Section1. the Thriller Genre

The Thriller genre is a genre which is intended to excite, and almost frighten the audience. The narratives of a Thriller generally contain twists and turns which sends the audience in one direction but the answer could be down another path. This creates suspense and excitement for the audience; they like this because it takes them away from their everyday life. The plot lines usually hold excitement for the audience in the way of danger, murder etc which attracts the attention of the audience and holds it.
Their are many theories to what a Thriller actually is and most of these can be applied to the thriller genre as a whole. Most films within the Thriller genre conform to most of these theories and some films conform to all of them.

Partial Vision

This is where only some of the narrative information is giving to the viewer and hides the rest, leaving the audience to wonder what is going to happen; who is the attacker? how are they doing it? etc. This gives a chance for the audience to think of their own theories about the rest of the information that is hidden. A strong example of this is in Se7en where the audience only see the murder scene and not the murder actually taking place.

Question Answer Model

This keeps the audience in suspense asking questions; what is going to happen next,who is the next victim? These are mainly used in mystery thrillers as their could be an element of surprise at the end. A good example of the Question answer Model is in Final Destination 1 the audience continue to ask questions about who is going to be the next victim. the audience will be trying to figure this out with the photo clues taken at the theme park.

The Transformed City

The transformed city is the idea that an ordinary place can become extraordinary for the purpose of a thriller. Most Thrillers are set in an urban enviroment such as a town or a city and they usually become more extraordinary from a killing or something bad happening. For the thriller to be successful the society must change and adapt to become more different to others and more exciting.

Concealment and Protraction

Concealment and Protraction pulls the audience in different directions. The concealment is used to create suspense and deliberatly hiding information from the audience. This leaves unanswered questions creating suspense and leaving the audience to wonder. Protraction is also used to create suspense and does this by deliberatly delaying an outcome from the audience. For example this could be delaying a bomb explosion in a big city; the audience knows what is going to happen but the suspense is increased by delaying it.

Mazes and Labyrinths

Mazes and Labyrinths is the idea that the Protagonist finds themselves in a predicament and the "mazes" which they must find their way through to reach the ending. The narrative of the film is usually filled with twist and dead ends, this makes it difficult for the Protagonist to resolve. The audience is always presented with the problems that the Protagonist must solve and how they do this.

The Exotic

This is the idea that buildings and objects have been placed within a Thriller which we would not expect to see in day to day life. These objects or buildings are usually placed in the Thriller for a purpose; objects may be used to symbolise the characters personality. Often props from another culture will be added to the Thriller to create difference to the film. This introduction of something unfamiliar is something which the audience enjoys as it holds their attention and reinforces the idea that the world within a Thriller is different and yet more exciting than the real world which the audience love.

The Heroic Romance

This is the idea that the Protagonist (hero) of the film is shown to be an ordinary person who is forced to act in extraordinary ways to survive during the film. In the Thriller genre this hero is usually portrayed as having an ordinary job and an ordinary life but they must adapt to survive. In Thriller films movies the ordinary Laws and Nature of the film are slightly suspended which allows them to perform extraordinary which would be impossible otherwise; this can include diving out the way of a car or jumping off a cliff and surviving.