Characteristics of Thrillers

• Thriller provides thrills and keeps the audience cliff- hanging at the "edge of their seats"
• Plot builds towards a climax
• Tension rises when main character is placed in a menacing situation
• Life is threatened
• Thrillers take place in ordinary suburbs/cities
• somestimes thrillers take place in foreign cities, deserts, polar regions, or high seas but this is unusual
• The heroes are normally ordinary citizens unaccustomed to danger
• In crime thrillers "hard men" are accustomed to danger, like police officers and detectives
• Heroes traditionally tend to be men as they are seen as the stronger character
• Women tend to be the victims as they are seen as the more weak character
• Thrillers often overlap with mystery stories but are distinguished by the structure of their plots
• Hero must thwart the plans of an enemy rather than uncover a crime that has already happened
• Murder mystery would be spolied by a premature disclosure of the murderer's identity
• The identity of a murderer or other villian is typically known all along
• The crimes that must be prevented are serial mass murder, terrorism, assassination, or the overthrow of goverments
• Jeopardy and violent confrontations are standard plot elements
• Thriller climaxes when the hero finally defeats the villian, saving his life and others
• Thillers are influenced by film noir and tragedy, the compromised hero is often killed in process
• Recent years, thillers have been influenced by horror genre: dark, violent, terror, body counts, gore and brutality e.g the film Eden lake, The Last House on the Left
• Thillers are defined by not their subjected matter but their approach to it
• Some thrillers involve spies and espionage