Montag, 8. Juni 2015

Genre confusion: Thriller

Thriller.. so this one was rather difficult for me to get a hold of.
Thriller is a genre that revolves around anticipation and suspense. The aim for thrillers is to keep the audience alert and on the edge of their seats. The protagonist in these films is usually set against a problem – an escape, a mission, or a mystery. The protagonist usually is in danger and that's what is obvious to the audience. The tension with the main problem is built on throughout the film or the series.

Thinking about this, it's more like a really captivating crime story so that it's hard for me to find a clear line between those genres. Also, because of the danger the protagonist has to deal with, it also has a thin line to share with the horror genre. So where does crime end and thriller start? And the same question works for thriller and horror? In fact this is a perfect example that there are no clear lines separating genres - it all depends on the one analyzing the movie whether it's crime, thriller or horror, and sometimes even all of those genres can go along.

When I was searching for a clear definition, I noticed that I have some trouble finding examples. The first one that came to my mind is White Christmas which is mixed up with mystery and crime as well. The second one that might work for this genre is The Virus since the protagonist has to stop a mysterious disease.
However, as I said, it's hard to figure out whether The Virus would count as a thriller or not in the usual opinion but White Christmas definitely does with the danger caused by a serial killer, a murder case, the characters locked up in a school far away from any kind of civilization and have to deal with the threat on their own.


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