Thriller Conventions

A thriller is a genre that specialises mainly in tension and suspense, the main aim of the films is to make the audience intrigued and 'thrilled'. This can mean it can scare them which ties into the genre of a horror thriller or it can increase adrenaline in the viewers, in which case it would be called a action thriller. Plot twists and cliffhangers are the main elements used in thrillers which create shock and anxiety for the viewers.


Many famous thriller directors include David Fincher, Steven Spielberg and Alfread Hitchcock. Each with their own speciality and ideas but the same elements and concepts are uses: to stimulate the viewer's mood by heart pounding and adrenaline pumping moments. Thrillers go into even more sub-generes such as mystery thrillers and even psychological thrillers which heavily focuses on characters and overlap into the horror side.


Thriller films can be traced back to early 1920's where Alfred Hitchcock made his first movie, 'The Lodger' which was a silent production of the London Fog. From his first release to his most popular which includes 'Psycho', he is considered to be the godfather of thriller films. From the early 20's to 60's was more focused on the puzzling side of the film, normally in cases of "Who dunnit'. But in the 1970's and 80's, early stages of violence began to be present in films, the earliest thriller film involving violence was 'Frenzy' in 1972 by Hitchcock.


Sub-genres in thrillers incude:

• Conspiracy thrillers: The main character (often perceived as the hero) who confronts their enemies that they recognise. 
• Crime Thriller: This type of genre uses psychological elements and focuses on the criminal rather than the authority figures. This makes the viewer see the criminals side and how he escapes certain situations.
• Erotic Thriller: Erotic thriller is mainly around sex and sexual relationships between characters, this could even be between the hero and villain. 
• Psychological Thriller: This type of genre focuses on the conflict between the characters emotionally rather than physically. 
• Spy Thriller: This genre focuses on the character being a government agent who is attempting to find a criminal  or a rival government of agents.