Thrillers aim to keep audiences on the edge of their seats through suspense and excitement. Common thriller elements include guns, knives, vehicles used dangerously, and villains threatening protagonists. Settings vary but often establish mood, like crime scenes creating tension. Successful thrillers climax with protagonists in seemingly impossible dangerous situations.

1. WHAT IS A THRILLER?
A thriller is a movie with an exiting or thrilling plot to capture the audience. It
often includes anticipation and suspense and revolves around these concepts,
with the aim being to keep the audience alert and on the edge of their seats.
Tension and excitement are often used as the main elements of thriller films.

3. ICONOGRAPHY
The typical things you would could expect to see within a thriller are
• Cars- fast and dangerous may be shown in an action thriller to create excitement and suspense in the scene
• Guns- may also be used in the a action thriller
• Knives
• Cramped closed in spaces
• Scenes of suspense
• Weaponry
• Villainy
• disaster
• Paranormal
• Ghosts
• MIRRORS- Within thriller films mirrors are used to portray the reflections of a persons soul and their inner self. Mirrors can also
foreshadow the darkness within certain characters expressing inside emotions they may not want to reveal.

4. SETTING
The setting of a film is important, especially within the thriller genre, as the
setting is almost as important as the characters within the story and can vary
greatly within the thriller genre. Setting is also important as it can establish the
films theme.
Some examples of setting:

5. Action thriller – uses violence and fighting between characters and objects to
create suspense within the film.
Crime thrillers – combines the suspense of a thrillers with a plot from a crime
film.
Psychological thrillers – elements of drama and mystery are added to the film
and it explores the processes of the mind, which helps create suspense from
the mind.
Science-Fiction thrillers – merges science based themes into the plot of the
film.
Religious thrillers – uses religious themes, objects, and ceremonies during a
film.
SUB GENRES OF THRILLER

6. MIRRORS
Within thriller films mirrors are used to portray the reflections of a persons
soul and their inner self. Mirrors can also foreshadow the darkness within
certain characters expressing inside emotions they may not want to reveal.

7. LIGHTING
Low key lighting:
•Created by the use of a back light - mainly used in thriller films.
• Used to represent a dark atmospheres which can be seen as scary or
mysterious.
• Creates a dramatic effect as lighting reflects onto the characters and the
atmosphere.
SHADOWS
An example of a successful use of shadows is from the thriller film

8. A conventional thriller is a film that pursues a single-minded goal - to provide
thrills and keep the audience cliff-hanging at the 'edge of their seats' as the
plot builds towards a climax. The tension usually arises when the main
character(s) are placed in a threatening situation or mystery, or an escape/
dangerous situation from which escape seems impossible, or if a characters
life is threatened. Or the main protagonist(s) is unknowingly involved in a
dangerous or potentially deadly situation. Plots of thrillers involve characters
which come into conflict with each other or with outside forces - the menace
is sometimes abstract or shadowy. The ending can either closed or open but
are usually left open to disturb and leave the audience questioning the events
in the film.
NARRATIVE

9. SOUND
The use of sound within the thriller genre is an important element, as
different musical themes within a film can produce different moods that affect
the audience in different ways as a result they may often use “sting” to
highlight to the audience that something is going wrong . For example in
Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller ‘Psycho’ the music is high pitched, adding suspense
and tension to the film, whereas more action thriller films use loud and jumpy
fast paced music to make the audience feel excited, and to emphasise the fast
pace of the film.

10. In an opening sequence of a thriller film there is usually low key lighting and dreary/creepy music. The film
producer's and cast/actors names are mostly shown during the title sequence to let people know who will be
starring in the film and to say who produced and directed it. The names will usually appear in time with the
music. E.g. if the music is slow the names will appear slowly.
Dark and dull lighting may be used to give the opening sequence a gloomy feel to it and can help to make the
audience feel more suspense and anticipation towards the film. These types of dark colour scheme connote a
sense of secrecy and fear, this creates a mystery for the audience to find out about.
Sound is important in thriller openings because the different musical themes can produce a different mood
and feel for the films and the audience. For example jumpy and quite scary music creates a different diegesis
to a quiet more spooky set of music.
The narrative is usually shown through the opening sequence. It could be that the place where the film is set is
shown or there could be props that are used in the film are shown in the opening sequence.
The editing normally fits in with the pace of the music as well. For example is the music is fast paced and
jumpy the editing will be fast paced as well.
The opening sequence will always convey what the main film is going to be like, so that audience know what
to expect.
OPENING SEQUENCE
CONVENTIONS

11. CINEMATOGRAPHY
There will usually be lots of close ups and extreme close ups of the
protagonist character, often used to show their emotions, it can also be used
to focus on props to aid the narrative.
The shots of the of the antagonist character will be cut quickly and the
camera movements on this character will usually not show their identity, the
quick cuts also aid this, an example of this would be, a shot of the back of
them, a low key shot, the silhouette, or a close up shot of the characters
shadow
the use of camera angles to show facial expressions of the protagonists and
their body language. By using a wide range of camera angles can help capture
every emotion present within a films characters, making the audience feel like
they are observing alongside during the duration of the film these types of
close up shots would be very prevalent in a found footage thriller.

12. Obtrusive editing is
used frequently in
thriller films to
accentuate the feelings
of suspense and tension
This type of editing is often used during and
important or thrilling scene – sometimes
creating a disorientation, by also using montage
editing
Flashbacks– used to contribute to a sense of
time and disorientation in a thriller that may
be used to confused the audience or give
information that was previously unknown
Black and white is
another of the
conventions of a thriller,
because it accentuates
the use of shadows and
lighting and can make
scenes appear eerie and
quite dark and gloomy.
An example of this world be ‘psycho’ by
Alfred Hitchcock
EDITING