This article is about the genre in general. For the specific movie genre, seeThriller film.
Genre of literature, film, and television
British directorAlfred Hitchcock, known for his influences on action and suspense in film, appears alongside American actressTippi Hedren, who starred in his acclaimed thriller moviesThe Birds (1963) andMarnie (1964).
In an Anglo-Saxon thriller, the villain is generally punished, and the strong silent man generally wins the weak babbling girl, but there is no governmental law in Western countries to ban a story that does not comply with a fond tradition, so that we always hope that the wicked but romantic fellow will escape scot-free and the good but dull chap will be finally snubbed by the moody heroine.[4]
Thrillers may be defined by the primary mood that they elicit: suspenseful excitement. In short, if it "thrills", it is a thriller. As the introduction to a major anthology says:
...Thrillers provide such a rich literary feast. There are all kinds. The legal thriller, spy thriller, action-adventure thriller, medical thriller, police thriller, romantic thriller, historical thriller, political thriller, religious thriller, high-tech thriller, military thriller. The list goes on and on, with new variations constantly being invented. In fact, this openness to expansion is one of the genre's most enduring characteristics. But what gives the variety of thrillers a common ground is the intensity of emotions they create, particularly those of apprehension and exhilaration, of excitement and breathlessness, all designed to generate that all-important thrill. By definition, if a thriller doesn't thrill, it's not doing its job.
Suspense is a crucial characteristic of the thriller genre. It gives the viewer a feeling ofpleasurable fascination and excitement mixed with apprehension, anticipation, and tension. These develop from unpredictable, mysterious, and rousing events during the narrative, which makes the viewer or reader think about the outcome of certain actions. Suspense builds in order to make those final moments, no matter how short, the most memorable. The suspense in a story keeps the person hooked to reading or watching more until the climax is reached.
In terms of narrative expectations, it may be contrasted with curiosity andsurprise. The objective is to deliver a story with sustained tension, surprise, and a constant sense of impending doom. As described byfilm director Alfred Hitchcock, an audience experiences suspense when they expect something bad to happen and have (or believe they have) a superior perspective on events in the drama'shierarchy of knowledge, yet they are powerless to intervene to prevent it from happening.
Suspense in thrillers is often intertwined withhope and anxiety, which are treated as two emotions aroused in anticipation of the conclusion - the hope that things will turn out all right for the appropriate characters in the story, and the fear that they may not. The second type of suspense is the "...anticipation wherein we either know or else are fairly certain about what is going to happen but are still aroused in anticipation of its actual occurrence."[6]
According to Greek philosopherAristotle in his bookPoetics, suspense is an important building block of literature, and this is an important convention in the thriller genre.[7]
Thriller music has been shown to create distrust and ominous uncertainty between the viewer of a film and the character on screen at the time when the music is playing.[8]
Characters may include criminals,stalkers,assassins, innocent victims (often on the run), menaced women,psychotic individuals,spree killers,sociopaths,agents, terrorists,police, escapedconvicts,private eyes, people involved in twisted relationships, world-weary men and women, psycho-fiends, and more. The themes frequently include terrorism,political conspiracy, pursuit, orromantic triangles leading to murder. Plots of thrillers involve characters which come into conflict with each other or with outside forces.[10]
The protagonist of these films is set against aproblem. No matter what subgenre a thriller film falls into, it will emphasize the danger that the protagonist faces. The protagonists are frequently ordinary citizens unaccustomed to danger, although commonly in crime and action thrillers, they may also be "hard men" accustomed to danger such as police officers and detectives. While protagonists of thrillers have traditionally been men, women lead characters are increasingly common.[11] In psychological thrillers, the protagonists are reliant on theirmental resources, whether it be by battling wits with the antagonist or by battling for equilibrium in the character's own mind. The suspense often comes from two or more characters preying upon one another's minds, either by playing deceptive games with the other or by merely trying to demolish the other's mental state.[11]
An atmosphere of menace and sudden violence, such as crime and murder, characterize thrillers. The tension usually arises when the character(s) is placed in a dangerous situation, or a trap from which escaping seems impossible. Life is threatened, usually because the principal character is unsuspectingly or unknowingly involved in a dangerous or potentially deadly situation.[12]
Hitchcock's films often placed aninnocent victim (an average, responsible person) into a strange, life-threatening or terrorizing situation, in a case ofmistaken identity or wrongful accusation.[13]
Thrillers take place mostly in ordinary suburbs and cities,[citation needed] although sometimes they may take place wholly or partly in exotic settings such as foreign cities,deserts,polar regions, or thehigh seas. These usually tough, resourceful, but essentially ordinary heroes are pitted against villains determined to destroy them, their country, or the stability of theFree World (especially if it is set during theCold War). Often in a thriller movie, the protagonist is faced with what seem to be insurmountable problems in his mission, carried out against a ticking clock, the stakes are high and although resourceful, they face personal dilemmas along the way forcing them to make sacrifices for others.[citation needed]
The Count of Monte Cristo (1844) is aswashbuckling revenge thriller about a man named Edmond Dantès who is betrayed by his friends and sent to languish in the notoriousChâteau d'If. His only companion is an old man who teaches him everything from philosophy to mathematics toswordplay. Just before the old man dies, he reveals to Dantès the secret location of a greattreasure. Shortly after, Dantès engineers a daring escape and uses the treasure to reinvent himself as the Count of Monte Cristo. Thirsting forvengeance, he sets out to punish those who destroyed his life.
The first recognizable modern thriller wasErskine Childers'The Riddle of the Sands (1903), in which two young Englishmen stumble upon a secret German armada preparing to invade their homeland.[18]
Fritz Lang'sM (1931) is regarded as a groundbreakingpsychological thriller, introducing innovative suspense-enhancing audiovisual techniques that have become standard and ubiquitous ever since.[20]
Gilles (1936) is an early example of apolitical thriller, and in one of the book's subplots the protagonistGilles Gambier finds himself embroiled in an left-wing assassination plot against the Prime Minister. The plot falls apart due to the ineptness of the conspirators, and Gilles ends with the protagonist leaving to fight in theSpanish Civil War.[21]
There have been at least two television series called simplyThriller,one made in the US in the 1960s andone made in the UK in the 1970s. Although in no way linked, both series consisted of one-off dramas, each utilising the familiarmotifs of the genre.
The Twilight Zone consists of suspensefulunrelated dramas depicting characters dealing withparanormal,futuristic,supernatural, or otherwise disturbing or unusual events. Characters who find themselves dealing with these strange, sometimes inexplicable happenings are said to have crossed over intoThe Twilight Zone.[22] Each story typically features amoral and asurprise ending.[23]
^Hoeckner, B.; Wyatt, E.; Decety, J.; Nusbaum, H. (2011). "Film music influences how viewers relate to movie characters".Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts.5 (2):146–153.doi:10.1037/a0021544.S2CID49478237.
^Stanyard, Stewart T. (2007).Dimensions Behind the Twilight Zone : A Backstage Tribute to Television's Groundbreaking Series ([Online-Ausg.] ed.). Toronto: ECW press. p. 18.ISBN978-1550227444.
