Media Convention Analysis: THRILLER/HORROR!

The genre I am going to work in is thriller/horror, but the thriller genre will dominate, while there will be presence of some horror elements. These films usually create intense excitement, nerve-wracking tension, level of anticipation, expectation and anxiety. The purpose of this genre is to thrill and scare the audience and keep them at the "edge of their seats" and this is achieved with a puzzling plot that usually leads to a climax. There is always a mystery, dangerous setting, the idea that escape is impossible and ofcourse life threat with dangerous and deadly situations. Great examples to emphasise this points are films like "Saw" and "Unknown" where this is pretty much what happens to the characters. There are conflicts involved between the characters or outside forces and there can either be one lead character or several. The protagonist is in thriller/horror as important as antagonist as they both play an equal role to create tension and fear. Romance is an element that will be involved, as there will always be something about a partner, loved one or even children and family. The narrative of these films can be be both linear like in "The Exorcist" or "The Shining" or non linear like in "Memento" and "Pulp Fiction," however for higher thrill and suspense the non linear narrative is often chosen by directors and film makers. There is a specific visual style, as you can always expect hard, fast cuts at tense moments, extreme close ups and shallow focus for mystery and a few jumpy moments, so the audience is not relaxed. The iconography of thriller/horrors would involve running water, artificial lighting weapons, confined spaces, street lamps, shadows and even bars on windows. The main difference between thriller/horrors and normal thrillers are that the protagonist usually encounters combinations of mental, emotional and physical confrontations and that the antagonist is often monstrous. "The Silence of Lambs" is a great example to that. There will always be either a creepy soundtrack, a hard rock soundtrack or soundtrack so innocent that it scares the audience like the "Lullaby" used in "Rosemary's Baby." The sound effects would include shots, banging, hitting, clapping, shouting and sometimes there would be complete silence to make the atmosphere even more tense. The instruments used for sound effects would be violins and pianos, played in low key. The setting would be isolated, dark and abandoned to set the scary, nervous mood for the audience. Budget is usually quite low with thriller/horrors, "Cube" had a very low budget of $CAD365,000 and they are also often independent films. Probably for that reason this is one of the genres that gets the lowest ratings in the film industry, but at the same time attracts enough of the male and teenage audience for it's popularity to continue. By combining horror with mental puzzles and enigmas, the film makers achieve success within the audience as the combination of the genres in thriller/horrors will be liked by audiences who like thrillers and by audiences who like horrors.