Sunday, 4 November 2007

The Thriller Genre


Genres allow us to place a film into a category and to create conventions. They are very helpful to both the film industry and audiences. Genre conventions allow the film industry to know what is successful in a particular genre and to give familiarity to the audiences. Audiences use genre to help make a guess of what they will and wont like. If an audience liked a particular genre, then they can make decisions easier on what films they think they may like. They would like the familiarity of genre conventions, and would begin to have expectation of a genre based on genre conventions.
Conventions can be broken down into the categories:

  • Characters
  • Narratives
  • Themes
  • Iconography
Typical Thriller Characters:
  • Psycho
  • Detective
  • Assasin
  • Victims
  • Criminals
Typical Thriller Narratives:
  • Death (pre-determined, murder, accidental, suicide)
  • Red Herring
  • Being Watched
  • Being Followed
  • Deception
Typical Thriller Themes:
  • Entrapment
  • Isolation
  • Voyeurism
  • Revenge
  • Gain
Typical Thriller Iconography
  • Shadows
  • Street Lamps
  • Confined Spaces
  • Running Water
  • Bars on Windows

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