Conventions of a Thriller

Thriller is a broad genre of literature,film and television that includes numerous and often overlapping sub-genres. Thrillers can often overlap with mysterious but are distinguished by the structure of their plots. Thrillers must cause exhilaration and apprehension of excitement and breathlessness. If a thriller doesn't thrill it isn't doing its job.

In thrillers the killer is known by the audience all the way along, or in a murder mystery where we don't find out who the killer is till the end, therefore the whole point of the story line would be simply finding out who the killer is. Many films can be applied to the todorov theory, which is equilibrium, disruption, resolution and new equilibrium.

Conventions os a thriller include a crime normally at the heart of it which illudes into something serious yet rich in suspense. A complex narrative structure, with clues but plenty of restrictions to keep the audience guessing but having a sense of fear to keep the story going. A thriller will always have a protagonist and an antagonist. The protagonist who is systematically disempowered and drawn into a complex relationship with the antagonist. Extrordinary events must occur in a thriller which is actually going to thrill people, and usually they would happen in an ordinary situation.