Thursday 1 November 2007

Sub-genre

There are lots of sub-genres within thriller such as:
  • Spy thrillers
  • Political thrillers
  • Military thrillers
  • Legal thrillers
  • Forensic thrillers
  • Medical thrillers
  • Psychological thrillers
  • Horror thriller
  • Serial Killer thriller
  • Romantic thriller
  • Action thriller
  • Supernatural thriller
  • Crime thriller

In the duration of this project I have watched a lot of thrillers, but by far my favourite sub-genre has been psychological thrillers. This is because in a psychological thriller the main conflict between the characters is mental and emotional rather than physical. The characters are often concentrated on more than the plot itself. The suspense is created by characters deceiving each other, playing mind games and one character generally preying on the other's mental state.

Another common feature is when characters have conflict within themselves and they usually have to travel a journey within the film to resolve this conflict inside of them and understand it, for example in Disturbia, Kale (the protagonist) has the conflict of his father's death, and during the film he begins to come to terms with it, then at the end he understands and deals with it.

Ethics normally play a large part - the idea of what is right and wrong and what is acceptable in social situations.

I like this idea of the character having to learn about themselves, and it is often their problems which escalate the situation they find themselves in. When a character just has to deal with physical abuse it is normally less exciting than when they are being targeted via mind games. This is because when it is a match of physical strength you can normally predict who will win, but someones mental strength and emotional strength can't be predicted, and they normally have surprising twists to the plot. You get to see how they change as a person and how the situation they find themselves in has had an effect on them.

Films such as The Talented Mr. Ripley, Strangers on a Train and Suspicion are all good examples of this sub-genre.

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