Genres

 

Genre (from French "kind" or "sort", from Latin: genus; Greek: genos) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or entertainment, e.g. movie, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time as new genres are invented and the use of old ones are discontinued.

Usually films within a particular genre share things like dark humor or sarcasm, which makes the audience to pay attention more to what goes on. Also, each movie has a negative and positive character, so the audience can decide who is more valuable for it. The third thing which usually appears at any movie is an unexpected occasion which changes a whole point, so this makes the movie interesting to the audience because they want to find out the truth finally.

The thriller genre is different from most other genres because on the surface many of them look entirely different from each other. Let's look at two of them "Shutter Island" and "Deep Impact" in details.

First of all "Shutter Island" is a psychological thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and "Deep Impact" is a 1998 American science fiction disaster film. So, the main idea of these two films is different to each other. The characters are different in age, so they act differently, as teenagers can't act as a middle-age person. Also, the setting of these movies are different, the action in "Shutter island" takes place in the hospital for criminally insane and " Deep impact" is filmed in normal school, where main characters are children and teachers.

 

But what makes these movies thrillers?

In the first one the audience with time realizes that something goes on in this hospital and till the end of the movie it can't understand the plot till the end, however in the second movie the audience has all information about the disaster which will happen soon and the way people deal with problem, which barriers they meet and how they avoid it.

 

Thrillers also have a lots in common because their main purpose is to make the audience to pay attention and concentrate on the plot and finally the plot has to challenge the audience with hidden meanings and terrifying predictions.

One of these things can be the impossible subjects ( can be aliens, huge sharks or even a meteorite), the main purpose is to frightened the audience, to shot it something outstanding, unpredictable and terrifying.

Due to the thriller genre being so diverse, there are a number of subgenres to categorise different types of thriller in, based on their traits. Below is a list of 5 of some of the most popular thriller subgenres and what the basic elements of them are, as well as examples of some well known films from each.

 

Crime Thrillers

Crime thrillers focus on failed or successful crimes on screen. More often or not, the film focuses on criminals rather than the hero and often has a psychological element to this genre as well. Films in this category include Reservoir Dogs and Inside Men. 

 

Disaster Thriller

This particular subgenre usually follows a select group of people or a person that has survived either a natural disaster (hurricanes, earthquakes or volcano's for example) or a human made disaster (e.g nuclear warfare) in which most of humanity has been wiped to the brink of extinction. Movies in this genre include 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow.

 

 

Psychological Thriller

A psychological thriller plays with the audiences minds as it reflects the main characters unstable emotional states. It creates suspense through showing the mentality of the character. Some popular films in this sub genre are: The Shining, Black Swan and One Hour Photo.

 

Religious Thriller

The plot of this type of thriller connects religious institutions, holy objects, questions and mysteries. These film usually unravel the good and bad points about religion, particularly Catholicism.  Religious Thrillers include: The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons.

 

 

Supernatural Thriller

Supernatural thrillers usually involve an out-of-this-world elements, to which burdens or has a relation to the protagonist in some way, in which they must overcome. This genre is closely connected to religious thrillers, in the way demons or sprits can posses antagonists. Other common plots involve aliens. Films in this genre: The Others, Paranormal Activity, The Sixth Sense.