What is a thriller?

The thriller genre has many aspects contributing to it''s overall individual identity, they come in the forms of iconography, themes, narratives and characters.

Characters
The types of characters include psychos, they may be genuinely mentally unstable or just have many erratic and unusual qualities. Another is detective, again they may be an official detective working for some form of investigative agency or just a character that is in some way linked in to an event that has happened and is determined to figure out what has happened and catch the culprit. Also, there are usually criminals involved, this links in to the common thriller character of victim. In summary, the majority if not all thriller films involve some form of unusual or illegal act involving a culprit and a victim of the event and is then followed by someone trying to put a stop to it and save the victim(s) from harm.

This character is an example of a detective, and in some ways a victim but  there is not as much emphasis on the victimised side of him in the film as the film follows him as he tracks down the kidnapper of his daughter. The film is 'Taken'.



Narratives
The 5 most common narratives are death, red herrings, being watched or followed and deception. With further reference to 'Taken' there is a lot of death involved in the film as he kills all opposing characters who get in his way. Suspense and tension are very common in films, this is usually due to a character being unknowingly watched or followed, the audience have a view of what is happening and they build questions on what is going to happen to this person  being watched/followed. This links in to the common thriller characters as the person may become a victim of murder if the follower has such intentions. The narrative of deception also links into the character of victim for obvious reasons, and possibly criminal.

Themes
The narrative of deception intertwines with the themes of revenge and gain, although not in all cases. It has been known in thriller films for characters to be deceptive and for the victim of it to seek revenge, these things link in to death in that violence is usually incurred causing some characters to die. We can now see an emerging running pattern through all of these aspects, there always seem to be opposing characters and events are seen because of the nature of their relationship. For example, in 'Law Abiding Citizen', the main character played by Gerard Butler feels a victim of deception and is out for revenge for the majority of the film, he causes death and destruction on his way whilst opposing the police and the general idea of authority after having seen the criminal (another previously mentioned thriller character) slip away from justice with ease.

Iconography
Commonly used items, now seen as icons of the thriller genre include, bars, running water and confined spaces. To begin, bars may not necessarily mean actual metal bars, they may be symbolised by other objects on bigger or smaller scales, for example, in 'Panic Room', during the opening many tall buildings are shown and we occasionally end up nearing the bottom with a poor view of something other than the buildings, feeling trapped. And of course being trapped is a connotation of bars. This links into confined spaces, these may be shown in places such as jails or a victim/criminal being surrounded by people.