The Thriller Genre

The Thriller Genre

Definition of the thriller genre

A work of fiction that depicts crime, mystery, or espionage in an atmosphere of excitement and suspense. It is an exciting experience that holds the audience’s interest by using suspense and adventure.  

Conventions of a thriller 

-One of the opening shots of thriller films tends to be the establishing shot. This shows the setting and can sometimes give the feeling that a character (or characters) is being watched.

-The camerawork at the beginning of a thriller movie is often tracking and pan shots used to show the audience what a particular group of characters are doing.

-Some thriller movies include a red herring, which is something that is misleading and distracts from the main story. They are used to keep the audience’s interest and create twists in the story. Alfred Hitchcock used these for a lot of his films.

- Music plays over the top of the opening in thriller films and increase in volume for suspense to build at key points. The high-pitched screech sounds used in Psycho for the murder in the shower adds horror and is eerie as it is a non-diegetic sound, yet matches the stabbing movements in the scene.

-Narratives in thrillers often show a fight against good and evil, and involve an increasing amount of threat and danger for the protagonist. The narrative is often shown from the perspective of the protagonist. A common narrative technique is the flashback.

-Thrillers mostly have two main characters: the protagonist and the antagonist. The protagonist is usually familiar with danger, for example a policeman or spy. The protagonist will persevere with defeating the villain even if things are not going to plan. Villains in thrillers are typically men, work on their own and have had an experience that has changed their attitude to life.

-Weapons, police cars and fake blood are conventional props for thrillers. The weapons show what power the characters have, and also give a feeling of suspense as violence or a fight could easily occur.

Misery
 

Part of the mise-en-scene in this thriller is the snow covered setting, which gives an atmosphere of impending danger, especially when the protagonist is in his car. The house in which he is kept is solitary, and surrounded by an icy environment causing him to be trapped.

The transitions between scenes in the editing are fades, which gives the feeling of a long period of time passing while Paul Sheldon (the ‘hero’) is trapped in Annie Wilkes’ (the ‘villain’) house.

The roles of the two main characters are typical of the thriller genre in the way that the protagonist is a male, and that the antagonist is on her own and her husband having left means that she has a bad view on life.

There are typical thriller props in the film, for example the fake blood, weapons and police car.

The narrative technique of flashbacks is used in the film to develop the empathy for the lead character.
            
Long shots are used to establish setting and to ensure that the viewer remembers the snowy landscape.

At some of the more intense points in the film the lighting is darker, and only some of the antagonist’s face can be seen, which makes the viewer unsure of what is going to happen.

The film follows the thriller convention of being seen from the perspective of the hero, because sometimes when we see Annie’s face it is from a low angle camera, as if we are seeing it from where Paul is lying down on his bed. This inspires empathy for the character, meaning that it is more frightening when things happen to him.

 

There is a high pitched sound motif that can be heard when something sinister is happening in the movie.