Section 1: The Thriller Genre:

The Thriller genre is a genre which highlights films less gory and intense than a horror and presents rather more psychological themes that require intellectual engagement. The majority of the time a thriller’s narratives will focus on danger, generally in the form of murder or natural disaster, also the narrative of a thriller tends to be rather complex, and thrills the audience as they watch it.

There are different interpretations and theories as to what a Thriller movie literally is, and all thrillers will follow at least one of these theories:


The Question and Answer Model (Noel Carroll)

This theory is based on the model that when the audience is presented with a question, the film keeps them in suspense awaiting an answer. This allows the audience to feel apart of the narrative as they will solve the answer when the protagonist does.

There are two sub-factors involved in this, known as the probability factor and the Moral factor. The Probability factor focuses on the possible outcomes of the film which is a lot more exciting for the audience, hence why Carroll believes it is so important. The Moral factor highlights the fact that what the audience believe is the morally correct thing to do, may not be the actual outcome of the film, and this can cause shock.

The Transformed City (C K Chesterton)

This theory follows the basis of a seemingly ordinary urban city/town (where most thrillers are set) and, due to the events of the film, change the city into an extraordinary place.

Concealment and Protraction (Lars Ole Saurberg)

This theory entails 2 forms of suspense that can both evoke the desired emotions from the audience and thrill them. Concealment is the form of creating suspense by hiding important information from the audience, and Protraction creates suspense by delaying a suspected outcome, as the audience already has a brief idea about what will happen, but the actual event is stretched out.

The Heroic Romance (Northop Frye)

The protagonist is an ordinary person, just like the audience. With a normal life, and a normal job and a normal outlook on life, however this theory suggest that due to the change, the character must adapt. Frye believes that a protagonist in a thriller film is generally forced to react and behave in a certain, extraordinary manner to be able to survive and stated that Thrillers 'move the world in which ordinary laws of nature are slightly suspended' and this allows characters to perform amazing acts and survive.

Partial Vision (Pascal Bonitzer)

 This theory follows the idea that what the audience cannot physically see in a thriller film, such as subtle hints about what is actually occurring, is just an important as the points they do see. When you can't actually see or guess what is going to happen in the thriller, it makes the audience want to follow the 'maze' like structure to see if the main character is able to figure this information out for themselves, for example, if we already knew the identity of a murderer, then the film would be less of a surprise and less suspense would be formed, giving the thriller less impact.

Mazes and Labyrinths (W H Matthews)

These theories origins originate from the Ancient Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. The theory is that the protagonist must pass through a ‘maze’ to reach a final outcome, due to the quandary of their circumstances.

 The literal dead ends and twists and turns of a maze is a metaphor for the narrative of Thrillers that follow this theory, that anything can happen, at any time and it cannot be expected. Certain films, such as The Shining or The Descent Contain Literal locations which present a kind of maze in where the character are easily lost, mirroring the narrative.

The Exotic (John Cawelti)

This theory revolves around the belief that objects, locations and buildings found in the thriller film, are far from realistic, and would not be found in an ordinary everyday life. It isn't atypical in Thrillers for props to have originated from the Middle East and these supplies the film with the sense of fault and diversity. The existence of a foreign object in a film provides the audience with further knowledge that the film is set in a completely different reality.