Research: Common conventions in Thrillers

In the thriller genre the narrative often will centre on a crime. Many popular thriller films revolve around a serial killer on the loose. The films try to convey a lot of action in order to the audience. This will often involve ordinary situations where extraordinary things occur.

Often, the protagonist will have an exploitable weakness that the antagonist will take advantage of. This may lead the protagonist to get involved in dangerous situations in order to build up suspense and action in the movie.

Throughout the movie, the antagonist will drive the protagonist deeper and deeper into an intricate, often sinister plot, leaving the protagonist feeling hopeless. This will continue until the climax of the film when the protagonist finds a solution or a method to defeat the antagonist.

Characters in thrillers include criminals, stalkers, assassins, innocent victims (often on the run), menaced women, characters with dark pasts, psychotic individuals, terrorists, police, private eyes, people involved in twisted relationships, psycho-fiends, and more. The themes of thrillers frequently include terrorism, political conspiracy, pursuit, or romantic triangles leading to murder.
Thrillers will often introduce an enigma (or series of enigmas) in the beginning of the movie, and then complicate them throughout the story until the climax. Enigmas are essentially mysteries of the plot this can range from the audience not knowing the true identity of a killer, to the audience finding out the identity of the murderer immediately, but then the characters in the story have to find out who they are. This plot device is known as dramatic irony and is also used in thriller-genre films to build suspense, as the audience knows more than the characters in the story, and then is able to be fearful for them.