Thriller Convention Critics

Vladimir Propp

A Russian critic called Vladimir Propp analysed the basic structure of folk and fairy tales, he then came up with these 8 character types that often occurred:

1. The hero - reacts to the donor, weds the princess, strong/clever/looked up to. An example of this in a thriller is, Morgan Freeman in the film Seven. He is middle aged and wise which is a common occurrence for a hero in thrillers to be.
2. The villain - struggles against the hero, usually equally matched in intelligence/physicality, evil. An example of one in a thriller is Nicolas Cage’s character. He is clever and equally matched to the films hero played by John Travolta. The villains in thrillers are often equally matched to the hero like Nicolas Cage. How ever sometimes in thrillers the villain can be something unknown, like in sixth sense there isn’t really a villain who matches Bruce Willis’s character.
3. The donor - prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object. In some thrillers this character type can often be quite scary and at first threatening.
4. The (magical) helper - helps the hero in the quest, usually weaker or a little younger than the hero. In the film Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Watson fits this role quite well as he is very clever and helps Sherlock in his job of solving crimes, however he is not as clever as Sherlock and the two often learn things from each other, for example Watson learns how to solve crimes and Sherlock learns how to be a normal person. In this film the helper is not ‘magical.’
5. The princess - person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative. These characters aren’t very common in thrillers or if they are then they often get killed off rather than won at the end. For example in the action-thriller The Bourne Supremacy, Jason Bourne’s “princess” gets shot in the first part of the film, he then spends the rest of the film seeking revenge and finding out why this happened.
6. Her father - usually dies during or before the film/book.
7. The dispatcher – the character who send the hero on their quest. In Often the dispatcher’s roles in thrillers aren’t very prominent, they could be a chief police man sending the detective on a job or a mother who begs a man to find out who has taken their child. There aren’t always dispatchers in thriller films, sometimes the hero goes on the quest to seek revenge or to redeem themselves, for example in Sixth Sense Bruce Willis’s character is a child physiologist who tries to help a little boy with problems to redeem himself because he did not help a child when he could and this child grew up unstable and killed themselves.
8. The false hero – Someone who we at first think is the hero but then realise they are a bad character.

Claude Levi Strauss

Another critic is Claude Levi Strauss; his theory was that there was a certain pattern of binary oppositions to thrillers. Binary oppositions are sets of opposite things revealing main themes and structures of media texts. Some examples that often occur in thrillers are –

Good : Evil

Known : Unknown

Saane : Insane

Moral : Immoral

Law/Detectives : Crime/Criminals

FBI/MI5 : Terrorists

Light : Dark

Day : Night

Day/light and dark/night often occur in thrillers as things appear a lot scarier to people at night than in the day because it is unknown what is there if we cannot see it. For example in sixth sense the opening begins in a cellar where it is dark which makes it seem scary, when the woman leaves the cellar to go upstairs it is warm and light in the house which makes the audience feel like this is a good place. When the couple go upstairs the lights are off and it is dark when the man with problems appears. The evil characters in thrillers are often immoral or insane while the good characters are sane and moral, such as Morgan Freeman in Seven; he plays the role of a detective while the villain is a man who has committed crimes.
This is an example of chiaroscuro lighting, often used in thrillers.

Tzvetan Todorov -

Another theorist who would help my research in conventions of thrillers is Tzvetan Todorov. He suggested that stories begin with an equilibrium where opposing forces are in balance, there is then an event or series of events which causes a disruption. The rest of the film is then based around order being restored ending the film with the same or a new equilibrium. Often in thrillers the equilibrium is not always a happy one but often a mystery solved or something that caused the disruption is discovered and ended. In the thriller openings I have watched this idea conforms well.

In the film ‘Se7en,’ it opens with the equilibrium of the main character Detective Somerset getting up to go to work. The disruptions are him at a murder scene trying to figure out what happens, his job coming to an end as he is about to retire – what will he do when he has finished his job? Meeting his new partner – how well will they work together? And lastly the introduction of the killer in the titles montage.

In another film opening I have watched called Face Off, the equilibrium is the hero played by John Travolta and his son enjoying their day out on a carousel on a park, this is disrupted when an assassin appears and attempts to kill the hero, this backfires as the bullet misses and kills his son. We expect that the rest of the film may be about the hero trying to find out who killed his son and why.

In the film ‘Sixth Sense,’ this structure is also followed as there is the equilibrium of a man and his wife happily celebrating an award the husband has won. The event that takes place causing a disruption is when a crazed patient of the husband (he is a doctor) breaks into their house, attempts to murder the husband and then commits suicide. We then see the husband focussing on a new boy who has similar problems to the man who killed himself and it is assumed the rest of the film will be spent with the husband trying to redeem himself by helping this boy. Although there is a twist in this film which reveals a surprising and previously unacknowledged disruption that brings a whole new set of revelation regarding the resolution.

Titles appearances in thrillers

In the film ‘Sixth Sense’ the titles begin with studio logos that have been edited to fit the genre of the film. One of the logos is a cloudy sky which has been made into night time instead of its usual logo which contains daytime, night time suggests thriller genre as thrillers are often set at night time. The titles showing the producers/directors names etc are in black and white which are binary oppositions of good and evil. The titles are full screen and the words fade in and out slowly, this lasts for 3 minutes showing that this film is a slow moving, physiological thriller and not full of action, telling us we will need to concentrate hard to take it in. The fading in and out is quite eerie and when the main title of the film comes up a shadow seems to run across it suggesting it may have supernatural elements. The sound track that goes with the titles is orchestral piano music, this suggests calmness, when the main title comes up and the shadow runs across there is an eerie piercing sound suggesting we should feel threatened by this unknown force. The writing style is small serif font which could aim the film at an older sophisticated generation. The titles then end and fade into an extreme close up of a light bulb slowly turning on.

The titles in the French film ‘Ils’ or ‘Them’ are also black and white full screen, this time appearing in the corners rather than center. It begins with the studio logos, these have been edited to black and white and the logo looks like night time fitting to the genre of thriller. The titles fade in and out in a more uneven way looking a bit like the lightening; the diegetic sound of rain being creates a gloomy mood and the thunder we occasionally hear makes it threatening, this is pathetic fallacy. The titles are then overlaid onto the film itself in the corners, and before this starts words say “based on real events,” which makes the film more realistic and thrilling for the audience. After these few full screen titles we then see a scene that focuses on the action and shows us the first disruption of the film, after this we see the rest of the titles. This makes the audience think about the disruption and take it all in while they are watching the second set of titles.

In the film ‘Face Off’ the titles are also black and white, binary oppositions of good verses evil, and start full screen, this appears to be a common convention in different types of thrillers. The director’s name is full screen “A John Woo Film” as he is the important creator of the film. They then fade in and out in the corners of the screen over the film opening footage. On each title half the title is in black and half is in white suggesting half evil and half good, also foreshadowing the events to happen in the film. The font is sans serif which is less sophisticated aiming the film at a younger age range, usually 15+ as not many thrillers are rated less than a 15. This font and the fact that most of the titles are unobtrusive and overlay the action also suggests the film is modern and maybe an action thriller. When the actor names appear their name reseeds while their last name advances, this could signify the swap that happens in the plot of the film. These titles keep appearing in the corners of the screen for 7 minutes; they are quite subtle and can go unnoticed by the audience.