Types of Thrillers

Types Of Thrillers

• The thriller of murderous passions... organized around the triangular grouping of husband/wife/lover. The central scene is generally the murder of one member of the triangle by one or both of the other members. The emphasis is clearly on the criminal protagonist. The criminal motive is generally passion or greed.

• The political thriller... organized around a plot to assassinate a political figure or a revelation of the essential conspiratorial nature of governments and their crimes against the people. these films generally document and dramatize the acts of assassins, conspirators, or criminal governments, as well as the oppositional acts of victim-societies, counter cultures, or martyrs.

• The thriller of acquired identity... organized around a protagonist's acquisitions of an unaccustomed identity, his or her behaviour in coming to terms with the metaphysical and physical consequences of this identity, and the relationship of this acquisition to a murderous plot.

• The psychosomatic thriller... organized around the psychotic effects of a trauma on a protagonist's current involvement in a love affair and a crime or intrigue. The protagonist is always a victim - generally of some past trauma and often of real villains who take advantage of his or her masochistic guilt.

• The thriller or moral confrontation... organized around an overt antithetical confrontation between a character representing good or innocence and a character representing evil. These films are often constructed in terms of elaborate dualities which emphasize the parallels between the victim and the criminal.

• The innocent-on-the-run thriller... organized around an innocent victim's coincidental entry into the midst of global intrigue. The victim often finds himself running from both the villains as well as the police.