- what is a thriller?
a thriller can be one of the following: a fictional or non-fictional story, play or movie.
it is purposely formed and created in order to create a constant, suspensful, emotional experience for the audience and includes numerous, and often overlapping, sub-genres.
devices such as suspense, red herrings and cliffhangers are used extensively.
-what other genres link to thrillers?
there are all sorts of sub genres in the thriller genre which are action thrillers, conspiracy thrillers, crime thrillers, disaster thrillers, drama thrillers, eco-thrillers, erotic thrillers, legal thrillers, medical thrillers, political thrillers, psychological thrillers, spy thrillers, techno thrillers and religious thrillers. thrillers also link to the horror genre, crime genre and mystery genre.
-what problems might you find when examining the thriller genre?
if the genre is to be defined strictly, a genuine thriller is a film that pursues a single goal - to provide thrills and keep the audience on the 'edge of their seats' as the plot builds towards a climax the main problem you might find is that the thriller genre links in with so many other genres. it is very hard to produce a piece of media that is strickly in the thriller genre, without it linking to other genres, simliar to the sub-genres.
-the features of a thriller film are as follows;
mostly fast pacing, frequent action, involving heroes and more-powerful villains. devices such as suspense, red herrings and cliffhangers are used extensively.
-what kind of characters are normally found in thriller films?there is ususally the good guy, the bad guy, and the one inbetween. theres a long list: convicts, criminals, stalkers, assassins, down-on-their-luck losers, innocent victims (the ones inbetween), prison inmates, psychotic individuals, terrorists, cops and escaped cons, fugitives, private eyes, drifters, people involved in twisted relationships, world-weary men and women, psycho-friends, and more.
-some frequent themes of thrillers are:
mistaken identity, terrorism, political conspiracy, pursuit, romantic triangles (leading to the death of a character) business deals gone wrong family frudes
-The American Film Institute
The American Film Institute (AFI) in Los Angeles, made a definitive selection of the 100 greatest American "heart-pounding" and "adrenaline-inducing" films of all time, as determined by more than 1,800 actors, directors, screenwriters, historians, studio executives, critics, and others from the American film community in mid-June 2001. There were originally 400 nominated films from which the top 100 were selected. the top 3 thrillers decided by the AFI are:
1) PSYCHO – made in 1960 and directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
2) JAWS – made in 1975 and directed by Steven Spielberg.
3) THE EXORCIST – made in 1973 and directed by William Friedkin.
THE MASTER OF SUSPENCE
English film-maker/director Alfred Hitchcock is considered to be the master of suspence when it comes to making and directing thriller films. he helped to shape the modern-day thriller genre, beginning with his early silent film The Lodger (1926), a suspenseful Jack-the-Ripper story, followed by his next thriller Blackmail (1929), his first sound film which was also released as a silent film. beginning with his third film The Lodger (1926), Hitchcock would make a signature cameo appearance in his feature films, and after 1940, he appeared in every one, except for The Wrong Man (1956).Alfred Hitchcock is considered the acknowledged master of the thriller or suspense genre, because of the way he manipulates his audience's fears and desires, and takes viewers into a state of association with the representation of reality facing the character. often he would interweave a taboo or sexually-related theme into his films
The Pleasure Garden was Hitchcock's first film, and his first silent film, although it was not his first released film. Filmed in 1925, The Pleasure Garden was released to the British Press in 1926, and eventually released in 1927 after the release of his second film The Lodger, which was released in 1926, also a silent film.
As well as him making cameo appearances in every film but one, he always used a woman as the victim.
