Conventions of a thriller

What is a thriller film?
A genre of film that uses: suspense, tension and excitement as the 3 main elements.
Some subgenres of thriller are: mystery, crime and psychological issues.

Purpose?
A thriller is a film that provides thrills for the audience. The audience should be engaged and on the edge of their seats. The aim of a thriller is to create suspense and excitement for the audience. The narrative revolves around the investigation of an enigma.

Setting
The setting differs between the different narratives. This meas when deciding on where to set the film there is a lot of choice. Thrillers will create a sense of suspense, tension and uncertainty. They will create this effect by using different key lighting, music and shot types. Usually made up of complex narrative and false paths, clues and resolutions.

Characters
In thrillers include convicts, criminals, stalkers, assassins, down-on-their-luck losers, innocent victims (often on the run), prison inmates, menaced women, characters with dark pasts, psychotic individuals, terrorists, cops and escaped cons, fugitives, private eyes, drifters, duplicitous individuals, people involved in twisted relationships, world-weary men and women, psycho-fiends, and more. These types of character roles either help build suspense such as the resourceful hero who manages to escape near impossible situations. Or the Psychologically Insane who creates these impossible situations or just keeps suspense as the audience is unaware of what he might do next.

Narrative
The tension usually arises when the main character or characters is placed in a menacing situation or mystery, or an escape or dangerous mission from which escape seems impossible. Life itself is threatened, usually because the principal character is unsuspecting or unknowingly involved in a dangerous or potentially deadly situation. Plots of thrillers involve characters which come into conflict with each other or with outside forces - the menace is sometimes abstract or shadowy.