Task One Section 1:the thriller genre.

The Thriller Genre

One of the questions that always seems to arise is “what is the definition of a thriller”, well they can be found everywhere but each one being different so this then gives the impression that maybe there is no particular definition for “thriller” but just a conclusion of ones interpretation of the genre.

Many people have there own interpretation of what makes a thriller film such as Martin Ruben- he didn’t just voice his own opinion on the genre of thriller but also wrote a book on his interpretation of what thriller was and is he says that a thriller must be set in urban landscapes i.e. New York city, and that it is a modern genre set in the time is now and that it transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary and the best film to back up Martins opinion in “Spiderman” this film is set in New York city.
Northrop Frye also believes a little like Marin Ruben in the fact that the hero is a ordinary person but unlike Martin, Northrop gives the impression that a thriller can be seen as a fusion between a fantasy and a romance fiction by how the enchanted forest changes into the modern city and how the hero will fall in love. John Cawelti on the other hand believes in both Martin Ruben and Northrop Frye’s interpretation of thriller and puts points across of both men saying that the genre ‘transforms the city from a modern centre of commercial industry into a playground of amazement’.
W.H Mathews describes in more detail about how the structure would take place of a thriller describing it as a work relating to mazes that the audience aren’t to know what is coming around every corner and that the film should be littered with twists and turns. That the whole film should be a puzzling journey and one of the best films that backs up what W.H Matthews describes would be ‘Saw’ where there are so many outcomes but the audience is always shocked with each and every outcome.
A lot Like W.H Matthews Pascal Bonitzer says that the audience should only see so much making them think and judge what will happen next in the film and not know how it will finish.
Lars Saurberg goes onto describe that a thriller must have suspense that this is the key, and that something must always be deliberately hidden from the audience.
Noel Carroll tells us what a thriller must include saying that it is important to create questions in the viewers mind and the major question must always be “will the hero survive” and that someone or something must be battling against all odds
In my opinion a thriller has to add suspense and build on this throughout, that questions must be asked through out the film by the audience and never should they know the answer until the very end. Also the hero should always be in danger.

So with everyone’s opinion being different, thriller is a hard genre to conclude one reason for so many different opinions on what thriller is could be due to the amount of sub-genres in thriller such as (romantic thriller, action thriller, adventure thriller, historical thriller, medical thriller, religious thriller) and never will there be a concrete definition for thriller but the best way to conclude on the argument is to take everyone’s point into consideration and only then will you be close to defining thriller.

Sean Forde