Genre one

Genre is a type (of film in this case)
These are a whole lot of film genres:

• Comedy - The Hangover

• Horror - Insidious

 

And many others...

• Thriller
• Documentary
• Sci Fi
• Action/Adventure
• Drama
• Western
• Romantic
• Musical

Films within a particular genre have things they share like their characters, the events and the mes en scene. But with thrillers, things tend to be a bit different, there isn't a 'typical thriller'. For an example, the supernatural thriller Paranormal Activity and psychological thriller Shutter Island are two very different films, although the belong to the same genre.

The characters in Paranormal Activity are a modern day family who are being intruded by demons set in a family home, whereas the characters in Shutter Island are 40s detectives who are unwinding a mystery set in a mental asylum. But, there are similarities in these thrillers, as there are in all thrillers, there is always something or someone imposing a threat, then there is always somebody under that threat, then there is always someone trying to stop that threat. Referring back to Paranormal Activity, there are the demons imposing the threat, then the family are under this threat, and the family are also trying to stop it, likewise with Shutter Island the lead character is both under the threat, and he is the threat, as he is imposing a threat on himself, then there are the psychiatrists who are trying to stop the threat.

            Although the thriller genre as a whole is extremely varied, as opposed the romantic films which always seem to have the same story line, within the thriller genre there are several subgenres, within which there will be a high degree of similarity. In political/conspiracy thrillers, the characters involved will usually be business men/women, deprived people, MPs and terrorists and the settings will usually be locations of political importance or banks. In supernatural thrillers the characters typically are unusual animal/people, fantastical creatures, demons/spirits, ghosts or vampires and the settings will be an abnormal place, like the moon, deep in the woods or a new world completely. Lastly with crime thrillers the characters are commonly police, robbers or chavs/gangsters and the settings are the streets of cities or prisons.

For an example, these are two crime thrillers which you can see the similarities between the two of them:

Instantly you can see that these to crime thrillers are similar. The characters are both a male in about his thirties, the look very alike, both white a good looking, they have similar events, due to both of them holding a gun you can see that both films are going to be action packed with violence and aggression.

There are many subgenres of thrillers:

• Supernatural
• Crime
• Political
• Action
• Disaster
• Erotic
• Legal
• Medical
• Religious
• Spy

A supernatural thriller interests me the most for my thriller as I feel it can be made into anything you want it to be, and the public are so unfamiliar with supernatural creatures so it automatically becomes more interesting for them. Also an action thriller seems interesting as they are constantly filled with intense excitement, which again will be more interesting for the audience.