Aimee Robertson's Media Coursework: Section 1: Background to the Thriller Genre

There is not a set definition for a Thriller, different directors/film producers have slightly different idea's, meaning thrillers can be very original and often bend the conventions. There are also many factors adding to make a Thriller which capture the audience and add suspense.Here are some theoretical approaches to the thriller (from Martin Rubin's 'Thrillers', Cambridge 1999) :

G K Chesterton- 'The Transformed City' He was a British author who identified the thriller as like a transformed city- an everyday, boring setting which gets turned into one of action and adventure. It is set in mostly urban environments and is what separates it from most other genre's such as the wild west- as they are already exciting in the setting.

Northrop Frye- 'The Heroic Romance' This builds on Chesterton's' ideas and is believable because it is close to the ordinary life like in setting. In his view the hero is described as 'one of us' -an everyday person who, because of circumstance, is portrayed as a hero and forced to act in a certain way. This, he says, is similar to romance- the 'laws of nature are suspended slightly'.

John Cawelti- 'The Exotic' This again, is developed upon the first two critics views- an everyday boring and industrial setting/ scene is turned into one which has enchantment, mystery and excitement. This is usually done by the introduction of a foreign object, something that wouldn't usually be there. This brings exotic cultures to other dull places such as, bringing Chinese or Japanese to England or Indian to an American setting.

W H Matthews- 'Mazes and labyrinths' He says that a thriller should be a mental or physical looking maze full of dead ends and puzzles. It should be full of twists and solved using logical deduction, strategy and skills rather than trial and error. To catch and defeat the enemy it must be complex as if it is too easy the audience will predict the ending and lose interest as audiences gain pleasure from prolonging the mystery and questions rather than guessing the ending half way through.

Pascal Bonitzer- 'Partial Vision' Pascal's ideas link into the labyrinth as it includes only partial sight and awareness of what's going on. What the audience hasn't seen is just as important as what they have seen- it adds to the mystery and suspense. This also means that the hero could seem really close to the enemy and so near to succeeding, yet when information that was before unseen is known, they feel that they are right back at the beginning again- the audience is only shown part information so they do not fully know how far the gap is.

Lars Ole Saurberg- Concealment and PortractionBasically, Lars Ole Saurberg points out two main components in a Thriller that captivate the audience and are a staple to the genre. Concealment is where the audience are purposely not shown an important key or clue, such as the identity of a killer- much like the partial vision idea. Portraction is where a known outcome is legnthened to add suspense and can be in such things like a timer on a bomb etc.

Noel Carroll- 'The Question-Answer Model' This is where a question is clearly stated in the film with no answer leavuing the audience in suspense answering it. Suspense is further added to by the illimination of only a very few amount of possible answers- inviting the audience to join in with the clues and detective games. Other factors that add to the suspense is the probabilty factor: a battle against the odds is much more exciting; the moral factor- if the hero is trying to stop a bank robbery will he succeed?

Some sub-genre's of thrillers can be mixed together and messed with creating an original story line and twist to the genre but still under the 'Thriller' heading. Some of these are: