Codes and Conventions of a Thriller Film

A thriller is a type of film genre that uses suspense, tension and excitement as its main elements. This is because when you watch a thriller you are meant to be left ‘cliff-hanging’ and on the end of your seat. Tension builds up and causes high level of anticipation, uncertainty and anxiety with the audience.

To create this high level tension thrillers often use devices such as red herrings, plot twists and cliff-hangers.

·        A red herring is something used in films which misleads or distracts the viewer from relevant or important issues in a storyline so you are left in shock when the actual storyline is revealed.

·        A plot twist is a sudden and unexpected change in the direction or outcome of the plot of a film. A way of ‘falling’ the audience in this way is to include a false antagonist/ protagonist and presenting the character at the start of the film to be the main character. Then however you then ‘dispose’ of the character, normally by killing the character. This could also be seen as a red herring.

·        A cliff- hanger is a devise often used in thriller films and is often created by putting a main character in a dilemma or life or death situation. As a viewer you are then left in suspense and shock and you want to know the outcome.

·        Thrillers also frequently use enigmas. Enigmas are the mysteries of the plot in thriller films. These are used because as an audience we question what is happening and why it is happening, this is done to create tension and mystery.

Thriller films often put the main characters/ character in a strange or dangerous situation. Common things of thrillers are usually crime, being chased, loss of memory, mistaken identity and being wrongly accused of something.

 The typical types of characters found in thriller films include convicts, criminals, stalkers, assassins, down on their luck losers, innocent victims, prison inmates, characters with dark pasts, cops and escape cons, suspicious individuals and people involved in twisted relationships.  The characters that are often put into dangerous situations are usually innocent victims. For example, this can be seen in Hitchcock’s film Rebecca, as Mrs Danvers tries to persuade Mrs De Winter to leap to her death.

Thrillers commonly take place in ordinary suburbs and cities. However, they are sometimes set in exotic settings, for example foreign cities, deserts, Polar Regions or the high seas. The settings help to create tension and a sense of mystery.

Some common thriller subgenres are psychological thrillers, crime thrillers, erotic thrillers, mystery thrillers and spy thrillers.

·        Crime Thrillers- incorporates the suspenseful aspects of a thriller with a crime film plot. Crime thriller plots usually centre on a serial killer, murderer, robbery, or man hunt. The storyline usually focuses both around the criminal and the protagonist.

Examples- The usual suspects, the fugitive, jagged edge.

·        Psychological thriller-incorporates elements of drama and mystery films. The suspense usually comes from the mind, rather than from a physical threat. The protagonist in psychological thrillers usually rely on their minds to solve the puzzling situation. They usually cross over into the horror genre.

Examples- Momentum, Rear window, Taxi driver

·        Science fiction Thriller- They include science based themes into the plot of the film. Usually they would include hero, villains, unexplored locations, fantastical quest and advanced technology. They explore ‘future-gone-bad’ theme

Example- Aliens, Inception, District 9