Varndean college – Tom Coyle

Thriller is a very open film genre and typically uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements. The reason its such a successful/popular genre is because of the strong emotions that there designed the are to make you feel and that you wouldn’t want to feel them in real life. This makes you sit on the edge of your seat watching to see how the different plots unfold.

The age certificate varies for being low as a 12 certificate film, but can go as high as an18 certificate. This is usually because thrillers always include deaths and killing, the amount of detail the film goes into the graphics of the violence is determined by the narrative of the film. Some

Have less violence to get a lower certificate to have a bigger audience others use a lot to make their film more Thrilling even if it raises the certificate

Thrillers evolved from other styles of film making so it is hard to say which film is the first thriller film to be produced because they first came from sub genres. Thriller is a result of a mix between Crime ,action and psychological films. Thrillers first started getting widely produced in the film business as a single genre around the middle of the twentieth century, the man most well know for this was Alfred Hitchcock. Thriller is still a very popular genre in the film industry and many big films are becoming more like this genre e.g. Batman Dark knight-

Alfred Hitcock Was one of the first to produce Physiological Thriller films and is basically the designer of the Genre. He was widely known for his style of film producing to create anxiety fear and suspense and one of the first to do so. He is known as a master of Physiological Thrillers. He often appeared in a lot of his own films which is another reason wee he is such an iconic character

The thriller genre has changed over the years and modern films have branched out to fit into subgenres .Sub genres of thriller use typical thriller conventions as the main base of the film and typical conventions from an other genre to create a film that fits into a sub genre of thriller.

Crime- e.g. Se7en. Psychological – E.g. The butter fly effect. Action – The dark knight.

The narrative of Thriller films are usually very complex with a lot of twists and false trails. This is to build tension and interest from the viewers. Because it keeps them guessing about the outcome of how the characters solve the problems presented to them. Thrillers usually have the biggest twist in the narrative at the end of the film e.g. Sixth Sense.

There are two main groups that differs characters typical appearance of a character in Thrillers, Antagonists and protagonists.

Antagonists are usually criminals, stalkers, assassins, serial killers for example in the film Se7en Kevin Spacey is a nut case serial Killer.

Protagonists are the good guys usually an ordinary person that has to overcome the obstacles set by the villain or antagonist.

The genre Thriller uses ‘thrills’ at one level that simply defines danger and violence.

The second level is physiological .Thrillers are made to heavily effect the viewers emotion giving them a high level of anticipation, expectation, fear and surprise.

Thriller films tend to be adrenaline rushing and fast paced and are made to make you feel emotions that you don’t want to in real life which is partly why they are so engaging.

They can do this by creating extraordinary events in ordinary places to relate to the viewer. Like in the Film se7en in a normal block of flats there is a man tied to a bed and cut up by the nut case (Kevin Spacey).

lighting is mainly dim and Low key to add to the plots mystery and build suspense. The lighting does change to meet the feel of what's going on scene by scene but its mainly dim and low key lighting. Colour goes along with lighting and lighting can change how colours appear to us. Allot of Thrillers are de-saturated in colour to make them seem more dull or dark. For example in the filmse7en allot of this is desiderated colour only slightly but to have a gloomy mysterious effect.

Figure expression and acting is mainly very serious in Thrillers if it wasn’t the films would be taken as jokes and they wouldn’t get the intended reaction from viewers.

Setting/location Thrillers are often set in City’s or Towns, very detailed and complicated locations this allows there to be allot of mystery and allot of places for the villain to hide to help the plot to be more realistic and exciting because anything can happen.

Costumes are also mainly ordinary but are designed to be realistic to a characters part/role in the film. In almost all Thrillers there is someone important in he film that wears smart clothing. This is usually so the audience can take the film more seriously and to show more about the character like there profession, which helps the audience relate to the characters. Audience relating to characters goes along with the theme of extraordinary events happening to normal people in normal situations a typical technique of Thriller films.

The first shot is a mid shot of the main character (Morgan Freeman) used to establish his location/life situation etc. He’s in his kitchen which is a very ordinary setting which is typical to Thrillers because it’s an every day environment but full of things like knifes, sharp objects etc. ; and is used to take the viewer out of there comfort zone by creating extraordinary events in ordinary situations. He isn’t presented to be powerful because its just a normal mid shot which tells the viewer that he is just an ordinary guy(average class, decent paid job).

The first location we see is some sort of artificial river drainage basin line which looks like somewhere someone would realistically dump a human body. This makes the viewer relate it to them because it’s not unrealistic it makes them think this could happen which builds up fear and excitement (a main aim of all thriller films).

All the props in the opening of Sixth sense are everyday objects but the low key light and how they are positioned it creates strong shadows which build fear and tension because it takes something the viewer is comfortable with and makes it discomforting and scary like the phone in the bedroom its placed on the floor not on a table which is the ordinary out of the ordinary which creates fear and its covered in smashed glass which adds to the mystery and asks the viewer why its there.

Typical Camera work for thrillers is quite unique compared to other films. Thrillers often use suspense to engage the audience with what there watching so loads of close ups are used to highlight the actors facial expressions and hide allot of the scene. This makes the audience guess what else is there in the scene with them which builds suspense and fear. Also cut always are a very prominent technique used in thrillers because it builds up mystery and suspense which is what thrillers aim to do to their audicences.

There are two main forms of editing Continuity editing and Graphic match editing. Continuity editing is all about making sure everything stays the same through the shots to make it realistic and not confuse the viewer. When editing for continuity people use the 180 degree rule so the viewer can understand what perspective there looking from. However in some thriller this is purposely broken to make them feel disorientated .Editing to Graphic match is used to flow between shots often by using a similar shot or something that matches to link the two shots where they are not linked in the narrative.

In most Thrillers directors make use of a mixture of both Diegetic and Non-diegetic sound. Allot of the Non-diegetic sound is either a voice over or tension building slow dramatic music used to build up to big impacting scenes. Diegetic sound in thrillers is often exaggerated to make the viewers feel the actors senses and create anxiety.

It's common for thrillers to use non Diegetic sound like music to build up suspense to dramatic scenes like seeing a dead body.

Usually a thriller film will leave the audience amazed, as the film will have a twists and turns, but will all piece together at the end as the film usually builds up to a climatic ending. This may also leave the audience stunned as the protagonist is flawless throughout the film but when it comes to ending his true ‘flaw’ is unveiled. For example in se7en Detective David Mills (Brad Pitt) appears to be a good guy but ends up killing the guy who beheaded his wife.

Thrillers aim to make their audience focus on the on the plot and are designed to make them feel anxiety, fear, tension, excitement etc. Thriller films are usually very complex with a lot of twists and false trails to build tension and interest from the viewers. There main aim is to create strong emotions that you wouldn’t want to feel in real life.