What is a Thriller?

A novel, play or movie with an exciting plot, typically involving crime or espionage. Thrillers cover a very large variety of genres.

These are some of the many different types of thrillers; crime, psychological, action, sociology, political and paranormal.

Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, and television programming that uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements. Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer's moods giving them a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and/or terror. Thriller films tend to be adrenaline-rushing, gritty, rousing and fast-paced.

Psycho was directed by Alfred Hitchcock

THRILLERS

SOCIOLOGY ADRENALINE CRIME GLOOMY EARY

INSANITY ZOMBIES SUSPENSE TENSION

PARANORMAL MYSTERY

AMBIGUOUS

BLACK, RED AND GREEN

POLITICAL PROTAGONIST CONFUSING COMPLICATED

LOW-KEY LIGHTING RELIGION ANTAGONIST

Some examples of thrillers are…

The sixth sense is directed by M. Night Shyamalan

Psycho directed by Alfred Hitchcock

• Psycho was a very successful thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is now considered one of Hitchcock's best films

and praised as a work of cinematic art by international film critics and film scholars. Ranked among the greatest films of all time, it set a new level of acceptability for violence, deviant behaviour and sexuality in American films. After Hitchcock's death in 1980, Universal Studios began producing follow-ups: three sequels, a remake, a television movie spin-off and a TV series.

• In 1992, the film was selected for preservation by the US Library of Congress at the National Film Registry.

• Psycho Movie Trailer

• Alfred talking about Pyscho

The Birds

• The Birds is a 1963 suspense/horror film also directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on the 1952 story "The Birds" by Daphne du Maurier. It depicts Bodega Bay, California, which is, suddenly and for unexplained reasons, the subject of a series of widespread and violent bird attacks over the course of a few days.

• Scene from the birds

Some main themes dealt with in Thrillers

There are different sub-sections to the thriller genre, some of which are…– Psychological Thriller: This type of thriller, is based more on the

characters. Psychological Thrillers must include someone who is crazy or mentally disturbed.

– Mystery Thriller: This type of thriller focuses on the solving of a mystery, but in a fast-paced, intense environment.

– Science Fiction Thriller: A thriller including the genre of science fiction.

– Spy Thriller: This thriller focuses on spies and espionage.– Military Thriller. This type of thriller is based on wars, whether

real or fictional

Key Characters found in Thrillers• Convicts• Criminals• Stalkers e.g. ‘One Hour Photo’ directed by Mark Romanek• Assassins e.g. JFK directed by Oliver Stone• Innocent Victims (often on the run) e.g. ‘Hear no evil, see no evil’ directed by Arthur Hiller• Prison inmates e.g. ‘The Green Mile’ directed by Frank Darabont• Drifters• Private Eyes• Cops• Terrorists• Psychotic individuals e.g. ‘The Shining’ directed by Stanley Kubrick• Menaced Women e.g ‘Sleeping with the Enemy’ directed by Joseph Ruben• Down-on-their-luck losers• Characters with dark pasts e.g. ‘Silence of the Lambs’ directed by Jonathan Demme

Codes and Conventions of Thrillers• Mirrors are reflections of ones soul and inner self, they represent the darkness within some

characters e.g. ‘Mirrors’ directed by Alexandre Aja• Shadows are closely related with low key lighting, they like mirrors are used to represent the inner

darkness in beings and also add the tense and eerie atmosphere• Low key lighting• Obstructive editing and quick shots are used frequently in thrillers to accentuate the feelings of

suspense and tension. They are often used during an important or particularly ‘thrilling’ scene sometimes creating a disorientation of time and space by using montage editing

• Quick cuts • Stairs• Flash backs contribute to a sense of time and space disorientation which can be used to confuse and

intrigue the audience. It can also be used to give the audience an insight into the characters past and make it more interesting for them to try and solve the mystery. E.g. ‘Momento’ by Christopher Nolan

• Tension music • Use of photographs• Black and white accentuates the use of shadows, also appears quite eerie and dark e.g. Psycho by

Alfred Hitchcock• Disorientation of time and space

• At 14, Hitchcock lost his father and left St. Ignatius' College in Stamford Hill to study at the School for Engineering and Navigation. After graduating, he became a draftsman and advertising designer with a cable company. About that time, Hitchcock became intrigued by photography and started working in film in London. In 1920, he obtained a full-time job at Islington Studios, designing the titles for silent movies.

• In 1926, Hitchcock made his debut in the thriller genre. The resulting film, 'The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog' was a major commercial and critical success. Following the success of The Lodger, Hitchcock began his first efforts to promote himself in the media, and hired a publicist to cement his growing reputation as one of the British film industry's rising stars.

• In 1926, he married his assistant director Alma Reville. Alma was Hitchcock's closest collaborator, and wrote some of his screenplays, working with him on every one of his films. In 1929, he began work on his tenth film, 'Blackmail'. While the film was in production, the studio decided to make it one of Britain's first sound pictures. In 1933, Hitchcock was working for Michael Balcon at Gaumont-British Picture Corporation. His first film for the company, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), was a success and his second, The 39 Steps (1935), is often considered one of the best films from his early period.

• By the end of the 1930s, Hitchcock was at the top of his game artistically, and in a position to name his own terms when David O. Selznick managed to entice the Hitchcocks to Hollywood. Hitchcock's gallows humour and the suspense that became his trademark continued in his American work. It was here that he continued to make many films, including what is arguably three of his best, 'Psycho', 'The Birds', and 'North by Northwest'. His final film was in 1976, entitled 'Family Plot'.

• Near the end of his life, Hitchcock worked on the script for a project spy thriller, The Short Night, which was never filmed. The script was published in book form after Hitchcock's death. Hitchcock was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in the 1980 New Year's Honours. He died just four months later from renal failure, on April 29 1980, aged 80, before he had the opportunity to be formally invested by the Queen. Despite the brief period between his knighthood and death, he was nevertheless entitled to be known as Sir Alfred Hitchcock and to use the postnominal letters "KBE", because he remained a British subject when he adopted American citizenship in 1956.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK CASE STUDY