The Genre of Thriller

Thriller films are one of the most popular film genres. Unlike science fiction or action and adventure, thrillers tend to be taken more seriously by film goers and critics alike. In part this can be attributed to the powerful psychological experience of watching an intense thriller. These are films designed to have the audience on the edge of the seat: the jeopardy of the protagonist keeping the viewer in suspense. Alfred Hitchock’s films are of course synonymous with the genre. In North by Northwest (1959), for example, the character of Roger Thornhill (played by Cary Grant) is kidnapped when he is mistaken for a government agent George Kaplan. The ensuing action sees the tension build as Thornhill tries to escape from his entrappers.

Many thrillers are hybrids and, indeed, one of the most popular cross-breads is that of thrillers and action and adventure. Steven Spielberg, for example, has made his name with a series of high budget productions that include E.T (1982), Schindlers List (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998). However, one of his earliest production, a made for television movie called Duel (1971), utilised the conventions of thriller to over-come the limitations of producing an action thriller on a more modest budget.

The latter half of the 20th Century saw a profusion of thrillers like David Lynch’s Blue Velvet and Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction that explored the medium in more reflexive and self-conscious way: borrowing and reworking elements of film history, particularly the conventions of film noir. There are also examples of sub-genres within the broader category of thriller films. Film noir for example is perhaps the most well known. The sub-genre adheres to all the usual conventions of the thriller genre, however, is often draws upon dark crime-fiction stories. Its sinister subject matter is not, however, where the film noir genre gets its name from but rather the shadowy nature of the cinematograph, which tends to emphasise black and white contrast. Though classic of the genre were mostly made in the 1940s and include Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity (1944) and Tay Garnett’s The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), contemporary audiences are perhaps more familiar the highly stylised and self-referential conventions of neo-Noir’s like David Lynch’s Blue Velvet (1986) and Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994). Likewise horror films are closely linked to thrillers: Hitchcock’s Psycho, for example, walks the line between the two genres. Though the horror is implied, there is a genuine sense of menace. Likewise, William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973) utilises the special effects with which horror is synonymous while teasing the audience with camerawork that foregrounds a sense of mystery and foreboding. The proliferation of videotapes in the 1980s saw a rise in the popularity of horror genre with the market for 18 certificate movies expanding considerable. However, as audience taste became more tolerant of explicit gore and violence the horror genre arguably moved away from the implied brutality that characterises thrillers. Indeed, recent years have seen a rise in the number of horror parodies: films like Scary Movie (2000) and Shaun of the Dead  (2004), which self-consciously spoof the generic conventions of horror.

Task 1: Use the information above to help you create your own post that defines Thriller films. Make sure you use images of films to help provide examples and links to any websites that helped inform you.

Task 2: Choose a Thriller film you have seen and create a similar table as below. Analyse it as shown below, noting that narrative, iconography, characters, camerawork and setting, all help to create the conventions which make up a film's genre.