2. The primary elements of the thriller genre:
• The protagonist(s) faces death, either his and/or her or somebody else's.
• The force(s) of the antagonist's must initially be cleverer and/or stronger than
the protagonist's.
• The main storyline for the protagonist is either a quest or a character that
cannot be put down.
• The main plotline focuses on a mystery that must be solved.
• The film's narrative construction is dominated by the protagonist's point of
view.
• All action and characters must be credibly realistic or natural in their
representation on screen.
• The two major themes that underpin the thriller genre are the desire for
justice and the morality of individuals.
• One small, but significant, aspect of a thriller is the presence of innocence in
what is seen as an essentially corrupt world.
• The protagonist and antagonist may battle, themselves and each other, not
just on a physical level, but on a mental one as well.
• Either by accident or their own curiousness, each character is dragged into a
dangerous conflict or situation that they are not prepared to resolve
3. Typical Characters and Themes
• stalkers, assassins, innocent victims (often on the
run), menaced women, characters with deep dark
pasts, psychotic individuals, spree killers,
sociopaths, agents, terrorists, cops and escaped
cons, private eyes, people involved in twisted
relationships, world-weary men and women,
psycho-fiends, and more.
• The themes frequently include terrorism, political
conspiracy, pursuit, or romantic triangles leading
to murder.
4. The Walking Dead
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•
•
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The walking dead is a thriller as all the non
zombies are on the run from the zombies
and are all innocent
Also the characters have varying skills that
help them along the way and they wouldn’t
expect them to help you in everyday life.
Also the costume of the characters are very
dirty this can show that is a thriller as you
can’t tell the difference between the
humans and the zombies by clothing this
makes the programme more tense and also
makes it more believable.
In the title sequence it is mostly brown/grey
and also shows the abandoned cars and
possessions this shows its thriller as it
shows that something is wrong but leaves it
in suspense whilst leaving clues to an
apocalyptic world full of zombies.
5. Red Lights
• The title sequence of red lights
has very quick close ups of
normal things this suits the
thriller genre as it makes
normal things look weird and
out of the ordinary causing no
trust in anyone or thing.
• Also as red lights is a
horror/thriller it uses the dark
background to create a scenes
of isolation and mistrust as
there is not many people
shown
