Researching into a typical synopsis in a thriller genre

Research into a typical synopsis of a thriller from ChiomaGrace

Conventions of a thriller genre

The thriller genre is contained in wide range of films and is easy to identify the characteristics of a thriller. The aim of a thriller is to keep the audience excited and keep them on the edge of their seats. The popular sub-genres used in thrillers are horror and psychological. The key elements used in thrillers are characters, plot and theme. In thrillers the main character usually comes across death, the plot is usually focused on mystery that needs to be solved or the characters are on a long-term quest that lasts throughout the movie. Thrillers are also filmed from the main’s character point of view so it’s easier for the audience to follow and understand the character’s story. Thrillers are normally stories that the audience can relate to, but are just exaggerated a bit more to make the story more interesting. There’s also a villain that is corrupting the world in some way and a hero that serves justice.

Programmes which give you an insight into thriller/horror!

The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead  is an award winning series that has got America on the edge of their seats! The Walking Dead is an American TV series  which is based on the comic book series by Robert Kirkman. It's a horror/thriller series which involves the likes of an zombie apocalypse. This programme gives an insight on the thriller/horror genre because it's shows elements of what thriller/horror programmes are about. For example in The Walking Dead they shows a group of people trying to survive having to protect themselves whilst going through obstacles of getting attacked by the zombies. Another key element they include is death, where they show the death of zombies and humans either getting killed by a weapon or getting infected and eaten alive. The series also shows the fights and struggles the group of survivers go through, including the tension between them  which creates enigmas for the audience because they start to analysis the programme and wonder how this all started, which grips the audience, because they want to see more.

True Blood  

Another thiller/horror programme is True Blood which is another programme that has done well in the USA and the UK. True Blood is a little different to The Walking Dead, although both series includes supernatural elements. True Blood is an American TV series created by Alan Ball and is based on the novel called The Southern Vampire. True Blood is a series that follow a woman called Sookie Stackhouse, who can read minds, but her life gets turned around when the 'Vampire Bill' (a group of vampires) comes into her life.  True Blood also shows some conventions of the genre seeing as the main characters are innocent people trying to get on with their life but are targeted by hungry vampires. It also shows elements of death because the vampires can sometimes kill the humans by drinking all their blood. The series also shows elements of tension as they add romance into it which creates also of tension for the audience because it includes the 'Will they or won't they?' story. This is also another popular convention in horror/thriller genre because there is always a strong man defending their girlfriend/partner.True Blood also creates enigmas for the audience aswell as they would anaylsis the series and want to find out who will survive and what will happen in the ending as the series also tells a story which the audience are likely to follow.

Movie Collage

Movie Collage

Case Studies

 Case Studies of the top three directors in the thriller genre;
Jonathan Demme
Jonathan has won acclaim and several Oscars for films like ‘Melvin and Howard’, ‘Philadelphia’ and the nail-biting ‘Silence of the Lambs’. Demme's mother was an actress, and his father worked in public relations. He hoped to become a veterinarian, but changed his mind at college and applied for a position as film critic at the university's newspaper.
After finishing college, Demme continued as a film critic for a small paper in Coral Gables, until his father introduced him to flamboyant producer Joseph E. Levine. Levine was impressed with the young man's writing and, after a stint in the military, Demme was given a job as a publicist in the producer's organisation. Over the next few years, Demme worked for several film companies and continued to write about film and music. While in London in 1970, he was recommended to Roger Corman, the independent producer/director, who soon gave Demme the opportunity to write a motorcycle project for him. Demme teamed up with friend, Joe Viola, to turn the premise of Rashomon into a biker film, 'Angels Hard As They Come'.
After several more films for Corman, Demme was hired to direct the Hitchcockian thriller 'Last Embrace', and, in 1980, he landed 'Melvin and Howard'. While the film was only a modest commercial success, the New York Film Critics Circle named it the Best Film of 1980. He then worked on 'Swing Shift', with Goldie Hawn, but they disagreed about the political focus of the project and he left.
It was 1991's 'The Silence of the Lambs' that propelled Demme into the first rank of American filmmakers, earning him an Oscar for Best Director. Demme followed this success with the AIDS-related drama, 'Philadelphia', another blockbuster, and an adaptation of Toni Morrison's novel, 'Beloved'. The latter was released in 1998 and was produced by Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions, with the television talk show host in the starring role.
Although he is a successful director and producer, Demme has also appeared in a number of productions in an acting role, ranging from 1977's 'The Incredible Melting Man' to the 2000 television series 'OZ'.

David Fincher
David Fincher was born on August 28th of 1962 in Denver, Colorado, and grew up in Marin County, California. Reportedly it were Spielberg's "Jaws", Ridley Scotts "Alien" and a 'Making Of' featurette on "Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid" that made him want to become a filmmaker. Fincher earned his first hands-on experience working for John Korty at Korty Films in Mill Valley, when he was only 18 years old. Since none other than George Lucas lived in Fincher's neighborhood, he went on to work for Lucas' visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), where he quickly assembled such namely titles as "Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi" (1983) and "Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom" (1984) to this filmography. And to this day the experience of having worked behind the camera before taking the director's chair can be witnessed in Fincher's perfectionism and competence all across the board of filmmaking.





Steven Steilberg
Steven Allan Spielberg was born to parents Arnold and Leahanni Spielberg. The older brother to three younger sisters, Spielberg began experimenting with film in his early teens making movies he would show at his family house.
At 13, Spielberg was already showing glimpses of future greatness, even winning a prize for his 40-minute war film 'Escape to Nowhere’. The family often moved with his father's job and it was at Arcadia High School in Phoenix, Arizona that he produced his first feature-length film, 'Firelight', a science fiction movie with a budget of $400. Foreshadowing his future success, the film turned a tidy $100 profit after it was shown at a local theatre.
The film that set the Spielberg juggernaut in action was the 1975 hit 'Jaws'. The horror film about a giant killer shark with its iconic atmospheric music won three Academy Awards for editing, original score, and sound, and was nominated for Best Picture losing out to 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'. 'Jaws' set box office records grossing over US$100 million and made Spielberg a millionaire in his early 30s.
He has won three Academy Awards and in 2001, he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. His fortune is estimated to be in excess of US $3 billion.
Spielberg is known for buying historical film artifacts and donating them to the Academy and supporting Jewish organisations, particularly Holocaust survivor groups.

 In 2002 Steven Spielberg returned to California State University Long Beach and finished the degree he started 35 years earlier. He gained a B.A. in Film Production and Electronic Arts with an option in Film/Video Production.

DVD cover analysis: Drag Me To Hell

Drag Me To Hell is a movie about a loan officer who tells an old lady strange lady she has to leave her home but the woman puts a supernatural curse on her. Christine, the loan officer, is desperate to save her soul while the evil force pushes her to breaking point.

The main character, Christine played by Alison Lohman, is the only person featured on the poster. The first thing you notice is Christine screaming for help and looks like she's in pain. It's also typical for a horror movie to have a main female character. This appeals to the audience because in some people's eyes, woman are more helpless then men which can make the story more interesting. You can also notice dirty hands which look like something that is supernatural, so the audience instantly know it's a horror movie. The hands are also dragging her into hell, which is the name of the title'Drag Me To Hell'. The fire also adds to the poster because most of hell is covered in fire. From the clothing she is wearing, we can tell she's into some kind of business job because she is very smartly dress, and have jewellery on, which could connote that she's quite rich and well off.

The tagline 'Christine Brown has a good job, a great boyfriend and a bright future. But in three days, she's going to hell' is quite long and gives a little bit more information about the main character, Christine.  The tagline is very clever because it makes the audience want to see more by saying 'she's going to hell'. This makes the audience want to see what the movie's representation of hell looks like.

The colours used on the poster are browny black for the background and orange and red for the fire. The background is very dark and dull, which could suggest vulnerability because when it's dark you can't see anything. It also shows the weather which is gloomy, which could suggest something bad may happen. The setting behind the woman is an normal street full of houses which could scare the audience because they may think it could happen to anyone because the main character is a average person, and some people could even relate to her situation. The orange and red colours are also contrasting with the background, which makes the fire stand out more and making it the main focus of the poster.The font of the title is very simple so that people don't really pay attention to it but their eyes focus more on the picture and the background.

Iconic sounds connected with the genre

There are different types of sound and music used in thriller horror movies. Sometimes the movies starts with a loud noise to alert the audience, for example this could be a loud door slamming or a phone ringing, just like in Scream 4. Or in other movies, it starts with no sound or music and then when there's drama, there's a loud sound or music playing to show that the character is in danger. This gives the audience an enigma when something dramatic happens, like in some movies they will play fast, upbeat music when the character is running to save someone. Another iconic sound is the music/sound slows down but then there's a loud sound when there's something behind them. But sometimes the music is played throughout the movie which gives the audience a feeling that the movie isn't scary, but then something sudden happens which spooks them. For example Psycho is very famous for the intense music that made one scene iconic.

History of the Thriller Genre

History of the Thriller Genre

Thriller is a type of genre that focuses on suspense and tension so that the audience is anxious about the ending of the film. There are different types of sub-genre in thriller movies, for example there’s action, horror, crime, supernatural, psychological, mystery and conspiracy thrillers. The most popular one is either action thriller or psychological thriller. The thriller genre is used in literature, film and television. Some thriller films are reproduced from well known books but the producers just make more anticipation and expectation into the movie. The thriller genre and horror genre are very similar because they both consist of keeping the audience on the edge of their seats.

The plots of thrillers normally consist of a main character being trapped in intimidating or mystery situation and they have to try and find a way of escaping whilst there’s a critical situation going on. A thriller also made include a cliff-hanger which leave the audience wanting to see more, or even a plot where the audience knows something that the main character doesn’t.

The thriller genre started in the 1920’s by a man called Alfred Hitchcock who made a silent movie called ‘The Lodgers’. He based his idea on Jack the Ripper’s murders. The movie also gave a good insight by introducing the thriller genre. Another movie that gave the world a new insight into thriller movies was George Cukor in the 1940’s who produced a psychological thriller called Gaslight which introduced a sub-genre for thrillers. Another psychological thriller made in the 1940’s was The Spiral Staircase made by Robert Siodmak. Both these movies had a twisted plot about serial killers. In the 90’s thrillers were mostly psychological and had the theme of a mental characters trying to escape. Movies like ‘Misery’ made by Rob Reiner, which is based on a book by Stephen King, which is about a girl called Annie who  gets terrorizes by a man called Paul, and tries to escape his mad ways. But now-a-days psychological thrillers include gore and horror which joins horror into thrillers. Supernatural thrillers include movies like ‘The Unborn’; where as psychological include movies like Psycho in 60s, Shutter Island and Inception. Horror thrillers include movies like Scream 4, Saw VI and Alien. Crime thrillers include Se7en, Taken and Ocean’s 11. Now-a-days thrillers can have severe elements of different sub-genres, for example A Nightmare on Elm Street is a horror, supernatural and psychological thriller.