Introduction to Thrillers

Thrillers are a genre of film which include suspense and tension to captivate audiences attention and to draw them into the storyline. Thrillers typically feature the main protagonist in some sort of dilemma, which they may or may not overcome, with surprise and drama throughout. Often there is a sense of impending doom, as the protagonists antagonists fates are unknown, with the audience waiting in suspense until the inevitable climax. Thrillers can often end on a cliff-hanger, and use twists in the storyline to subvert the audiences expectations and further draw them in.

Thriller Sub-Genres

There are many sub-genres of thrillers, which is what makes it such an interesting genre to work with. Here are examples of some of the more popular thriller sub-genres:

Conspiracy thrillers: main protagonist believes that a powerful organisation or group of people are after them. The film would track the protagonists fight against the corrupt organisation, with the obvious trials and twists along the way. Examples of this sub genre are The Bourne Ultimatum, The Constant Gardener, and The Adjustment Bureau.

Crime thrillers: crime thrillers typically follow the criminals and their activities leading up to a big crime, but can sometimes follow a protagonist who's either trying to infiltrate the criminals gang to try and defeat them. Crime thrillers usually involve robberies, murders and chases. Example of crime thrillers include Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction and Training Day.

Mystery thrillers: involves even more twists than other thrillers, to keep audiences constantly on edge. The protagonist and audience usually find out information about the 'mystery' at the same time. This can sometimes cross over with physiological thrillers and the horror genre. Examples of this are Shutter Island, The Talented Mr Ripley, and Rosemary's Baby.

Political thrillers: usually uses real-life political scenarios in which the protagonist must stop bad things like assassination and wars from occurring  or try to become more powerful in politics, and sometimes battle government corruption. Examples are The Assassination of Richard Nixon, The Contender, and All The President's Men.

Psychological thrillers: much like mystery thrillers, the aim of this sub-genre is to get inside of the audiences head and make them think, and subvert their expectations. Examples of psychological thrillers are Silence of The Lambs, Taxi Driver, and Rear Window.

Popular thrillers

Here are some examples of famous thrillers that I could research for inspiration for my opening film: 

Goodfellas: crime thriller following a man and his friends working their way up the mob hierarchy.

Inception: physiological thriller set in a world where technology exists to enter the mind through dream invasion.

Psycho: mystery thriller when a woman is on the run after stealing money from her employer's client, and stays at a motel ran by a loner man too long under the domination of his mother.

The most popular directors of thrillers are Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, and Martin Scorcese. All of their thriller films are highly respected and could be used in my research.

Audience

The target audience for thrillers I would say is between 25- 50 depending on the film. Thriller films are usually always given 15 or 18 age restriction certificates, which shows that the content in the films won't be sutiable for younger viewers due to things like murder, drugs, or sex scenes. Thriller films are intended to make the audience think about what they've just watched, and people that are older are inclined to want to watch a film where the plot has substance and maturity, as appose to a, for example, slasher horror film, where there is a lot of gore but not much thought taken in to the plot.

After researching various thriller films, I am made aware of the conventions of thriller films and what is to be expected from them. I will explore this in my next post.