A broad genre that incorporates suspense, excitement, tension and mystery to drive the appeal to the audience.
Sub genres e.g. psychological thriller, crime thriller, horror thriller, action thriller.
Martin Ruben - 'Thrillers' a book from 1999 describing the thriller genre.
The transformed City (an idea by CK Chestorton) - a modern genre set in an urban environment which transforms something ordinary into something extraordinary.
Romantic hero (Northrop Frye) - The hero is a normal person like us who is forced to behave in extraordinary ways.
The exotic (John Cawelti) - Artifacts or objects brought from the middle east or Orient with significance.
Mazes and labyrinths (W.H. Matthews) - The hero finds themselves faced with a problem e.g. twists and dead ends (literal or metaphorical) which stand in the way of the villain. The audience are presented with the hero's puzzles.
Partial vision (Pascal Bonitizer) - The audience only see so much as elements are hidden and may or may not be revealed. What we don't see can be just as important as what we do.
Concealment and protraction (Lars Ole Sawberg) - suspense is used in different ways to pull the audience in different directions. Concealment - something is deliberately hid. Protraction - A false suspected outcome e.g. exploding bomb which builds up tension.
Questions and answers (Noel Carroll) - The audience are given questions and must wait in suspense for the answer e.g. will somone die? will someone be captured? who is the killer? will the bomb explode? etc.
Probability factor - a battle against the odds is more exciting than something that is definitely going to happen. Moral factor - morally right outcome increases involvement.
