"There's no narrow definition. According to International Thriller Writers, a thriller is characterized by" the sudden rush of emotions, the excitement, and sense of suspense, apprehension, and exhilaration that drive the narrative, sometimes subtly with peaks and lulls, sometimes at a constant, breakneck pace." In short, a thriller thrills, mostly through skilful plotting.
Thriller is a genre of fiction in which tough, resourceful, but essentially ordinary heroes are pitted against villains determined to destroy them, their country, or the stability of the free world. Part of the allure of thrillers comes from not only what their stories are about, but also how they are told. High stakes, non-stop action, plot twists that both surprise and excite, settings that are both vibrant and exotic, and an intense pace that never lets up until the adrenalin packed climax"
Some of the information above was taken from http://www.findmeanauthor.com/thriller_fiction_genre.htm
This gave me an outline of what the thriller genre means and includes. It also helped us in deciding to definitely go with the genre thriller instead of another thriller such as horror. Bearing in mind the research I have found out this is my understanding of the genre thriller which was helped by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_ (genre) website.
The genre of thriller follows many characteristics that make the genre very distinctive as opposed to horrors (which are commonly mixed up). These characteristics often include a villain driven plot in which presents obstacles for the hero to overcome. There is always a protagonist and an antagonist, the protagonist is usually represented as a hard man who has to take physical action to defeat the antagonist, generally the protagonist is often male but recently females have been introduced to this role, evidence of this is in 'Alien'. Again the Antagonist is often shown to be male but not generally a ‘hard man’ but someone who is smart, strong minded and ready for death. Recently females have been introduced to this role; clear evidence of this is in ‘Saw II’ where the female turns out to be an accomplice of the male antagonist.
The genre is very flexible and undermines the audience complacency by throwing in dramatic twists psychologically, socially, familial and politically. The thrillers location and setting are usually key features which distinguish this genre; thrillers often take place wholly or partly in exotic settings such as foreign cities, deserts, Polar Regions, or high seas.
Thrillers are wide spread and create sub-genres. The sub-genres include action thriller, conspiracy thriller, crime thriller, disaster thriller, drama thriller, erotic thriller, legal thriller, medical thriller, political thriller, psychological thriller, spy thriller, techno thriller and religious thriller. All of these have characteristics that keep them in the thriller genre but can have distinguishing features which separate each sub-genre from each other.
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