Thrillers are a genre that involve building suspense and keeping audiences intrigued through mysteries and problems that protagonists must solve, often involving escapes, missions, or mysteries. Examples provided include Inception, The Departed, the Bourn films, and Gone Girl. Thrillers conventionally involve mystery, suspense, tension, drama, violence, and excitement. They differ over time, moving closer to horrors in the 21st century with more blood and modernized plots involving government conspiracies and terrorism. Thrillers follow Tzvetan Todorov's narrative structure of equilibrium, disruption of equilibrium, and establishment of a new equilibrium.

1. By Stella and Katie
THRILLER FILMS

2. WHAT ARE THEY?
• Thrillers are a genre that involve a build up of suspense and uncertainty.
• The aim is to keep the audience intrigued and on their toes.
• They involve elements of mystery,
• The protagonist is usually set a problem that they need to solve, which includes and
escape, a mission or a mystery.
• There is a battle between the protagonist and antagonist, where there is a disruption of
equilibrium to create the new “normal”

3. EXAMPLES OF THRILLERS’
• Inception
• The Departed
• The Bourne Films
• Black Swan
• Minority Report
• Shutter Island
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• James Bond films
• Mission Impossible films
• Now you see me
• Gone Girl
• Taken trilogy
• Source Code

4. CONVENTIONS
• Mystery
• Suspense
• Enigma
• Tension
• Drama
• Violence
• Excitement
• A mission
• Story depth
• Crime
• Weapons
• Shadows
• Protagonist is in the mercy of the
Antagonist
• Diegetic and non-diegetic sound
• Varied lighting
• Extraordinary things happening to ordinary
people
• Reveals the workings of institutions such
as police, the army or the government

5. DIFFERENCES – BEFORE:
• 1920’s-1930’s
• In 1926, Alfred Hitchcock released his first silent thriller called ‘The Lodger’.
• It followed a Jack the Ripper plot
• They used techniques that were widely recognized for the thriller genre
• In the 1950’s, Hitchcock md a massive change to the thriller genre. He added technicolor
instead of black and white.
• He also added a touch of glamour, by adding “icy blondes” female actors
• In the 1970’s-1980’s, thrillers edges closer to the horror genre, adding violence, while
maintaining the difference

6. DIFFERENCES – AFTER
• During the 21st century thrillers moved even closer to horrors
• There was more blood, gore and death
• Combined conventions of action movies as well
• They also changed the plots, by modernizing them such as government conspiracy's,
terrorism and world-wide issues.

7. 1. Equilibrium - When the story starts. This is the stage when all is “normal”.
2. Disruption – of that order by an event, and then recognition from the characters that the
disorder has occurred.
3. New Equilibrium – the new “normal”.
TZVETAN TODOROV’S NARRATIVE STRUCTURE

8. HODEJEGERNE (HEADHUNTERS)
• The film contained a lot of exposition (the use of dialogue to set the film). This helped allow
the film to build up suspense and become more fast paced throughout the movie.
• It also allowed the film to explore different twists and turns and mystery to create anticipation.
• The film however contained a lot of stereotypes about women. Women were objectified and
used as props in the film, for example the leading female, Diana, first appeared on the screen
nude. Also women are presented negatively as Lotte is a mistress and when she I shot dead,
Roger does it through his trousers to signify his male dominance and she falls on top of him.
The film then went on to stereotype men as Roger was presented as a thief and a cheater
who was money hungry.
• Headhunters fits into Todorovs narrative structure as the normal is Roger stealing paintings
and having an affair with Lotte.
• The disruption is the arrival of Cas and the discovery of the affair which leads to a series of
events where roger is on the run and being hunted
• The “new normal” is Roger and Diana having a baby and the increased strength of their
marriage.