Thriller Conventions

Thriller conventions

What is a thriller?

A thriller is a genre of film with an exciting plot that uses suspense and tension, they typically involve crime or espionage.
There are many different categories within the thriller section, these are...

• Action thrillers

• Psychological thrillers

• Military thrillers

• Spy thrillers

• Romantic thrillers

• Crime thrillers

• Western thrillers

• Film-noir thriller

What makes a good thriller?

A good thriller showcases intense excitement: building up suspense, tension and anticipation for things to happen. There always needs to be a mystery within a thriller, the audience should always be asking themselves questions. Other things that should or are often used in thrillers are as follows...

• Focusing mainly on editing and sound

• Editing tends to be fast paced and quick cuts

• The tension is very significant

• Black and white are conventions of a thriller - they bring more of a sense of darkness to the film

• Mirrors and stairs are often used in thrillers - especially in psychological thrillers

• Thrillers have a great deal of action cinematic landscapes or interior 'mindscapes' 

• Music is always essential to build up tension

• The use of lighting should be used to create shadows and mystery

• Usually a selection of flashbacks are used

• The story line is never elongated as you don't want to bore the audience

The main thriller conventions - 

Camera movement - Tracking and panning shots are those most commonly used within thrillers
Framing of a shot - The most typical shot used is thriller films is the close up, they are used to show tension and build up suspense
Camera angles - There are a lot of low angles and high angles in thriller movies to show the power of different characters
Mise en scene - The location of a thriller very much depends on the plot but low key lighting is often used to create atmosphere
Editing - Jump cuts are used in thriller films to allow the audience to make assumptions of the plot and leave mystery
Sound - Many thrillers have non-diegetic music in the background creating a sound bridge to create a certain atmosphere

Pulp Fiction - Quentin Tarantino (September 10, 1994)
The Silence of the Lambs - Jonathan Demme (February 14, 1991)
The Sixth Sense - M. Night Shyamalan (August 9, 1999)
Psycho - Alfred Hitchcock (June 16, 1960)
The Usual Suspects - Bryan Singer (July 19, 1995)