what is a thriller film? thrillers are a genre of film that uses suspense tension and excitement as its main elements. They stimulate the viewers mood, such as high level of anticipation,expectation uncertainty and anxiety.It keeps the audience 'cliff hanging' and ' at the edge of their seat'. Over time however the thriller genre has branched off into what is known as a sub genre ( which also links in with how the genre has developed historically) There are now several different types of thriller, to satisfy the growing popularity of the genre, and the growing popularity of film itself. There are: action adventure thrillers, disaster thrillers, historical thrillers,techno thriller, religious thriller, medical thriller and many many more. This shows that the thriller genre is branching out into a massive franchise. Most recent films are displaying two or more of these sub genres and are what is reffered to as a 'hybrid' because it is a mix of genres. Thriller films main goal is to create suspense in the audience, the genre aims to instill a sense of fear, or maybe even confuse the audience. But in reality the main aim of a thriller is to play on the audiences emotions and feelings. The protagonist in these films is set against a problem – an escape, a mission, and a thriller film emphasizes the problems a protaganist faces.
how has the genre developed historically? Thriller movies used to be more physcological ( films like alfred hitchcocks 'vertigo' is a good example of this) however in the more modern thrillers there is much more blood and gore, the main focus is around what we can see, the effects etc. Not what is going on in the audiences head, there are few films which play with the audiences head anymore.
examples : 'the 39 steps' Directed by alfred hitchcock, made in in 1935. an innocent man on the run, unwillingly accompanied by an icy blonde who's not sure she can trust him. It's a spy mystery that jaunts across the streets of London to the Scottish countryside, with a tight plot and clever dialogue. Is a typical example of how thrillers made many years ago. Then 20 years later he made ' strangers on a train' in which a psychotic socialite confronts a pro tennis star with a theory on how two complete strangers can get away with murder...a theory that he plans to implement. This also shows how at this time blood and gore wasnt being used to entertain, they where on a more non-visual level.
However if we look at two more recent thriller films we can see how they have changed and why there are different today. 2010, 'the crazies' directed by Breck Eisner is a film that takes place in the fictional town of Ogden Marsh, Pierce County, "friendliest place on Earth," whose town water supply is accidentally infected with the "Trixie" virus. And also 'dead silence' in 2007: A widower returns to his hometown to search for answers to his wife's murder, which may be linked to the ghost of a murdered ventriloquist. Directed by James wan. Both of the later films are classes as action,thriller, and horrir films, this shows how much things have changed over time. Both of these films contain a lot of blood and gore, and this shows how the genre has moved on over the years, they have gone from being very complicated, to being very simple and almost just based on the visual impact.
conventions: the conventions of the thriller genre are to do with sound and editing. e.g quick cuts and camera angle changes, music that gives tension. it can be to do with lighting, especially the use of shadow. mirrors and stairs are also conventions of thriller movies.
the film 'Phonebooth' in particular is a thriller that does not play to the conventions, it avoids darkness and shadow etc.The one way to link it to standard conventions is to say that we can hear and see the story from the killers point of view. This shows how some films do go against the codes and conventions, but the majority of the thriller films do contain them.
camera work: most thriller films use tracking and panning shots at the beginning, mostly to create interest in a certain person or group of people, to increase suspision. Close ups are used frequently to create suspense,it can often disorientate the audience.
Editing: A lot of jump cuts are used, this is often because there are mulitiple things happening that the audience dont know about. It may also create confusion and leave the audience with a sense of the unknown.
sound: Most thriller films use a lot of non diegetic sound, and there is a frequent use of sound bridges to create a certain atmosphere appropriate to the film. There is also a lot of silence, and sonic exaggeration, this does a good job on building up the tension which is key in a thriller film.
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