Thrillers are a broad genre that can include subgenres like spy, political, and military thrillers. Common conventions include mysterious lighting and music to build suspense, as well as run-down settings to convey a dark tone. Thrillers aim to keep audiences engaged through fast pacing, action, obstacles for heroes to overcome, and devices like plot twists. Examples provided include spy films like James Bond, political thrillers like Argo, and horror thrillers like The Silence of the Lambs.

1. Conventions of thrillers
By Laura Knowles

2. What is a thriller?
• A Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, gaming and television which has numerous, often
overlapping sub-genres. A typical Thriller might usually contain things such as dark and harsh
mysterious lighting, mysterious music which usually builds up to a more major event, and a
dark, normally worn down building as a setting.
• A Thriller is usually fast paced and packed with action and includes resourceful heroes who
musty thwart the plans of the more powerful and better equipped villains. So a thriller is
usually a villain-driven plot, whereby he or she presents obstacles that the protagonist must
overcome.
• Thrillers generally try to keep the audience interested with its intense content as the plot builds
towards a climax. Literary devices such as red herrings, plot twists, and cliff-hangers are used.

3. More on What may be included in thrillers…
As I said in the fist slide, a typical thriller might usually contain things such as dark and
harsh mysterious lighting, this makes the film seem like it has more of a dark side to it
which a thriller usually does, also it gives the impression that something bad is waiting
to happen.
mysterious music may also be used in thrillers as it usually builds up to a more major
event. This is done to make the audiesnce3 more “on the edge of their seats” because
they want to know what is going to happen next.
Like a horror film, there are places in thrillers where a dark, normally worn down
building has been used as a setting. This also shows that the film has a darker side to it
and sets the scene of something mysterious.
Diegetic sound is something else used quite a lot in thrillers as it highlights the
importance of some natural sounds for example, somebody's heartbeat or them
breathing may be significantly made a lot louder. This is used to make the viewer
understand the feelings of the character and why they might ben feeling a certain way
in order to cause the sound.

4. Spy Thrillers
• (also a subgenre of spy fiction), is a type of Thriller in which the hero in the
film is generally a government agent who must take violent action against
agents of a rival government or (in more recent years) terrorists. For
example, any of the James Bond films.

5. Political thrillers
• A political Thriller is a type of Thriller in which the hero usually must ensure
stab ability of the government that employs them,
• An example of a political thriller is ‘Argo’ in which Iranian activists storm the
US embassy in Tehran taking hostages, and an operation is undertaken to
free the hostages whilst keeping the whole episode secret.
•

6. Military thrillers
• Usually military thrillers are a type of thriller in which the hero is an
uninformed military officer operating behind enemy lines alone or as part
of a small team of specialists. They also often seem to succeed against all
odds.
• An example of a military thriller is ‘Die Hard 2’.

7. Conspiracy thrillers
• In a typical conspiracy thriller the hero would usually confront a large,
powerful group of enemies whose true extent and power is only recognised
by the hero himself or herself.
• An example of a conspiracy thriller could be ‘The Insider’ where Al Pacino
finds himself in the middle of a huge tobacco industry cover up and Russell
Crowe is ready to whistle-blow. However he faces powerful enemies.
•

8. Medical thrillers
• In a typical medical thriller the hero would be generally a principled physician
who must fight corrupt drug companies or colleagues who are engaged in
unethical experiments.
• An example of a medical thriller could be ‘coma’.

9. Forensic thrillers
• In a typical forensic thriller the heroes are usually forensic experts whose
involvement with a unsolved crime case puts their lives at risk.
• An example of a typical forensic thriller is ‘The bone collector’.

10. Psychological thrillers
• A psychological thriller would usually be in which (until the often violent
resolution) conflict between the main characters is mental and emotional
rather than physical.
• An example of this is of Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman in ‘Se7en’
•

11. Horror thrillers
• A horror thriller is usually in which conflict between the main characters is
mental, emotional, and physical. Horror Thrillers can incorporate all of the
other thriller elements.
• An example of a typical horror thriller is ‘The Silence Of The Lambs’.