Thriller Conventions

Thriller is a Genre of media that usually has: Fast pacing, frequent action, resourceful heroes who have to thwart the plans of better equipped villains and Thrillers are usually villain driven plots, the villain presents obstacles that the hero must overcome.

Thrillers use devices such as: suspense, red herrings and cliff hangers, these are all used to draw the viewers attention and help the feel how the characters are feeling cliff hangers are a good example as they are what they say on the tin, for example in north by north-west there is a point where eve Kendall is hanging of of mount Rushmore and roger thorn hill reaches to help here up, this is a cliff hanger as you aren't sure whether he can reach her and if she will plummet to her demise or if roger will save her, when watching this the viewer can feel the danger of the situation.

Thrillers are a flexible Genre and can engage the audience through dramatic rendering of psychological, social and political tensions.Hitchcock himself said that Thrillers allow the audience to "put their toe in the cold water of fear to see what it is like.

More characteristics of thrillers: thrillers often take place in exotic settings such as foreign cities, the heroes in thrillers are frequently"hard men" accustomed to danger such as policemen or soldiers etc, however they may just be ordinary citizens thrown into the fray accidentally such as roger thorn hill in north by north-west as he is mistaken for someone else.while such heroes are traditionally men, women lead characters have become increasingly popular such as Sigourney Weavers role as Ripley in the movie Alien (1979).

Thrillers often overlap with the genre of mystery but can be easily distinguished by the structure of the plot.In thrillers the hero has to stop the villain from there future plans such as a major heights or mass murder whereas in mysteries the hero usually has to figure out who the villain is after there plan has unfolded murder mysteries for example. Thrillers occur on a much larger scale than mysteries such as mass murder over one person being killed in the kitchen by lady Scarlett with the lead pipe.Dangerous and violent confrontations are standard plot elements of thrillers such as the scene in north by north-west when the bad guys attempt to make Roger Thornhill kill himself whilst driving intoxicated.The climax or mystery films are often when the murderer has been identified however in thrillers the end goal is only reached when the Villains plans have been thwarted by the Hero.

Thrillers are defined by the primary mood that they create: fearful excitement.

in short, if it thrills it is a thriller.