Narrative and Technical Conventions

Detectives that are often used as the hero.

What narrative conventions are often used in thriller films?

• The hero will always be the one to solve the story/crime. (detective solving a murder)
• The villain will often have some sort of criminal background or be a type of criminal. (a thief will have stolen before this specific crime)
• Often the criminal/villain will carry some sort of weapon as a threat. (gun, knife etc)
• It is often almost impossible to be able to guess what will happen next in a thriller film, the plot will almost always twist and take you by surprise. (e.g. the character that the audience first thought was the villain will turn out to be the hero. 
• Thrillers tend to involve some sort of deadline for the hero. (e.g. a deadline to find a missing person)
• Most thrillers involve an element of psychological scale, which will keep the audience interested and thinking.
• All thriller films need to be sustaining suspense and tension throughout, often created by chases, deadlines, plot twists, some sort of dialogue etc. (e.g. a car chase in a spy thriller)
• Most of the time, the audience will not be able to see who the villain or criminal actually is visually, and will be able to hear them and listen to them. This demonstrates the idea of a concealed image which is often kept secret until the very end, if not forever. (e.g. the villain who kidnaps someone will not be shown to the audience until the very end of the film or the audience will never find out)
• There is often the chance of death or injury involved, often threats by the villain and sometimes the hero.
• Main plot's are often that there is some sort of mystery that needs to be solved by the hero.
• Two major themes are often justice and sanity of individuals.
• There is often conflicts between characters, which sometimes result in death or further deadlines. (e.g. a phonecall between a detective and a kidnapper, with the criminal setting the hero a deadline)
• Sometimes the hero may battle with him/herself and question their own mortality and sanity.
• Thriller and crime and thriller and mystery are the two most popular themes of thriller films. 
• A lot of thrillers often involve a woman who is the victim, for example; Alfred Hitchcock always used blonde women as the victims in his films. 
• Characters usually include stalkers, murderers, thief's, assassins, psychopaths and prisoners, in terms of the villain but in terms of the hero, characters can include; a detective, agents, spies, etc.