Evaristo (Prince) Kitoko

What is a thriller?

• Thriller, in film, is a genre that uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements in a film. Thrillers heavily fuel the audience moods by providing them a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and/or terror. Thriller films tend to be adrenaline-rushing, gritty, rousing, suspense, action and fast-paced.

• As well as film, thriller also features in literature and television programmes.

• Thriller also illustrates crime, mystery, or espionage in an atmosphere of excitement and suspense.

What is a thriller?

Thriller is a very broad genre which collaborates in a variety of different genre’s hence other genre’s contains elements of thriller. The different types of thrillers that you may come across are psychological thrillers, crime thrillers, erotic thrillers and mystery thrillers. Another common subgenre of thriller is the spy genre which deals with fictional espionage. Successful examples of thrillers are the films of Alfred Hitchcock (which I will discuss about him later on the slideshow). The horror and action genres often overlap with the thriller genre.

What are the different types of thriller?

Thrillers tend to be psychological, threatening, mysterious and at times they involve a larger-scale of villainy such as espionage, terrorism and conspiracy. Moreover, the common themes that are often dealt with in thrillers are ransoms, captivities, heists, revenge, kidnappings; these themes are often involved in crime thrillers.

In mystery thrillers, the themes are investigations and also the “who done it” technique is used as well. Furthermore, in psychological thrillers common themes are mind games (inception a perfect example), psychological themes, stalking, confinement/death traps and obsession. Themes such as fringe theories, false accusations and paranoia are common in paranoid thrillers. Lastly, themes like: threats to entire country, spies, espionage, conspiracies, assassins and electronic surveillance are common in spy thrillers.

What are the main themes dealt with in thrillers?

The main themes that are usually seen in all kinds of thrillers are normally:

• The protagonist faces death, either his and/or her or somebody else's.

• The force of the antagonist's must initially be cleverer and/or stronger than the protagonist's.

• The main storyline for the protagonist is either a quest or a character that cannot be put down.

• The main plotline focuses on a mystery that must be solved.

• These are three common examples of a scene containing main themes in a thriller: - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZxNbAwY_rk

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFnmq5PPScA

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYTmjiRtixI

Main themes continued…

Key characters found in a thriller are: criminals, stalkers, assassins, innocent victims (often on the run), menaced women, characters with deep dark pasts, psychotic individuals, spree killers, sociopaths, agents, terrorists, cops and escaped cons, private eyes, people involved in twisted relationships, world-weary men and women, psycho-fiends and etc.

The protagonists are commonly normal citizens unaccustomed to danger, although normally in crime thrillers, they may also be "hard men" accustomed to danger i.e. police officers, detectives and etc.

Key characters found in a thriller

• Low key lightings (represents darkness)

• Dark settings

• Sharp props i.e. knives and etc

• Montage

• Mirrors

• Quick cuts

• Tension music

Codes and Conventions in a thriller

Alfred Hitchcock is a well known film director and producer; Hitchcock was born on the 13th of August in 1899 and he died on the 29th of April in 1980. Hitchcock is famously known for his film called “Psycho” which is a very famous thriller film and the benchmark for horror films hence it became the defining hallmarks of Hitchcock's new horror movie genre and have been copied by many authors of subsequent horror films. Hitchcock interest for film started when he became intrigued by photography and he then started working in film production based in London, working as a title card designer for the London branch of what would become Paramount Pictures. In 1920, he then later on received a full-time position at Islington Studios. His rise from title designer to film director took five years. After a successful career in British cinema, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood in 1939 and became a U.S. citizen in 1955. The three films that Hitchcock made which was deemed among his best movies were: North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963)

Alfred Hitchcock