What is the thriller film genre?By Pav Contomichalos

Examples of thriller films

Psycho is a very famous black and white thriller film directed by the master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock. (1960)

Another more modern famous thriller film with a big twist at the end, Directed by M. Night Shyamalan starring Bruce Willis (1999)

One of my favourite new thriller films full of suspense and keeps you guessing all the way through starring Leonardo di Caprio (2010)

The definition of Thriller

• Thriller films are usually full of suspense and drama often with lots of dramatic twists and turns thrown in to keep the watcher guessing nearly all of them cause the audience to feel a wide range of emotions. The story line nearly always revolves around criminal activity or conspiracy with good characters and evil characters.

Themes and conventionsThriller films will conventionally always have:Dramatic musicGood and bad charactersCriminal activity/conspiracySuspense/tensionActionAnother typical convention of thriller films is to have or be part of a sun genre for example, the film Inception starring Leonardo di Caprio follows the conventions of both action AND thriller.

Typical actors who star in ‘Thrillers’

Cary Grant starred in many thrillers in the 1940s most of them directed by Alfred Hitchcock he’s best known for his roles in North by North west and notorious. He fits the genre well as he is a likeable character for the audience to favour especially a female audience as he’s good-looking

Leonardo Dicaprio has starred in many thriller films his most recent two being Inception and Shutter island, He's a very versatile actor which makes him easily casted as characters in any sort of film, however he often plays the ‘good’ character as he is also a good-looking actor apparently..

Jack Nicholson is also another actor who as starred in thriller films for example the political thriller ‘a few good men’ or his role in ‘the shining’. However he is usually cast as an evil or bad character and has played the roles of a deranged mentally disturbed husband and the joker in batman!