All you ever needed and wanted to know about THRILLERS

Thrillers are types of films known to promote uncertainy, unexpected and nerve-wrecking tension. There are many other genres linked to Thriller, such as Suspense and horror as they have simular characteristics and features making it harder to decifer whether a film is a Thriller or Suspense or a horror as they are very alike.

The problems you normally face when examining the Thriller genre come in the form of hybrids. A film would not generally be aknowledged as just simply a Thriller, for example; the film 'Alien' is called a Sci-Fi Thriller and 'Safety Last' is called a Comedy Thriller. Just to make things really simple....

If you simply cannot decide if the film you are watching is a thriller, take the thriller test to see if it is...
Are you on the edge-of-your-seat?
Are there cliffhangers as the film builds towards its climax?
Is the main character placed in a menacing situation or mystery?
Is a life at risk?
Is there conflict between characters or life forms?

If so...I'm afraid YOUR WATCHING A THRILLER!

The characters that are usually thrown into thrillers usually include Convicts, Stalkers, assassins, down-on-their-luck losers, innocent victims (often on the run), prison inmates, menaced women, characters with dark pasts, psychotic individuals, terrorists, cops and escaped cons, fugitives, private eyes, drifters, duplicitious individuals, people involved in twisted relationships, world-weary men and women, psycho-fiends, and more. So basically the most unfortunate types of people you find in the world.

Some frequent themes of a thrillers would be Conflict, Death and Danger all the ingredients to get your heart rate up.

If you want to feel all these emotions and more AFI (American Film Institute) have given a top 3 of most thrilling films being;
3. The Exorcist
2. Jaws
and if you dare..
1. PYSCHO
*watch at your own risk*

Alfred Hitchcock (who directed PHYSCO) has been crowned the master of Suspense. With any list of chiller/ thrillers featuring his films, with his orginal ideas and creations he helped mould and shape the modern day films we see today. As most modern takes on thrillers feature ideas originally used by Hitchcock. The first film he made was a silent thriller, 'The Lodger' released in 1926 making his first release completely different to the style of thriller we see today.

Hitchcock usually placed an innocent victim, being an average everyday person, in a terrorizing situation in a case of a wrong person or mistaken identity. Also he places a 'red herring' throughout his films also which intrigues the viewer and helps guide the plot in the right direction helping his films keep a clear, clever and thrilling storyline.
The usual conventions of Hitchcock films is his films were wildly uneven, although he produced the shocking and engrossing thriller 'Physco', and the suspenseful and strangely terrifying 'The Birds' and 'frenzy' which was given an 18 rating for its vicious and strangulation scene... They certainly all differed.

Thrillers such as; Gaslight, Laura, The Spiral Staricase, The Lady from Shanghai and Sorry, wrong number all have the aspect in common that the victims chosen are all female, but not just female but with descriptions along the lines of beautiful, innocent and invalid. Making the victim woman seem powerless and weak.