Conventions of thrillers

Within the media world of genres there aren't just thrillers, there are types of thrillers, as a thriller you might have a stereotype idea of a thriller when it comes to mind, it could be dark and gloomy or a slasher with lots of blood and guts. However, behind these different stereotypes are the different types of thrillers, the different thriller type can change the feel of the film such as the pace, the suspense, the plot in general, etc. 

Different types of thrillers:

• Spy thrillers- e.g. James Bond series
• Political thrillers- e.g. Argo
• Military thrillers- e.g. Saving Private Ryan
• Conspiracy thrillers- e.g. The insider
• Medical thrillers- e.g. Coma
• Forensic thrillers- e.g. The Bone Collector
• Psychological thrillers- e.g. Gone Girl
• Supernatural thriller- e.g. The others

Some thrillers can also be more than just thrillers as in media there are movies or tv-shows that are hybrid genres which is when a movie is a mixed of genres which is why they're called hybrids.

Other characteristics of thrillers:

• Protagonist vs. Antagonist- Conflicts between the hero and the villain
• Levi Strauss binary opposition - Good vs. Evil.
• Cheap surprise - Jump scares in horror films.
• Make it personal - Something personal happening to the main character.
• False ending - Thinking the film is over but there's still time left for things to go wrong or get better
• Theatre of mind - Not telling the audience anything to keep them guessing throughout.

The reason I've been researching about the thriller genre is because as my AS task to produce a thriller opening, me and my group must decide on the type of thriller so after splitting the thriller genre up it will make it easier for my group and I to chose a specific thriller genre to start producing our one page pitch.