The THRILLER Genre

1. The THRILLER Genre

2. Thriller – What is it? • Thrillers are designed to thrill and even scare the viewer, the genre itself mixes in very well with horror, as a lot of horrors are classed as thrillers and vice versa. • The main difference between horror and thriller are the way thrillers create tension and fear in the viewer, whereas in horror films you are much more likely to find over exaggerated gore and killing. • Thrillers get the viewer on the edge of their seat, even if there is no gore and obsessive killing in the film, the music and character use different ways to build tension and suspense e.g. Fast paced music building up then cutting instantly. • The main elements that specifically target the viewer are suspense, tension and excitement. This is reached by messing with the viewers emotions, physcologically toying with them. • It creates an atmosphere of menacing, violence, crime and murder.

3. Thriller - Sub-Genre There are MANY sub-genres of thriller, some of the most interesting being: • Religious Thriller - A film in which the subject is related to religious objects, institutions and questions. An example is “The Devil’s Advocate”. • Psychological thriller - In which the conflict, which is usually violently resolved in the end, between the main characters is mental and emotional, as opposed to physical. An example is “Identity”. • Techno Thriller - A suspense film in which the manipulation of sophisticated technology plays a prominent part in the film itself. An example is “The Matrix”. • Rape and Revenge - Out of the sub-genres of exploitation film, this focuses more on the thriller elements such as suspense, tension, some action and fast-pacing rather than scares and the supernatural. An example of this is “Kill Bill”.

4. Thriller – The History • It was in the 1890’s that one of the original film pioneers named Georges Méliès, who was a Frenchman. The most notable film of his is named Le Manoir du diable, or in English “The House of the Devil”, although this is more specifically horror. • In 1985, the Lumiére brothers made a film called “The Train Approaches”, which during the first screenings made some of the viewers flee the theatre in terror, as it was such a real life experience for them. • Another big milestone was F.W Murnau’s “Nosferatu”, made in 1922. This was a German film. • Alfred Hitchcock had major influences on people at this time, he had theories like the enjoyment you get out of fear is similar to the delight you get as a child when your mum says ‘boo’. He made Blackmail (1929) it was the first feature-length British sound film. He had a massive amount of success with film production.

5. Best / Worst (Rated on IMDB) Best Worst

6. Thriller - Development • The first thriller films made were black and white with no sound / speech, which has of course developed greatly over time by bringing in technology like ‘talkies’, as well as greater software for editing and colour film. • The first official thriller was The ‘Train Approaches’ by the Lumiére brothers, which was as simple as a train going past the screen with civilians passing next to it. This made viewers scream, feint and even flee the cinema due to them believing it was going to come out of the screen. • As people have adapted to thrillers the reaction nowadays is incredibly different, which is mainly because of the development in technology and film presentation. 100 years ago, a train moving on the screen made people flee, yet today horribly graphic and explicit scenes can be shown and it will not effect some. This is done by bringing in much greater aspects over time, for example: • Silence to sound. • Black and white to colour. • Implied to explicit situations. • Inexplicit to explicit language and mannerisms. • Small amounts of gore to excessive amounts of gore. • A massive development in technology (mise-en-scene) i.e. Lighting, sound, CGI etc.

7. The Lumiére Brothers • These two were among the earliest of recorded film makers. • Their father worked for a photographic firm, which they both worked for and gained influence from. • They made a camera under their name called the Lumiére camera, which they patented to use for film projection and development, other film makers took great interest in this camera but the brothers refused to sell the camera to anyone. • In 1985, the Lumiére brothers made a film called “The Train Approaches” which is noted as the first thriller ever made. • They moved slowly away from filming and more towards photography, opening their own firm. • Lumiere's filmmaking career was short-lived, when others more ambitious and rapid than them came into the business they decided to sell the camera to Pathe in 1900.

8. Audience Expectations • The target audience for thriller movies is fairly specific as any movie with a certain degree of gore / violence must have a certificate, meaning no one below the age of 18 / 15 etc can view the film when it first releases, which is when the main gross profit is made. • Although the certificate is usually 15 / 18, the main target audience is young people / couples. • The audience generally expects something along the lines of Todorov’s theory, as follows with examples – • A family venture into the woods on a camping trip (The equilibrium) • A killer loose in the woods (The disruption to the equilibrium) • The family finding out there’s a killer loose (The recognition of the disruption) • Family attempting to leave the woods / capture the killer (Attempting to restore the equilibrium) • Family escapes the woods / captures the killer (The equilibrium has been restored) • This is a basis of what happens in most, unless the director feels the need to change a part of the theory.

9. Film Examples • Lord of War – The whole opening sequence of this film is the POV of a bullet, until it hits a human body. The music isn‘t really relevant to the opening as it is country / western which isn’t really related to the shots on screen. Initially it does not feel like the ending to the opening sequence will end how it does. • Se7en – The first part of this scene uses very fast editing, and the soundtrack is very fast paced. Unless you have seen the rest of the film, or could genuinely remember the small clips from the opening, then it doesn’t really make much sense.