The Thriller Genre

The main elements of the thriller genre are tension, excitement and suspense, all of these elements make for a good thriller movie.

Thrillers are literary devices (aspects of literature that express ideas through language, which can be recognised, identified, interpreted and analysed in different ways) the techniques used in thrillers may be hard to identify and therefore challenge the viewer to understand them, which is what creates the suspense and tension normally felt in thrillers.

Thrillers tend to promote moods in the viewer, such as high levels of anticipation, ultra heightened expectations, uncertainty, anxiety and occasionally terror.

The hero's in thrillers tend to be ordinary people, unaccustomed to danger who find themselves in situations, however crime thrillers tend to have the hero's as hard men, accustomed to danger, e.g. the police. The hero's are traditionally men, although woman are now increasingly common.

Thrillers often overlap with mystery stories but are separated by the way that the plot is ordered. In a thriller the hero has to stop the plans of the enemy rather than uncover a crime that has already happened. In thrillers the story, villain and any details are typically known from the beginning.

Thrillers don't tend to be defined by the subject matter in them, but more by the way that they approach it. They are often defined by the mood that they create: fear, tension, excitement... They create intense emotions no matter what type/sub genre of thriller that it is.

Some of the sub genres of thrillers are:

Conspiracy thrillerCrime thriller

Disaster thriller e.g. The Day After Tomorrow

Mystery thriller

Medical thriller

Political thriller

Psychological thriller e.g. Phone Booth

Religious thriller e.g. The Davinci Code

Techno thriller e.g. I Robot

In recent years thrillers have become more and more influenced by horrors and psychological horror, using the ominous and monstrous elements to heighten tension.