Connotations of thriller

Genre.Paul Hagan.

Examples of Thriller films/Plots: Prisoners – Girl taken who has done it??? Taken/Taken 2 – Someone taken, trying to get

them back? Shutter Island – Police officer investigating crime,

really an insane prisoner. The Butterfly effect – Flash backs, going back in

time trying to change the past has effects on future; how can he fix it?

Silence of the Lambs – FBI agent develops relationship with serial killer to solve another crime.

What is the thriller genre and connotations of it? The thriller genre is based around anticipation and suspense.

From previous experiences of watching thrillers you are normally lead to believe that one person is to blame for a crime or a disappearance however there are many plot twists to keep the audience guessing. The connotations of the thriller genre is they keep the audience guessing, alert and on the edge of their seat and also there is also normally a general plot format:

Main protagonist set against a problem; solving a crime, family members abducted, trying to escape etc.

Tension built up through movie with various plot twists

Highly stressed climax – protagonist nearly fails and then succeeds etc.

Types of music used in thriller films? I began to look into the music used in the thriller genre. I focused my

reseach into sound track around the film ‘Prisoners’. However, when researching into soundtracks used for thriller films I discovered that films thrillers generally tend to be dark and mysterious. Therefore, the music used in films would reflect this connotation and also help to add to the suspense and tension created in the films. For example, consider the soundtrack for ‘Prisoners’:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl_fmTTza7E

This particular track was used for the trailer. The sound helps to build the tension as it is quite ‘eery’ and also vey dark. Also as it picks up pace this helps to build tension and keep the audience on the edge of their seat. Therefore, soundtrack choice in a thriller film is very important and the dark and mysterious sound track could be considered a connotation of the genre.

Sub genres As I researched the genre I realised that the genre is very diverse and

has many postmodern subgenres. Some are as follows:

Action Thriller e.g. Taken

Crime Thriller e.g. The usual suspects, Silence of the Lambs

Psychological Thriller e.g. Shutter Island

Religious thriller e.g. Angels and Demons

Sci-fi Thriller e.g. Inception

This subgenres of thriller all contain aspects of other genres for example an action thriller such as Taken has continuous action such as gun and fistfights. They can also be more than one subgenre; Prisoners could be classified as both Crime and psychological thriller film as it contains aspects of both subgenres.

Action thriller is in bold as this is the sub genre I am currently aiming towards for my opening sequence called ‘Bait’.

Why have I chosen the ACTION thriller genre? I have chosen the to focus on the action thriller genre for my opening

sequence as this is one that I most interested in and I believe will allow me to show off my skills in terms of editing and camera work. I believe that over the years of watching films I have subliminally built up enough research in this genre by watching films in the genre which will allow me to create a good opening sequence.

On the next slide I will look at the stereotypical props and characters of the action thriller genre from my own knowledge of the genre and also from secondary research.

Stereotypical characters/props? General plots of the action thriller genre would be similar to that of ‘Taken’

and the ‘Die Hard’ films. The action thriller genre would also see many fights and also explosions would be connotations of this genre.

Stereotypical characters:

Generally there would be a main protagonist that is generally male; exceptions are seen in the ‘Kill Bill’ films. These characters are generally on a quest of sorts, either to taken down a bunch of criminals or rescue someone who has been abducted or taken through any means necessary. There is also generally a main antagonist that is a criminal for example in ‘Taken’ the antagonist is the group that has taken the protagonists daughter.

Stereotypical props:

As there are many fight scenes the main props associated with the genre would be that of weapons. However, vehicles are also props of this genre that generally get blown up in an explosion or destroyed at some stage of the film.

Bibliography

http://thescriptlab.com/screenplay/genre/thriller

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl_fmTTza7E

http://sneakernews.com/2012/10/10/asics-gel-saga-ii-kill-bill/