Section 1: Critics and Authors

Critics and Authors Write Up




What is a Thriller?


There are many codes and conventions of the thriller genre and many authors have written books on it, they all came up with different rules, which directors should follow when making a thriller and also what the audience expects to be in a thriller. The first book explaining this was written in the 1900’s by G.K Chesterton, he came up with the basic rules, for example: Chesterton was determined that the thriller genre should be set in modern times, so technology id more advance, so they could explore more options than say a thriller set in the 1800’s. He said; A thriller should be set in an urban landscape. This is because if its set in a town or city, then there can be more destruction and devastation. And also more people would suffer in an urban landscape than say a country side area. He also said; Find excitement in everyday life, this means that the plot should follow an ordinary person, who does 9 to 5 instead of someone who has superpowers. And finally; Transform the ordinary into extraordinary, again this is taking the ordinary guy and making him do extraordinary things.


Northrop Frye wrote a book where he elaborates more on the points that Chesterton makes in his book for example he says; the hero is often an ordinary person but he adds to this by saying, “the hero of romance movies in a world in which the ordinary laws of nature are slightly suspended.” This means that the hero in romance films is similar to the ones in thrillers because they are usually just a normal person, but they are put into a slightly more complex world. He then goes on to say; “we are happy to believe the situations because Thrillers are similar to romance fictions.” This is elaborating on the point made earlier because it’s saying that the situations like in romance are a bit far fetched and cliché but they are believable because it is everyday life. And finally he says “The thriller turns the enchanted forest into the modern city” by this he means a thriller is like a fairytale but with a modern take to it.


John Crawlett then wrote a book which combines both points made by G.K Chesterton and Northrop Frye but he adds “The exotic into everyday world” which means they put something different into everyday life, something the characters aren’t use to. For example ‘The Terminator’ puts killer robots into normal life.


W.H Mathews although agreed with the points above he thought there was more to Thrillers than just that, so he said “The image of Theseus descending into the underground maze full of twists, turns, puzzles and dead ends” this means that in Thrillers nothing can be simple or straight forward, something has to be difficult to solve, like in ‘Se7en’ when the characters think they are about to solve the case it takes a different turn and puts them back to square one again. Another reason for doing this is so that it is never boring for the audience member. He also says “Complex twist and turns so the audience doesn’t solve the problem too easily.” And finally “A thriller must have a puzzling journey.”


Pascal Bonitzer agrees with the maze theory but he adds that there should be partial vision when he advocates mazes; this means that the audience shouldn’t be able to see what will happen. He also says “The audience should only see so much” and “What the audience doesn’t see is part of the system of Thrillers.”


Lars Ole Saurberg adds to these points and then talks about the two ways suspense can be added to the thriller genre. The first one is deliberately hiding something from the audience, an example of this is when someone enters a room with a torch and you can only see what the torch illuminates. The second is delaying an expected outcome, an example of this is when a bomb is being defused and the person doesn’t know which wire to cut so they take forever before cutting even though the audience knows it’s the right one.


Finally Noel Carroll combines all of the above but he adds “A thriller should constantly ask a question and have it answered” and “One factor for creating suspense is in a battle against the odds” and finally “Will the hero survive?” all these add suspense to the thriller genre, making them more exciting for the audience.