Genre Conventions

The forms of a thriller film show how it is constructed. A thriller usually consists of many story lines and that is why there are often many characters. These dual, triple or narratives create confussion and which commands greater attention be paid to the film to truly understand, this is what makes a thriller a thriller. Famous thriller directors such as Quentin Tarentino often use the multiple story line such as in Pulp Fiction.

Another convention of thrillers are flash backs, often they are used at the begining or the end of a film to give the viewer insight in to the character or simply explain the present story line. An excellent example of this would be Kill Bill, although flash backs run all through out the film they're purpose is to portray and explain the start of the story line / give insight in to Uma Thurman's charcter.

Psuedo documentary is not so much a convention but style of some thrillers. This is when the charcters are seemingly the ones filming the entire movie usually through a hand held camera. An example of this would be Cloverfield. This kind of filming style does add a diffrent dimesion to the film as it no longer seems like a Hollywood film but seems more real. This style can be very effectuve however many argue the purposely amature footage is taxing and a nuscence to watch.

Over all the main conventions of a thriller are multiple plot lines, unexpected twists, both ordinary and extraodinary and may include ironic endings and intelligent story lines. However the avarage thriller usually contains a fair bit of action for impact. The classic example of a thriller would be Hitchcock's Phsyco.