The Conventions of a Thriller

Conventions of a Thriller

The Aim of a Thriller: to create suspense and excitement for the audience.

The thriller often uses busy streets and the environment is usually urban or suburban.



The narrative revolves around the investigation of an enigma or the hero is the only person able to solve the enigma and reveal the truth.

Violence is central to most thriller films as well as it often reveals the workings of particular institutions such as the police, the army or the government. 

There will be rational rather than supernatural explanations of the puzzle.

The hero and the villain, although on opposing sides, share some characteristics. The hero is often an outsider, isolated, secretive but moral. The enigma of the thriller will be solves by the hero/s

The thriller centres on injustice in society but solves these wrongs.

Sound is used to create tension with eerie or intense music being played either as diegetic or non-diegetic material within a scene. High pitched sound is often used as it makes the audience uncomfortable and shows how the scene might not be pleasant or something unexpected might happen. Many other sounds are used in thrillers and even within dialogue. This makes it unique to other genres as inner monologues or perhaps narrators can be found in many thriller films, which creates a more direct tension to the audience.

Cinematography depicts the different camera shots and angles and when the thriller genre is concerned, these shots and angles are used in greater doses and with faster transitions from on to the next. In conventional thriller films, such as Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’, camera angles are used more excessively such as within the scene where Marion Crane is murdered in the shower. The camera is used to show the front view of Marion as if we ourselves are taking the perspective of the murderer adding tension and disgust to the scene.