Thriller Films and their Sub-Genres

    

Thriller- a broad genre that uses suspense, excitement and tension as it's main elements.

The sub-genres of thrillers include;


Action Thrillers
Thrillers that include a strong element of weaponry and violence and are inspired by the Action genre. The characters are dominantly male with the odd female character that usually acts as the damsel in distress. These films usually follow Todorov's 5 stages of narrative

           
  

Psychological Thrillers
Thrillers that are more thought provoking and unpredictable. They have no conventions of gender, but usually open with a scene that isn't in a correct chronological order or that is part of a dream. The narrative is usually rather mixed up and they always have an ending with a big twist

    



Disaster Thrillers
Thrillers that focus on a group of people surviving an 'end of the world' or an 'apocalypse'. These thrillers usually have a good mix of male and female characters in order to reflect more accurately on the population.

  

Science Fiction Thrillers
Thrillers that have an 'other-worldly' feel to them and are inspired by the genre of Sci-Fi. They usually include an extra-terrestrial being that is either working with or against man kind.

    

Crime Thrillers
Thrillers that are shown from the perspective of either the law enforcer or the law breaker. These normally have a male antagonist and protagonist with a female character which is either a heroine or a damsel. The narratives of these are also slightly jumbled up at the beginning.