Research into Thriller Conventions

A thriller always consists of a hero, stereotypically a middle aged man who is high ranked in his profession and doing well for himself. The hero usually tends to have a flaw, perhaps a mental disorder or physical handicap. Different examples of this type of character are Christian Bale in The Dark Knight, a billionaire who despite his status is a lonely grumpy man.

In ‘Face-Off’ Travolta plays a middle aged head detective (as proven by his wall of achievements). His flaws are that he is still grieving over the accidental death of his son, and the fact that he and his wife are no longer as close as they used to be. Strauss’ idea of an equilibrium is apparent through Travolta’s character as he starts off as a happy family man, spending some quality time with his son. This is then followed with the disruption as Cage accidentally shoots his son. When this happens, the shot is slowed down so that the sense of panic is emphasized and we can see the expressions on characters faces. The resolution (we can only assume as we have only watched the opening of this film) is that Travolta, being head detective manages to somehow catch the villain (Cage), and somehow manages to resolve his flaws, by becoming closer with his wife and finally be at peace about his Son’s death.

In comparison, Bruce Willis, in the ‘Sixth Sense’ plays a middle aged child psychologist who is highly ranked in his profession as proven by the plaque that he has just been awarded. Willis’ flaw (although not apparent until the end of the film) is that he is dead. In these thrillers, the hero’s seem to consist of the on-going idea that they are usually middle aged men, highly ranked in their profession but consisting of a flaw. 

Thrillers also consist typically of a villain, usually a middle aged man like we would expect the hero to be. We often find a lady character that plays the ‘damsel in distress’, who we often find falls in love with the hero. For example, in ‘ Dead Again’, the ‘damsel in distress’, (Emma Thompson), falls in love with the hero of the film ‘Mike Church’, played by Kenneth Branagh, who again is stereotypically a middle aged man who is a high ranking detective. 

Claude Levi Strauss’ theory of ‘binary opposition’ is always present in a typical thriller film. Some examples of these could be: day and night, hero and villain, life and death, black and white, strong and weak and the protagonist and antagonist. We often find in thrillers that the antagonists take action at night and the protagonist takes action during the day time. This links in with light connoting purity and darkness connoting evil. In ‘Ills’, the opening scenes show us a murder taking place at night, accompanied by the use of stormy weather (pathetic fallacy), despite not seeing the antagonist at night, we see his work. This then cuts to a lady who we can only assume is going to either be the ‘damsel in distress’ or the hero walking through school halls during the day time, which could reinforce the idea that she is pure. ‘Hero and villain’ is the most obvious binary opposition that we see in thriller films, for example: Travolta and Cage, Pitt and Spacey and Pacino and Di Nero. Again, stereotypically all middle aged men.

Todorov’s theory of narrative structure states that thriller openings consist of an equilibrium, followed by the disruption (often some sort of crime, usually a killing of some sort), and eventually at the end of the film is the resolution. 

An example which proves Todorov’s theory of narrative structure is the film ‘Memento’. The equilibrium is how Leonard used to be; a happily married man, doing well in his job as a highly ranked detective. The disruption occurs when his wife is killed, and he suffers an injury to the head, leaving him with short term memory loss. The resolution is left open to interpretation as we do not know whether he finds the man who kills his wife, although the clues are there to suggest that he does. Leonard also suffers with a flaw, like most protagonists in thrillers. His is that he suffers from short term memory loss and cannot make new memories since his accident, and in order to catch his wife’s killer must use a series of notes and tattoos.

Psycho: This film starts with a woman at work, she’s happy and the whole atmosphere is positive, it is only when she steals the money and the mood changes. This is typical of a thriller as it usually starts with a positive scene to create the contrast between good and evil. Later on in the film we see the woman get murdered in her own bathroom, however id this was the opening of the film it would lose suspense.

Opening Titles

There are a few different ways in which titles can be shown in the openings of films. Examples of two different ways are in the films, Sixth Sense and Face Off. In the film Sixth Sense the titles appear in white with a black background.

This makes the audience concentrate just on the titles and in this time period the mood of a thriller can be created as it is done in Sixth Sense by using sinister eerie music, and the moving ghostly text used in the titles. Different styles of fonts are used for the titles, usually San Serif and Serif. The font in these titles is ‘Sans Serif’ portraying it is more youthful and does not need as much intellectuality to be able to follow the film.

The introduction of ‘Usual Suspects’ uses the title sequence really well. At the start we see on the screen;

• Polygram filmed entertainment & Spelling Films International Presents
• A Blue Parrot/Bad Hat Harry Production
• A Bryan Singer Film

The above titles were all white writing on a black background with smoke rising from the bottom of the screen. Words are in Serif which tells the audience that the film is for people of a higher intelligence and the film requires a lot of concentration.

After these opening titles we have overlay titles of what we assume are less important aspects of the film. This consists of names of the producer and people within the film. We then cut to a clip of a cigarette in a glass ash tray; we presume this is where the smoke is originally coming from. The final title is ‘The Usual Suspects’ in a large white font on a black background with the smoke. The smoke connotes mystery and fore, this is portrayed later on in the film when an explosion occurs.