Conventions Of A Thriller

Conventions Of A Thriller

A thriller is a novel, play or film that has an exciting plot, in other words, is made to thrill. Thrillers generally consist of low key lighting, tension music, and the protagonist in the mercy of the antagonist. It may also consist of quick cuts, shadows, changes in the angle of shots, diegetic sounds of breathing, black and white shots and a montage of shots. There are 5 main stages in a thriller; a state of equilibrium, a disruption in the equilibrium, an awareness of the disruption and a attempt to restore it and finally a new equilibrium. The protagonist is normal a brave character who attempts to restore justice whilst the antagonist attempts to destroy it. In recent years, the protagonist may previously be a villain changing his ways and facing his old allies as a consequence. The identity of the antagonist is normally hidden but is revealed as the film progresses and is often trying to seek revenge from a past dispute but this is not always the case. The aim of a thriller is to make the audience feel like it is happening to them, thus making them scared.

Denzel Washington as main protagonist
Detective Alonzo Harris in
Training day

In a thriller, uses of close ups and extreme close ups on protagonists are present in order to show their emotions. It may also be used on props to display their role in the narrative. Shots of the antagonistic characters will be very quick and may not even show their face in order to conceal their identity to the audiences. They may be close ups of their mouths, shots of the back of them, their shadows and even silhouettes to make characters appear darker and thus more scary.

Thrillers consist of a lot of literacy devices that are scare, excite and ultimately thriller the audience.

Red Herrings

A red herring is something that distracts or misleads audiences from the relevant/important or main elements of the narrative. A prime example of this would be in 1992 box office hit  'The Bodyguard'. The films stars Whitney Houston as 'Rachel Marron', a modern-day superstar in fear of her life as she is heavily stalked and receives death threats and as result hires a bodyguard who she then falls in love with. Throughout the movie we see an extremely excited fan who goes over the top with his adoration towards Rachel and appears to be the stalker, however it is later revealed he is not.

Cliffhanger

A cliffhanger is when a main character ends up in a difficult situation or is left with a shocking revelation at the end of a film. The purpose of a cliff hanger is to excite the audience enough so they will stay to see what happens next or to just thrill the audience with the unexpected.

Suspense

Suspense is when films cause viewers to feel mixed emotions of enjoyable excitement and enchantment but also feelings of apprehension and anxiety at the same. This is due to a rising source of tension established during a segment in a film. In terms of thrillers, as described by acclaimed thriller pioneer Alfred Hitchock, suspense is when audiences expect something bad to happen have (or believe they have) a superior knowledge on events in the drama's hierarchy of knowledge, yet they are powerless to intervene or prevent it from happening.

Sub-Genres

Sub genres are underlining genres within a film. Sub genres allow films to be more accessible and give film makers opportunities to expand on character development and overall narrative. Examples of thriller sub genres would be:

Psychological Thriller

- These are thrillers which central themes focus on the mind of the character (principally the protagonist) their unstable mind states.

Comedy Thriller

- These are thrillers that contain evident elements of humor within the screenplay, although they have a disproportion amount of humor in comparisons to other genres that do.

Techno/Sci-Fi Thriller

- These are thrillers which draw subject matter from science fiction, spy, action/war. They include a small amount of focus on technical details which is normally military technology.