Genre Research Thriller Thriller is a genre of film, literature and television programming that uses tension, suspense, and

excitement as its main elements. A common subgenre is psychological thrillers. After the assassination of President Kennedy, paranoid thriller and political thriller films became extremely popular. The brightest examples of thrillers are the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Thrillers stimulate the viewers moods such as ultra-heightened expectation, anxiety, uncertainty, tension, and suspense. Devices such as literary devices are also used. For example, red herrings and cliffhangers. The cover-up of important information from the viewer and fighting scenes are common methods in all of the thriller subgenres, although each subgenre has its own methods and characteristics. General methods in crime thrillers are mainly kidnappings, captivities, revenge, heists and ransoms. However, investigations and the whodunit technique are more common in mystery thrillers. Common elements in psychological thrillers are mind games, stalking, psychological themes, horror-or-personality, obsession, and confinement/deathtraps. Fringe theories, paranoia, and false accusations are sometimes common in paranoid thrillers.

An atmosphere of crime, sudden violence, murder and creepy menance characterise thrillers. They mostly are gritty, adrenaline rushing, and fast-paced. Thrillers usually present the world as a society as corrupt, dangerous and dark. Characters in thrillers usually are stalkers, criminals, and innocent victims (often on the run), characters with dark pasts, psychotic individuals, terrorists cops and escaped cons. Thrillers often overlap with mystery stories but are usually distinguished by the structure of their plots. In a thriller, the hero must stop an enemy from doing bad things, rather than uncover a crime that has already happened. Some people argue, though that the thriller genre is simply a subgenre of horror, both using atmosphere and suspense to cause feelings of dread in the audience.