Thriller Conventions ☮ ☮ ☮

Clichés

Typical thriller films involve some sort of revenge them for example, the protagonist hunts down the antagonist in order to restore justice, retrieve something or someone,or stop a radical plan, films like this involve the taken franchise and James bond franchise, although with both of these it is the protagonists job to save people and bring down the evil character. There will also usually be montages have the high tension fast paced music to build anticipation within the audience matched with a high action scene.

Conventions

Character and Location Conventions

Character types are usually the soon to be or already retired protagonist who never could bring down that one crime lord who has always hit a personal nerve and come out of their retirement or have one last mission to finally beat their arch nemesis. Other circumstances are that the antagonist is your regular work day type who has suddenly been struck with a situation where they have to fight back for the one they love or a family member, and go on a quest to success their enemy. Although sometimes the reason for the antagonists cruel plan is because of the protagonist due to a past love or a past victory that the protagonist has won over them. Location is usually in a small town at first to show that nothing much happens, which will all change when panic strikes and the real story begins,which is when the story will take the audience somewhere more exotic and crowded to show the difficulty and luxury  of the journey. Sometimes we see the character either protagonist or antagonist at the beginning of the film in a tough stage of life where we see a key event that is the reason for why they are who they are now.

Shot types/Camera angles and Effects

Typically fast paced shot reverse shot scenes are used at intense moments in order to show high tension and make the audience anticipate the climax of the scene and expect something drastic to be said or to happen. High angles are used to show the difficult route or hight of buildings of the antagonist to show the intimidation onto the protagonist, this is effective as it shows the audience the real compassion between the good and evil side. Slow motion is often used in high action scenes so that the audience can gather the full detail in the scene.Low lighting is often used as thrillers usually have dark moods throughout as one theme shown in this certain genre is not comedy, maybe subtle jokes that are acknowledged in the film but not really laughed at by the audience, so using dim lighting it sets a mood for the film to be serious and possibly dark at some points.

Theme and Narrative Conventions

Themes usually shown in thrillers are action, this is because the film will usually have fighting,gore and explosions, to have that "thrilling" mood on the audience. Also there is crime which is linked to action as the violence seen is usually illegal and is linked to the mobster and gang crime. whodunit's are common in these films, trying to find out who is causing trauma to them or society, this could also link to kidnapping, with the protagonist trying to find out who has kidnapped the victim and why. Narrative is used usually by the protagonist who guides us through the story in a very serious way, this makes the audience wonder if the story end badly or not. The narrative can also start at the end telling us how they came into this position and take us from the beginning after this.