Thriller Genre

Definition

Thrillers are a genre of literature, film, and television programming that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as the main elements. Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer's moods such as a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety, suspense, excitement, tension, and terror. Literary devices such as red herrings and cliff-hangers are used extensively. The cover-up of important information from the viewer, and fight and chase scenes are common methods in all of the thriller subgenres, although each subgenre has its own characteristics and methods.

Typical narrative

A genuine, standalone thriller is a film that provide thrills and keeps the audience cliff-hanging at the "edge of their seats" as the plot builds towards a climax. The tension usually arises when the character(s) is placed in a menacing situation, a mystery, or a trap from which escaping seems impossible. Life is threatened, usually because the principal character is unsuspectingly or unknowingly involved in a dangerous or potentially deadly situation. Plots of thrillers involve characters which come into conflict with each other or with outside forces – the threat is sometimes abstract or unseen. Thrillers with a crime-related plot try to keep the attention away from the criminal or the detective, and focus more on the suspense and danger that is generated by the plot.

An atmosphere of creepy menace and sudden violence, such as crime and murder, characterise thrillers. They mostly are adrenaline-rushing, gritty, rousing and fast-paced. Thrillers often present the world and society as dark, corrupt and dangerous

Characters

Characters include criminals, stalkers, assassins, innocent victims (often on the run), menaced women, characters with deep dark pasts, psychotic individuals, terrorists, cops and escaped cons, private eyes, people involved in twisted relationships, world-weary men and women, psycho-fiends, and more. The themes frequently include terrorism, political conspiracy, pursuit, or romantic triangles leading to murder.

Setting

Thrillers mostly take place in ordinary suburbs and cities, although sometimes they may take place wholly or partly in exotic settings such as foreign cities, deserts, Polar Regions, or the high seas. The heroes are frequently ordinary citizens unaccustomed to danger, although commonly in crime thrillers, heroes may also be "hard men" accustomed to danger such as police officers and detectives. While heroes of thrillers have traditionally been men, women lead characters are increasingly common

Opening Scene Screenshots

Moulin Rouge Opening Sequence Analysis

 

Moulin Rouge is a 2001 romantic jukebox musical film directed, produced and co-written by Baz Luhrman. The film is set in 1899 in the Montmorte Quarter of Paris, France and tells the story of a young British writer/poet called Christian who falls in love with the terminally ill star of the Moulin Rouge, cabaret actress and courtesan Satine.

The opening sequence of the film reveals to the audience the time period, genre, setting and also creates dramatic irony as it reveals the fact that the film ends tragically. The audience are made aware of this of this even before the male protagonist (Christian) tells them ‘the woman I love is dead’ (referring to Satine).

 What foreshadows this is a number of things; the use of low key lighting and sombre music signifies that something tragic has or will occur, but also the portrayal of the characters and their interaction with the audience. The first character to appear is a priest who looks directly at the camera (this makes the viewers feel as though they are a part of the movie which helps them to feel more attached and find it easier to empathise with the characters which in the long run will make the tragedy more heartrending). He warns the viewers to ‘stay away from this terrible place’ which makes the audience question what could have happened to affect an entire area to make people want to avoid it.

The camera pans through the streets of Montmorte where you meet several more characters who don’t say anything but simply stare into the camera wearing sorrowful expressions which emphasises how something significant has happened to this place. Finally the camera pans up to a hostel room where the main protagonist resides. He is curled up on the floor unshaven and surrounded by paper and bottles. This creates the image of a lonely and broken man and this is further emphasised by a close-up of his face as it gives the audience a clear view of the pain and despair in his eyes. It also makes it more personal as normally you wouldn’t get that close to another human being and so this helps the viewers feel more attached to his character but also makes him seem more vulnerable as he is letting the audience into his heart by allowing them to see him so exposed.

The setting and time period of the film is portrayed by the use of early 20^th century mise en scene e.g. the costume of the character and the audience is made perfectly aware that the film is set in Paris, France by the presence of the Eiffel tower in an extreme long shot as this is a very well-known French landmark.

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