What is a Thriller?

A thriller is a broad genre of literature, film and television. It is defined by the mood which it immerses the audience into, generally excitement, anticipation and even anxiety. The plot usually revolves around a climax, which is the most important element of this type of media text. Literary devices are utilised as resources to build up the feeling of suspense the film needs to be successful. Some examples are red herrings, cliffhangers and plot twists, to contribute to the unexpected nature of the genre. However, it is important not to get too carried away with the unpredictability of the storyline because, most of the tims, it is advisable to be accessible for the regular audience. One of the most attractive characteristics of a thriller is having the opportunity to try and guess what will happen in the end, so there needs to be a clear logic behind the actions that we see in the screen. 

The main axis of a film like this is mostly always determined by the relationship protagonist-antagonist. The danger that the main character faces is over exaggerated to add to the tension. For instance, an atmosphere of menace and sudden violence is prevailing. Hitchcock's films often include an innocent victim or even just an average person into an unusual situation, probably for us to get more involved in the story and sympathise with them. The element of time is also very handy, as well as the inclusion of personal problems or doubts along the way, sometimes clashing with the overall objective of the protagonist. It is another technique to give more truthfulness to the characters and to make us stressed by the perspective of not seeing the problem solved by the end of the movie. Though I haven't mentioned it yet, thrillers often have happy endings as a contrast with all the amount of tension we were exposed to during the rest of the thriller.

I found some advice I could probably apply to the future opening scene I am going to do. 

Any aspiring artist should make sure that they:

• feed in necessary information about the characters or their world by dribs and drabs well before a suspenseful moment arrives --  and when it does, keep information to a minimum. Suspense stumbles beneath the weight of exposition. 

• use foreshadowing to signal uneasy possibilities. Sometimes, you know that it’s dangerous to try, but you can’t help but do it anyway or I felt a chill, as if someone had walked over my grave.   In the classic courtroom thriller The Anatomy of a Murder, the writer Robert Traver several times describes features of the landscape with phrases like as treacherous as a spurned woman; this raises in readers’ minds the unsettling idea that the alleged victim whose rape was provocation for a murder could be lying. 

• introduce will he/ won’t he situations: will the boy from the Indian slums be able to answer the quizmaster’s question, or will he fail? The more impressive the obstacles ranged against success – the slumdog’s lack of education, the quizmaster’s hostility, the covert threats – the more thrilling is the suspense. 

• sprinkle a hint, for readers to pick up, of danger ahead (the shadow at the window, the unlocked door, the blinking answering machine) while your character, who is luxuriating in the bath, or playing video games,  remains oblivious. Alfred Hitchcock made expert use of this ‘Hitchcock effect’ in his films; equally in novels, scenes where readers are aware of an imminent threat that a character has overlooked are the ones that have us screaming: Stop, Stanley, stop!!!! Don’t drink from that open bottle! Don’t go into that dark alley! Don’t …!!!

• set up two courses of action, where the neglect of either could have dire consequences; then force your character to choose between them. Should she rush to collect her child from pre-school, or make a dash to intercept a killer? Should the detective save his partner from imminent death, even though the resulting exposure could land himself back in prison, or should he get the hell out of there? Lose-lose choices plunge readers into an agony of uncertainty. Result? Rocketing suspense. 

• at the same time, don’t overdo it. Recognize that suspense depends upon fluctuation in mood. It relies for its impact on contrast with more everyday moments that precede it. There’s nothing less exciting than non-stop excitement, says Guy Saville, author of The Africa Reich, and he’s right. 

For the whole article, go here.

After this introduction of the gender and its effectiveness, we should break it into sub-genres to explain it in more detail. The main ones are:

Action Thriller

Its means of creating suspense is through physical action and continuos motion, with lots of scenes which contribute to the sense of danger I previously talked about. 

Some examples are "Die Hard", "Kill Bill Vol. 1" and "The Bourne Identity".

Crime Thriller

It is full of suspenseful aspects and the plot usually focuses on a murder, robbery or manhunt. Both action and psychological aspects build the tension. 

Some examples are "The Usual Suspects", "The Fugitive" and "Jagged Edge".

Film Noir

Some would not consider this a sub-genre, but it is regarded as one in many sites. It is basically a stylistic type of crime mixed with drama that flourished throughout the 40s and 50s. It often relies on a narrative voice and the use of flashbacks to explain the plot, which tends to be intricate. 

Good examples would be "Sunset Boulevard", "The Maltese Falcon" and "Sweet Smell of Success".

Psychological Thriller

In this sub-genre, the suspense comes from the mind, rather than from a physical origin. The protagonists often have to rely on their mental resources to solve the complications they encounter. Some of them almost mix up with the horror genre.

"Memento", "Rear Window" and "Taxi Driver" are psychological thrillers.

Science Fiction Thriller

It incorporates hypothetical, science-based themes into the plot, placing the characters in a utopia or, most likely, ina dystopia. Advanced technology and unknown places are important here, an contribute to the effectiveness already caused by themes like alien invasions or contagious diseases.

Some examples are "Alien", "Inception" and "Distric 9".

After explaining all this information, I hope that everyone gets the idea as well as I have understood it. Now it's just a matter of creativity to come up with ideas for the actual sequence! Wish me luck.

Psycho's Poster Analysis

"Psycho"'s poster has, since I first saw it, caught my attention because of the sections used to fragment the main images and the striking colours, which truly represent the pop era while also bringing together the style of the film and its plot. Though most of Hitchcock's film posters were created from scratch —some are now regarded as pieces of art themselves, especially the ones designed by Saul Bass— this particular one is an exception, which does not make it worse necessarily. In fact, as I already said, I have always regarded it with admiration: that dominance of espace, the contrast between the lettres and the obscure background... Everything seems to portray the film without giving away too many aspects of the actual storyline. 

The decision of placing the title underneath the main visuals is rather unusual, which makes the poster more compelling. Anyway, some classic features can easily be found within the cardboard: the title is the biggest element, followed by director and main actors, given more emphasis as to appeal to a larger fan base. The title, in fact, was originally developed for the novel on which the film is based; Hitchcock was delighted with the typography and he just bought the rights. In the Italian designer Tony Palladino's own words, "the design —stark white letters torn and seemingly pasted together against a black background to resemble a ransom note—was intended to illustrate typographically the homicidal madness of the novel’s protagonist, Norman Bates.” 

Along with this main part, we can observe that the remaining sections where the creators of the poster want to draw the audience's attention are mainly the colour-tinted characters who seem to float in the reigning darkness of the canvas. There we have Janet Leigh, given the most importance due to her colour, yellow, which really stands out from the black surrounding, and also because of the size: she is the biggest item of the poster. Her tense facial expression implies that "Psycho" is a horror movie more than anything else. She is also identifiable as the victim within the first seconds: feminine, wearing nothing but her underwear, she seems attractive and helpless at the same time, adding to the fact that women who have sexual intercourse without being married, as she does in the film, tend to have an unfortunate ending. Her modern attitude towards marriage can be spotted by her lack of clothes, something, at least, surprising for a movie poster of its time. 

Next to Leigh, the designers have placed the lover and the assassin, both in red as two different pillars of the action, each one with a completely distinctive relationship with the female protagonist. These contrasting bonds are connoted by specific details: she is looking away from the man in the left, the assassin, establishing a strange atmosphere of distrust which makes him suspicious. Her lover is under her, in a more controlled spot that she seems to supervise from her privileged position. Our eyes drift from one image to the next one like flashes of a camera; as some of the key scenes were shot during the film, in fact. 

Exclamation marks are an element which comes in handy when trying to sell a product, in this case this film when it was first shown in theatres in 1960. Therefore, they are cleverly placed after the sentence "A new and altogether different screen excitement", which makes us aware of what to expect in general from "Psycho". These tricks always prove useful so we are able to rely on a specific group of people, in this case, viewers who appreciate unusual and exciting pieces of work, as potential clients of the entertainment we are producing. Moreover, psychological thriller and horror film lovers in general are probably going to feel curious about a movie after seeing the sinister lettres that compose the title in a poster like "Psycho"'s, together with the fearful face of the protagonist —who is, adding to the previous incentives, a seductive young woman showing part of her body features—. 

The layout of the film is clearly grid based, a practical approach chosen by many designers, and the colours play their part as well. Yellow represents anxiety or consternation and red constitutes a synonym of danger or even anticipates the appearance of blood throughout the movie. Blue is used as a support, to add variety of tone, while white is a simple outliner. Black adds an air of mystery bound to make the target audience shiver at the sole thought of what is hidden behind the shadows. Is it a monster? A weapon? Or is it just lunacy?