Thriller Conventions

 Alfred Hitchcock said that thrillers allow the audience to "dip their toes into cold water of fear and see what its like". 

Alfred Hitchcock

The word thriller a broad term. There are lots of types of thriller. Examples include: 

       

Seven(Crime Thriller)

              

Psychological Thriller

Legal Thriller

Thrillers have resourceful heroes. These heroes are usually male.

• James bond- Daniel Craig (Skyfall)

• Jason Bourne- Matt Damon (The Bourne Identity)

Bryan Mills- Liam Neeson(Taken)









Sometimes thrillers are "hard men" an example is Clint Eastwood







   







At other times they are female heroes. An example is Ripley in Alien.



Thrillers have frequent action sequences with fast editing. A good example is found at the start of James Bond films.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jygRWM3nIA0 This YouTube clip is from 007 Spectre, car chase scene.


Thrillers are villain driven plots. The hero is usually reacting to what the villains have done. These villains are usually powerful and have more men and resources than the hero. E.g. in James bond films the villain is usually trying to take over the world. In James Bourne films the hero is against the CIA.

Thrillers use such devices as:

• Suspense
• Red herrings: When the audience is deliberately mislead.
• Cliff hangers: Where the hero is literally in danger of dying any second.

Thrillers are different mystery stories. In a mystery story we do not know who committed the crime and want to find out. In a thriller we often know the villain at the start and want to see if the hero escapes and thwarts the villain.