who thrives off of danger, such as a policeman. Although some heroes can be an ordinary citizen who gets drawn into the danger by accident. Statistics show that most heroes are infact men! however women lead characters have become increasingly common, for example Alien's (1979) main character is Sigourney Weavers who plays the character of Ripley.
Thrillers often overlap with mysteries. A mystery and Thriller differ because in a mystery, the person who commited the crime is only found out at the end of the film. Whereas in a thriller the crime commited and normally the person who commited it is known from the start, and then the audience wonders not who did it, but what can be done about it. In a Thriller the audience knows who is going to commit the crime. A Thriller is more significant than a mystery because crimes are grander, meaning the person who gets murdered/hurt etc is more significant (i.e. the president) or more quantities of people are hurt (the crime isnt' resticted to an individual)
Thrillers possess alot more violence then Mysteries.
If a thriller is influenced by film Noir then a hero with flaws may be killed.
A Thriller may be defined by the primary mood that they elicit: fearful exitement. (if it thrills then its a Thriller)
Different types of Thrillers: Romantic Thriller/ Legal Thriller/ Action-adventure Thriller/ Spy Thriller/ Medical Thriller/ Historical Thriller/ Political Thriller etc.
Action Thriller- race against the clock.
Conspiracy Thriller- Hero confronts a large, powerful group of enemies whose true extent only he or she recognises.
Disaster Thriller- Hurricains-Earthquakes-World is coming to an end-e.g "Stormy Weather"
Erotic Thriller- Erotica and Thriller.
A Thriller triggers an intensity of emotions, exitement and breathlessness/ fear and intrigue- must must must! thrill.
-The End-
