What Is a Thriller?

Sub-genres of Thrillers

Psychological thrillers
These are often split into two further genres of internal and external psychological thrillers. Internal psychological thrillers is the idea that the protagonist is suffering from issues caused by thoughts of paranoia, memory loss and insomnia or other feelings. These complications of the mind playing tricks on the character then has an affect on and drives the narrative, for example the memory loss of the lead character in Momento strives him to find the murderer of his wife.

External psychological thrillers are the idea that the character's mind is effected by those around them. This could include complications about identity or reality and an example is the Bourne Identity, in which Matt Damon's character is part of a mystery about who he is, and why he is part of such a mystery.

Political thriller
This type of thriller often has a similar theme of conspiracy and corruption. These themes are incorpated into the government, and ideas of the government working against the public with the mystery being the unravelling of the conspiracy. Other related themes are the inclusion of government agencies, secret missions and assassinations. A good example of this type of thriller is All the President's Men, in which the conspiracy of the "water gate" is investigated.

Crime thriller
Crime thrillers include the ideas of unsolved crimes and the struggle to either solve the crime or escape justice. These variations are due to whether the protagonist is the criminal or a detective. Zodiac is a good example of how unsolved crimes are used well to drive the narrative of a thriller, as the main character strives to solve the crime of the zodiac killer. An opposite example of this is Dog Day Afternoon, where we see the struggle of Al Pacino's character stuggles to complete the crime of a bank robbery and ensure a safe getaway.

Action thriller
The sub-genre of action thrillers is often confused with action films, as what is one persons action thriller is another persons action film. Key differences are that action films are driven by action set peices. In Die Hard I, the story is linked by each big set piece, for example the shootouts in the offices, the large C4 explosion, and the final gun fight where the character Hans is killed. On the contary, The Bourne Identity could be considered as a action thriller. This is because the narrative is intellegent and has more depth, with the mystery surrounding identity. However Jason Bourne is still forced to use violence, adding the element of action.

Overall, there a many sub-genres of thrillers. In many cases, these sub genres overlap, but the above are the four main sub-genres. Thrillers also have codes and conventions. Codes are the meanings that are created by the film, and if a thriller is seen as conventional, then it is following the norm established by other productions in the genre. All thrillers though have a common theme of a mystery. The viewer is given peices of information as the narrative progressed which lead to the uncovering of the puzzle.

Jonny Hucker