Research - What is a Thriller?

Research – What is a thriller?

What is a thriller?  A thriller is a genre of a film that uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements. Charles Derry (1988) identified 6 types of thrillers; the first one is ‘murderous passion’ which is husband, lover and wife, one gets murdered and the motive for the crime is passion or greed, an example would be, ‘Fatal attraction’ (1987). The second thriller identified is a ‘Political’ thriller which is an assassination of leaders or government conspiracy, the motive for the crime is power and domination over people, an example would be, ‘The Jackal’ (1997).The third type of thriller is ‘change of identity’ in which the character changes or conceals identity and then deals with the consequences, the motive behind it is hiding crime, and an example would be, ‘Face Off’ (1997). The fourth type of thriller is ‘psycho-traumatic’ where the main character is traumatised by past events causing him/her to commit crime; the motive for the crime is trying to deal with the traumatic events from the past, an example would be ‘One Hour Photo’ (2002). The fifth type of thriller is ‘moral confrontation’ which is when good vs. evil and the motive is evil want to defeat good, an example would be, ‘Se7en’  (1995). The final type of thriller is ‘innocent on the run’ in this a hero is falsely accused and has to escape and prove innocence the motive behind the crime is the hero’s bosses want him/her out of the way, an example of this would be,  ‘The Fugitive’ (1993). One of the most famous thrillers is ‘Psycho’ which was made in 1960. There are more common thrillers, like ‘One Hour Photo’ and ‘Identity’ which are extremely well made, and are very psychological.

There are certain characteristic that made a thriller, a thriller. A typical thriller is a film that provides thrills and keeps the audience on the “edge of their seats” as the plot builds to a peak. The tension and suspense continues to rise more rapidly as a character(s) is placed in a mysterious, dangerous or threatening situation that could result in life or death.  Thrillers usually start off in a place that is very normal, like a home, supermarket or hotel but soon these ‘normal’ places can turn into disastrous settings. Although sometimes a thriller can be set in foreign cities, desert or the high seas, although this isn’t as common as it can be predicted what will happen. The heroes in most thrillers are frequently ordinary citizens unaccustomed to danger. However, more common in crime thrillers, they may also be "hard men" accustomed to danger, like police officers and detectives. While such heroes have traditionally been men, women lead characters have become increasingly common.

A particular style of thriller, which emerged from the 1940/1950’s, is ‘Film Noir’.  This has influenced many contemporary thrillers, which are known as ‘Neo-Noir’. An example of ‘Film Noir’ is ‘Double Indemnity’ (1944) and ‘Mildred Pierce’ (1945) and finally ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice’ (1946). Examples of ‘Neo-Noir’ are ‘
‘Chinatown’ (1974) and ‘Sin City’ (2005).