Genre

Thriller is a genre of literature, film, and television that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as the main elements. The primary subgenre is psychological thrillers. After the assassination of President Kennedy, political thriller and paranoid thriller films became very popular. The brightest examples of thrillers are the Hitchcock’s movies.

The cover-up of important information from the viewer and fight/chase scenes are common methods in all of the thriller subgenres, although each subgenre has its own characteristics and methods. Common methods in crime thrillers are mainly ransoms, captivities, heists, revenge, kidnappings. More common in mystery thrillers are investigations and the whodunit technique. Common elements in psychological thrillers are mind games, psychological themes, stalking, confinement/deathtraps, horror-of-personality, and obsession. Elements such as conspiracy theories, false accusations, paranoia, and sometimes action are common in paranoid thrillers. Some argue, though, that the thriller genre is simply a pseudonym for the horror genre, both using suspense and atmosphere to cause feelings of dread in their audiences.

Some Thriller subgenre include;

* Crime thriller: This particular genre is a hybrid type of both crime films and thrillers that offers a suspenseful account of a successful or failed crime or crimes. These films often focus on the criminal(s) rather than a policeman. Crime thrillers usually emphasise action over psychological aspects. Central topics of these films include serial killers/murders, robberies, chases, shootouts, heists and double-crosses. Some examples of crime thrillers involving murderers include, Seven, A Perfect Murder, No Country for Old Men, Firewall, Hostage, Silence of the Lambs, Kiss the Girls and Copycat. Examples of crime thrillers involving heists or robberies includes The Asphalt Jungle, The Score, Rififi, Ocean's 11, Entrapment, The Killing and Reservoir Dogs.

* Disaster thriller: In which the main conflict is due to some sort of natural or artificial disaster, such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, etc., or nuclear disasters as an artificial disaster. Examples include Earthquake, 2012, The Day After Tomorrow, Poseidon, Knowing, Deep Impact and Twister.

* Mystery thriller: Suspense films where characters attempt solving, or involved in, a mystery. Examples include Flightplan, Mindhunters, The Number 23, Unforgettable, Shutter Island, Secret Window, Vertigo, Identity and Memento.

* Psychological thriller: In which (until the often violent resolution) the conflict between the main characters is mental and emotional, rather than physical. The Alfred Hitchcock films Suspicion, Shadow of a Doubt, and Strangers on a Train and David Lynch's bizarre and influential Blue Velvet are notable examples of the type, as are The Talented Mr. Ripley, "Orphan", House of 9, Phone Booth, Cape Fear, Red Eye, The River Wild, Psycho, P2, Breakdown, The Collector, Panic Room, Don't Say A Word, Frailty, The Good Son, Dead Calm, Funny Games and Misery.

*Revenge films: Out of the sub-genres of exploitation film, this focuses more on the thriller elements such as suspense, tension, some action and fast-pacing rather than scares and the supernatural. Some famous revenge films are The Last House on the Left, Irréversible, Thriller - A Cruel Picture, Baise-moi and I Spit on Your Grave.

Although most thrillers are formed in some combination of the above, there are some however that are formed with other genres, which commonly are the horror genre, spy genre and the action/adventure genre.