What is a Thriller?

Thriller and Suspense Films are types of films known to promote intense excitement, suspense, a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety, and nerve-wracking tension. Thriller and suspense films are virtually synonymous and interchangeable categorizations, with similar characteristics and features.

The main goal for these types of films is mainly to make the audience feel 'on the edge of their seats' and either scared by building tension.

Here are the main genres as thrillers are hybrids there are many varieties.

• Action or adventure thrillers (The Bourne Identity, Skyfall, Hanna)
• Comedy thrillers (Mr and Mrs Smith, Silver Streak)
• Crime-caper thrillers (Pulp Fiction, Oceans Eleven, Reservoir Dogs)
• Drama thrillers (Leon, Fight Club, The Godfather, Blood Diamond)
• Erotic thrillers (Basic Instinct, Dressed to Kill)
• Film-noir thrillers (The Usual Suspects, The Last Seduction, L.A Confidential)
• Horror thrillers (Psycho, Saw, Orphan)
• Political thrillers (Vantage Point, State of Play, Z)
• Psychological thrillers (Black Swan, Shutter Island, The Sixth Sense)
• Sci-fi thrillers (Inception, The Butterfly Effect, The Matrix)
• Spy Thriller (Enemy of the State, James Bond, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy)
• Techno thrillers (Jurassic Park, I Robot, Die Hard)
• Western thrillers (The Last Samurai, The Proposition)

Characters in thrillers include convicts, criminals, stalkers, assassins, down-on-their-luck losers, innocent victims, prison inmates, menaced women, characters with dark pasts, psychotic  individuals, terrorists, cops and escaped convicts, fugitives, private eyes, drifters, people involved in twisted relationships , world weary men, women and many more.

These are some notable contributors to the thriller genre:

• Alfred Hitchcock
• James Cameron
• Christopher Nolan
• Brian De Palma
• David Fincher
• Peter Jackson

Some of my favourite thriller films are: Blood Diamond and Argo as they both promote excitement/ fear and do a really good job of building tension and I really like the storylines within the films. I also like the film 'The Lovely Bones' but I only like the parts with the real life acting not the bits with her in the dream space.