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Genre Research

Genre Research – Thriller

This genre of film aims to literally ‘thrill’ by engaging the audience with a mixture of suspense and tension. Generally, a typical thriller will steadily build these emotions to a climax which aims to surprise and excite the audience. Twists are used in a plot which aim to shock or surprise the audience. The protagonist’s life, or that of a loved one or loved ones, is threatened, usually because the protagonist is involved unknowingly in a dangerous and mysterious situation.

Stereotypically, the protagonist in a thriller is a character, usually male, accustomed to dangerous and difficult situations. For example, a thriller protagonist is frequently a police officer or detective (Se7en; Fincher, 1995 and Insomnia; Nolan, 2002).

Conventionally, thriller narratives are more focused on the protagonist thwarting the antagonist, rather than the protagonist solving the crime/event that has taken place. The villain in the thriller is typically unknown until the climax of the film.

Typically, a thriller will have a non-linear, disruptive narrative, which generally consists of flashbacks or flash-forwards. The use of this type of narrative aims to disorientate an audience and perhaps undermine any predictability in a plot. A good example of this narrative use is Momento (Nolan, 2000).

Location is also, generally, an important feature of a thriller. Thrillers often take place in small, spatially limited locations to evoke a sense of claustrophobia within the audience. For example, Flightplan (Schwentke, 2005), Panic Room (Fincher, 2002) and Buried (Cortés, 2010).

It is not, however, always necessary for the location to be physically claustrophobic. Many political thrillers, for example, still create a sense of claustrophobia without use of location; State of Play (Macdonald, 2009), for example, creates a stifling feeling throughout the film with its use of cinematography, editing, mise-en-scene and sound.

Another generic code of the thriller genre is the use of fast-paced editing (short takes and fast, hard cuts) or discontinuous, montage editing (jumps cuts etc.), which aim to provoke audiences; to make them experience the emotions that the protagonist feels. Some thrillers use montage editing to disorientate the audience and to make their heartbeat physically accelerate.

Lighting, a key aspect of mise-en-scene, is also a vital tool used in thrillers to convey certain tones/moods. Low key lighting is generally used to create tension and a sense of eeriness. Shadows are inevitably linked with this lighting and are often used to represent the dark, conflicted aspects of the protagonists. This technique is predominantly present in neo-noir thrillers and psychological thrillers.

A standard icon often used in thrillers, especially the sub-genre of psychological thrillers, is a mirror. Mirrors are used to connote different emotions, most notably the inner darkness within a protagonist. A recent and apt example of this use of iconography is Black Swan (Aronofsky, 2010).

There are many sub-genres of a thriller, for example:

• Action Thriller: The iconography of this sub-genre consists mainly of guns, explosions and violence. There are also often elements of crime and mystery, for example Jason Bourne films (Liman, 2002 and Greengrass, 2004 and 2007).

• Crime Thriller: This sub-genre is a hybrid of thriller and crime films; it is usually from the perspective of criminals, rather than the police/law enforcement, for example, The Godfather Trilogy (Coppola; 1972, 1974 and 1990).

• Disaster Thriller: The main conflict is usually centered on a natural disaster, e.g. earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes (Volcano; Jackson, 1997), or a man-made disaster such as nuclear war.

• Psychological Thriller: The conflict is mainly focused on the mental and emotional aspects of a character, rather than the psychical. A good example of this is Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958).

Each of these include certain codes and conventions, many of which are mentioned above, that coincide with the thriller genre but also have separate, distinctive aspects that individualise them as sub-genres.