Research Into Genre

Our film falls into the thriller/suspense category. Films in the thriller/suspense category are known to promote intense excitement, suspense, anxiety, a high level of anticipation, expectation and uncertainty. The protagonist in most thriller films is set against a problem – an escape, a mission, or a mystery. A thriller tends to be a villain-driven plot, whereby he or she presents obstacles that the hero must overcome and a genuine thriller film is a film that relentlessly 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.

Thrillers are often hybrid films and there a re many different varieties of thriller hybrid films, such as:
• Action and adventure thrillers
• Sci-thrillers
• Crime caper thrillers
• Western thrillers
• Film-noir thriller
• Romantic comedy thrillers

Characters in thrillers tend to involve include convicts, criminals, stalkers, assassins, down-on-their-luck losers, innocent victims (often on the run), prison inmates, menaced women, characters with dark pasts, psychotic individuals, terrorists, cops and escaped cons, fugitives, private eyes, drifters, duplicitous individuals, people involved in twisted relationships, world-weary men and women, psycho-fiends, and more. The themes of thrillers frequently include terrorism, political conspiracy, pursuit, or romantic triangles leading to murder.

The primary elements of the thriller genre:
• The central protagonist(s) faces death, either their own or somebody else's.
• The force(s) of antagonism must initially be clever and/or stronger than the protagonist's.
• The main storyline for the protagonist is either a quest or a character who cannot be put down.
• The main plotline focuses on a mystery that must be solved.
• The film's narrative construction is dominated by the protagonist's point of view.
• All action and characters must be credibly realistic/natural in their representation on screen.
• The two major themes that underpin the thriller genre are the desire for justice and the morality of individuals.
• One small, but significant, aspect of a thriller is the presence of innocence in what is seen as an essentially corrupt world.
• The protagonist/s and antagonist/s may battle not just on a physical level, but on a mental one as well.
• Either by accident or their own curiousness, characters are dragged into a dangerous conflict or situation that they are not prepared to resolve