Section 1: The Thriller Genre

Thriller is a loose genre term referring to any film that generates suspense and excitement as a major aspect of its elements and narrative.

G. K. Chesterton: The Transformed City

Chesterton was an English writer from the 20^th century who came up with the theory of the transformed city. It is the idea that thrillers take urban settings that we spend our everyday lives in and make them exciting. Most thrillers are set in ordinary town or cities, and these are transformed to create settings that out of the ordinary things happen. For example, in se7en the film is set in an urban environment where exciting events happen.

Northrop Frye: Heroic Romance

Frye explored the idea of the characters in thrillers having heroic actions throughout the film. It again is the theory of ordinary people the audience can relate to, acting as hero’s at some point of the thriller. It changes the ordinary to the extra ordinary to make the storyline more interesting and watchable. They have to be heroic to survive or save somebody else, this is commonly a romance within the film.

John Cawelti: The Exotic

The exotic theory is about something being excitingly different or unique. Thrillers take the elements of ordinary life and add an exotic element, such as putting a serial killer in a peaceful small town where crime is low.

W.H. Matthews: Mazes and Labyrinths

This is the idea that the characters in a thriller film have to successfully get through mazes and labyrinths to reach the ending. They often use the idea of a mysterious quest that may be a physical maze- such as an empty house with all doors looking the same and they are searching for the correct one, or a labyrinth in the sense they have to work their way around obstacles and dead ends such as a detective at first getting the wrong suspect.

Pascal Bonitzer: Partial Vision

This is where the audience doesn’t find out vital information until the end when everything becomes clear. The audience has important details kept from them which often add a dramatic twist to the storyline. It allows the audience to be in suspense and think for themselves what might happen, in some cases what they thought isn’t correct causing shock and entertainment. This is evident in many thrillers, and the ones I have analyzed such as se7en.

Noel Carroll: Question and Answer

This is where the audience are kept asking questions about what is going to happen. Thriller storyline often have multiple possible outcomes which keeps the audience guessing. Questions that are asked always want answering, in some cases of cliff hangers it keeps the audience asking questions. For example in Jaws the audience wonders how they will ever catch him, which they do get an answer to at the end of the film.

Roland Barthes: Enigma Codes

Roland Barthes analyses the idea of narrative in the thrillers that operate moment by moment. The enigma codes are the moments in the narrative where the audience is left asking questions, this is important to thrillers to create suspense. The way the story is told and the narrative can be effective in different ways, it can hold back information or tell the story in different ways.