Sub genres

1. CONVENTIONS OF A
THRILLER
By Hyleana Anthony

2. WHAT IS A THRILLER
A thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, gaming and TV.
They tend to over lap with numerous sub genres such as
mystery and horror. For a thriller to be created, it usually
includes a number of ingredients such as: fast pace, frequent
action and resourceful heroes who must defeat the villain.
Literary devices such as suspense, which can be built up by use
of sound are often used. Red herrings are used, when a
character is introduced as being something that they’re not.
This device mislead the audience, by making them come up
with false conclusions. There are usually enigmas of cliff
hangers, adding to the mystery and suspense of the film.
Through my own research, a typical synopsis of a thriller is that
the protagonist is placed in danger at the beginning of the film.
It is usually the antagonist that is slowly revealed throughout
the film. However the antagonist isn’t always a villain, but in

3. TYPES OF THRILLERS
There are various types of thrillers, these are the sub genres within the thrillers. They
follow the same sort of story line that makes a film a thriller, they instead collaborate
different genres within this. The aim for thrillers is to keep the audience alert and on the
edge of their seats. No matter what the sub-genre a thriller film falls into, it will emphasize
the danger the protagonist faces. The tension with the main problem is built on
throughout the film and leads to a stressful climax.
As part of my research, I found some results on peoples favourite types of thrillers. I got
this information from someone from another school’s blog post, but I thought their results
could be representative. On the pie chart, the most popular genre of a thriller is
supernatural, and the lowest is mystery. My personal favourite would be psychological as
they make your mind wonder, this happens in films such as Shutter Island. Through some
more research, I found out what people expect to be in a thriller film. The audience would
usually expect most likely to be a lot of drama and investigation. The reason for this is
because within a thriller genre, there is usually a good person as well as a bad person. The
bad person usually does something wrong and it causes investigation by the good person.
However the audience would not usually expect anything joyful to happen until the end,

4. HISTORY OF THRILLERS
Alfred Hitchcock often known as the
‘Master of suspense’, was a British
film director who made the first ever
thriller film. He made created two
films before his thriller, then in
1927, his third silent movie was a
thriller. The first ever thriller was
called “The Lodger”. The film was
about a landlady who suspects her
new lodger is the madman killing
woman in London, according to
IMDB. The film sounds like its
intended to follow a similar story
line as a Jack the Ripper type of
movie. Furthermore the first thriller
with sound was directed by
Hitchcock in 1929. This film is
called Blackmail, having read the

5. SPY THRILLERS
Spy thrillers contain aspects to the thriller
genre, in this sub genre, the focuses on the
adventures of agents in either an office, or out
in the field. There is usually a hero, who is
usually a government agent who must take
violent actions against agents of rival
government. During spy thriller films,
(especially in James Bond), there is likely to be a
love story as well. This gives more structure to
the film, as when the spy is placed in an
impossible situation the viewer is on edge This
is because the spy usually has to try to defeat
the rival government, whilst saving his love
interest. Politics is often associated within spy
thrillers, they can be good or bad, depending
which side they’re on. Through my own
research I have discovered that in 1928, the

6. POLITICAL THRILLERS
A political thriller is a thriller that is
set against the backdrop of a political
power struggle. They usually involve
legal plots, designed to give political
power to enemy, while protagonist
has to try to stop the enemy. They can
involve national or international
political scenarios. The common
themes are: political corruption,
terrorism, and warfare. Political
thrillers can be based on true facts
such as the assassination of John F
Kennedy. In political thrillers there is
usually a strong overlap with the
conspiracy thriller. For example in the
2012 film Argo, the protagonist has
to rescue the American hostages from
Iran.

7. MILITARY THRILLERS
Military thrillers consist of the hero typically
being a military officer, operating behind enemy
lines. There is violence and aggression involved,
as the film is set in a war zone. They’re usually
based on real life wars, for example saving
private Ryan is set during the Invasion of
Normandy in World War II. When trying to defeat
the enemy, the protagonist is either alone, or
part of a small military specialist group. The
hero often survives against the odds, which fits
into the thriller genre as nothing joyful really
happens until the end of the film.

8. CONSPIRACY THRILLERS
A Conspiracy Thriller generally has a
protagonist unravelling a conspiracy, and
having a character in danger. There are
many different themes that build up
tension to unveil the conspiracy. The
protagonist confronts the powerful group
of enemies whose true extent and power
only s/he recognizes. The protagonist is
usually an investigator who finds them
self uncovering a mystery about a
conspiracy. These thrillers often include
the theme of secret history, which sort of
overlaps with mystery films. An example
of a conspiracy thriller is ‘The Insider’
1999, where Al Pacino finds himself in
the middle of a tobacco industry cover
up. He has to defeat the powerful enemy,
and expose what they’re doing.

9. MEDICAL THRILLERS
This type of thriller often consists of a
hero (protagonist) who is generally a
physician, who must fight corrupt drug
companies. Or they can fight
colleagues engaged in unethical
experiments, or it could be a mixture
of both. For example in the 2007 film
‘Coma’ is a medical thriller., From what
I have read on IMDB in the film the
actors have each emerged from their
brain injury comas. They’re conscious
if they’ll recover or not.

10. PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLERS
Psychological thriller is a thriller story which
emphasizes the psychology of its characters.
There is often conflict between the
protagonist’s mental and emotional state,
rather than physical. In terms of classification,
the category is a subgenre with similarities to
Gothic and detective fiction. Psychological
thrillers also often incorporate elements of and
overlap with mystery, drama, action, and
horror, particularly psychological horror.
Psychological thrillers tend play on the viewers
mind, making them seem closer to reality.
There are often twisted relationships involved
in them, for example the 2014 film ‘Gone Girl’.
From IMDB, it says the film is about a girl that
goes missing, but her husband is accused by
the media for her disappearance. This would
be the sort of thriller that includes red
herrings, to make the audience come to false
conclusions about the thriller.

11. HORROR THRILLER
Horror thrillers focus on the conflict
between the main characters physical,
mental, and emotional state. Usually in
horror thrillers, the antagonist is some
sort of murderer and wants to cause
harm to the protagonist. In horror
thrillers, the antagonist is sometimes
revealed, however this is sometimes not
the case. Sometimes the audience do not
find out who the antagonist is until near
the end of the film. An example of a
horror thriller is the 1991 film ‘the
silence of the lambs’. In this horror
thriller, there is a psychopath that
murders woman in the west, the FBI have
to find clues that will lead them to the
killer. This again could lap over with