Section 1 - background to thriller genre

The thriller genre consists of many different sub genres. Most thrillers include fast paced, frequent action and resourceful heroes. In a thriller i would expect a main Protagonist ( usually detectives or political workers) who are better equipt the the other characters. Also, a suspicious villian or antagonist creates numerous cases for the protagonist. many devices are used to create suspense, for example; red herrings, cliff hangers and plat twists. i would expect most thrillers to take place in busy cities or large towns. Also a dull and depressing atmosphere. Thrillers often overlap with mystery stories, but are distinguished by the structure of their plots. I would expect and prefer a thriller film to be in a non- linear fashion as it creates more suspense and gets the viewers thinking. Sub-genres ; action thriller, conspiricy thriller, disaster thriller, drama thriller, eco thriller, political thriller and spy thriller. More than often, the action thriller is used as it is loaded with suspention.Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, television, and gaming that includes numerous and overlapping sub-genres. Films such as The Bourne Identity, Phone Booth, Se7en, Kiss the Girls and Red Eye are key examples of classic thriller films. Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must destroy the plans of more-powerful villains. Thrillers often take place in exotic settings such as foreign cities, deserts or high seas. The heroes in most thrillers are usually "hard men" accustomed to danger: law enforcement officers, spies, soldiers, seamen or aviators. There are many ‘Sub-genres’: action-thriller, crime-thriller, drama-thriller, eco-thriller and spy-thriller. Thriller was discovered by ‘GK Chesterton’ in the early 20th century, he determined the whole thriller concept and that it was a modern genre. He was know to say that thriller was an attempt to find ‘poetry in modern life’ and that excitement was in everyday life. Although Chesterton came up with the thriller concept he could never explain it well so ‘Northrop frye’ took Chesterton’s theory and adapted it. He did this by going into more detail and he brought in that it would be more exciting if an ordinary nine to five man could inevitably be the hero. The public was happy to believe in the situation as it could relate to romance fiction. A quote from Frye read ‘the hero of romance moves in a world which the ordinary laws or nature are slightly suspended.’ the public likes this, it could relate to them as they are all ordinary people, not aliens or superheroes. a lot of theologises picked up and tried to adapt the original theory of Chesterton after they saw how successful Northrop Frye was, John Cawelti basically just took both Frye’s and Chesterton’s thriller theory’s and combined them. He transformed the modern industrial city into an enchanted place full of mystery this was achieved by introducing ‘the exotic’ into the everyday world. W H Matthews took a different type of approach to thriller, Matthews work relates to mazes and labyrinths, an underground maze full of twists, turns dead-ends and puzzles. When you are creating a thriller narrative you must add twists and turns so that the audience doesn’t solve the problem too easily. Pascal Bonitez thought that Matthews was describing ‘partial vision’ when he was avoiding mazes, he believed that the audience should only be able to see so much so it gives a shock factor. As what the audience doesn’t see is part of the system of thrillers. The narrative acts like a maze for the audience giving them clues along the line as if they are the hero trying to solve the mystery. Lastly Lars Ole Saurberg believed that there were two different ways in which suspense could be added. Such as deliberately hiding something away from the audience or delaying or protecting and expected outcome. Thrillers will always evolve as time does and more theologises will be made to back up different theory’s.