Thriller is a genre which involves a lot of anticipation, tension, and suspense. They are usually a complete rush of emotions with many peaks and low moments. It is famous for keeping the audience on the edge of their seats, there is never a dull moment within a thriller. A thriller usually has a lot of twists and turns so that the audience is always unable to figure out the plot until the very end of the film. There are sub-genres of thriller such as, crime thriller, psychological thriller, science- fiction thriller, and film noir. Film noir is not just a subcategory but a specific stylistic type of crime drama.

Thriller Quote “These are types of films known to promote intense excitement, suspense, a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety, and nerve-wracking tension.” th October 2012

History of Thriller The first ever thriller film was the Arrival Of A Train At La Ciotat in 1895 by the Lumiere brothers. The film may not seem like a thriller to an audience now, but when first shown in the cinema people ran out because of the emotions they got whilst watching it.

Thriller is a hybrid genre, meaning it blends two or more genres into one film Action/adventure thrillers Psychological thriller Spy thriller Supernatural thriller Crime thriller Science Fiction thriller

Narrative themes Thrillers mainly include plot twists, cues and withdrawal of information. A thriller usually starts with an everyday situation, develop into a major problem, there will then be a climax with a life threatening situation, then at the end it will be resolved

Characters Traditionally, the main characters in thrillers are men, but women have become slightly more popular recently. The hero is usually an average civilian, film makers do this as a way of the audience connecting to the characters. Many main of the heroes in thriller are people you wouldn’t necessarily consider to be in the first meeting of them.

Mise En Scene Mise En Scene is a French word which basically means composing the scene. It’s how everything is placed and positioned in the scene. One of the main aspects to creating a good mise en scene is camera angles and shots. In this shot from “Collateral” you can see that the focus is on Tom Cruises character, this then shows the audience that he is one of the main character in the film. You can also see everyone around him, this gives a sense of where he is, you know that it’s a public place, it sets the scene. In this scene from “Se7en” the mise en scene is set up to tell you most things you need to know about the main character rather then actually telling you straight out. In this shot, it shows you that the character is a Detective, he looks like he could be slightly OCD since everything is laid out completely straight and in line. This is a main factor of mise en scene.