In this blog post, we examine the definition and characteristics of thriller movies and analyze how this genre stimulates the audience’s tension and fear.
Definition of Thriller Movies
Thrillers refer to narratives centered around suspenseful emotions and urgency. Primarily derived from classic detective stories, it minimizes the crime’s backstory (past) and emphasizes the investigation process (present). The protagonist or sub-protagonist detective becomes entangled at the heart of the case, facing imminent danger. Tension over who the culprit is or what will happen next drives the narrative. It also encompasses films or dramas produced to stimulate the audience’s fear, including mystery films, crime films, and in some cases, spy films or adventure films. The story unfolds by delaying the resolution of the problem, maintaining audience interest while heightening the sense of urgency. Originating in film, thrillers are utilized across various media, including theater, broadcasting, and novels. Broadly speaking, it is a type of suspense drama, often featuring elements of horror, crime, or detective stories.
The Difference Between Detective Stories and Thrillers
The difference between detective stories and thrillers lies in the absence of the certainty and satisfaction found in the detective genre within thrillers, where brutal violence, crime, and immorality emerge as core elements. The detective is existentially deeply involved in the case or situation they face, and the process of unraveling secrets and solving problems reflects their existential decisions or internal struggles. While thrillers can overlap with mysteries, the mystery protagonist uncovers hidden truths about a crime, whereas the thriller protagonist must thwart the villain’s criminal intent. Thrillers deal with large-scale events, where crime involves dramatic incidents like serial killings, mass murder, terrorism, assassination, or government overthrow. Confrontation with danger and violence is a core element of this genre. While resolution in a mystery leads to a climax, a thriller is only resolved when the protagonist defeats the villain and saves lives.
Trends in Thriller Films
Thriller films influenced by horror or psychological horror in pop culture often maximize tension by using ominous and eerie elements. The monster can be anything: an intelligent but physically limited being, a character with supernatural abilities, an alien, a serial killer, or even a microbe. The thriller is defined not by specific subject matter but by its approach. While many thrillers feature spies or intelligence agents, not all spy novels are thrillers. For example, John le Carré’s spy novels diverge from the thriller tradition. Conversely, numerous thrillers incorporate new genre elements, intersecting with various other genres. Notable authors in this field include Alistair MacLean, Hammond Innes, and Brian Calison.
Characteristics of Thriller Films
Thriller films feature time-driven plots alongside significant violence and villains. Firearms, explosives, and action are staple elements, and plausible settings are essential. They may incorporate elements of mystery or crime films, but these play a secondary role. The James Bond series, The Transporter, and the Jason Bourne series are prime examples. Events often unfold in foreign cities, deserts, polar regions, or on the high seas, with protagonists being characters accustomed to danger. While frequently drawn from professions like police officers, investigators, spies, soldiers, sailors, or pilots, ordinary citizens are also often unwillingly drawn into the events. While male protagonists were common in the past, female protagonists have become increasingly prevalent in recent years.
The Social Significance of Thriller Films
Thrillers serve to resolve anxiety and fear by embodying the ‘otherness’ that threatens communal order. When the case is solved, audiences feel relief as they project the fears inherent in reality onto the screen. This genre carries a conservative ideology conforming to the dominant order, clearly thematizing violence and evil, desire and justice, to provide insight into individuals and society.
Subgenres of Thriller Films
Thrillers encompass various subgenres, including action thrillers, conspiracy thrillers, crime thrillers, disaster thrillers, drama thrillers, environmental thrillers, erotic thrillers, horror thrillers, courtroom thrillers, medical thrillers, political thrillers, psychological thrillers, spy thrillers, supernatural thrillers, techno thrillers, and sci-fi thrillers. Elements from these genres are often blended in productions.
Alfred Hitchcock, the master of thriller films
Alfred Hitchcock was born in London, England, and studied art at University College London. He joined a film company in 1920, working as a screenwriter and art director before becoming a director in 1925. He gained attention with the production of Blackmail (1929) around the time sound films were introduced. He established his unique directing style, inducing psychological unease in films like The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and The 39 Steps (1935), creating the ‘Hitchcock Touch’. Moving to the United States in 1939, he actively worked on films like Rebecca (1940), Foreign Correspondent (1940), and Shadow of a Doubt (1943), solidifying the thriller genre and cementing his status as a master filmmaker.
Hitchcock is hailed as the quintessential auteur of thriller cinema because he masterfully expressed hidden psychological terror within ordinary, everyday situations. While his films delivered shock-like external horror, they illuminated deeply rooted psychological fears. Jean-Luc Godard praised him, stating, “Like famous painters, one painting follows another, and a single flower he paints becomes a story.” Hitchcock reached his peak during a period where he could create freely, relying on a highly organized studio system while resisting interference from producers. Films like Strangers on a Train (1951), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), and The Birds (1963) belong to this period.
Works from this period feature male protagonists who are misunderstood or suffer from mental fragmentation, revealing obsessions and madness toward neighbors or women. Most protagonists are men repressed by their mothers. Norman Bates from Psycho is a prime example. Among Hitchcock’s later works, Marnie (1964) has been newly reevaluated by later critics. In his book Conversations with Hitchcock, director François Truffaut evaluated him as an artist of anxiety alongside Kafka, Dostoevsky, and Poe.
Hitchcock was unable to attend a 1974 party hosted by the Lincoln Center Film Society due to health issues, instead sending a pre-recorded video message. This became his final public farewell.
“Hello. They say when people drown, their whole life flashes before their eyes. I’m glad I’ve had a similar experience without getting my feet wet. The subject of my films was murder, but most of the murders took place in domestic settings. I’m confident you’ll find murder fascinating and enjoyable. Even for the victims.”
Hitchcock emphasized murder occurring within a ‘domestic atmosphere’ to express terror within everyday spaces in his films. His characters suffer at the hands of intimate people within comfortable spaces. What makes Hitchcock’s films modern masterpieces is the tension of unease contained within this serene atmosphere.
