Top Ten Thrillers

Top ten psychological thrillers:
1. The Ring
2. Sixth Sense
3. The Blair Witch Project
4. Paranormal Activity
5. The Haunting in Conneticut
6. Gothika
7. Rosemary’s baby
8. The Shining
9. Whatever happened to Baby Jane
10. The Grudge

Top 10 Thrillers:

1. The Godfather (1972)
2. The Godfather: Part II (1974)
3. Elite Squad 2 (2010)
4. Inception (2010)
5. The Dark Knight (2008)
6. Goodfellas (1990)
7. Fight Club (1999)
8. Rear Window (1954)
9. Psycho (1960)
10. The Usual Suspects (1995)

Codes and conventions of thriller posters

The poster places the name of the famous actor at the top of the image, this will draw in fans of dicaprio so his fan base will be inticed to see the movie. The font is clear and bold, and in red which is a typical colour for the thriller and horror genres, The red most obviously suggests blood or death. The image is cleverly photographed and edited to show the many different layers and complications in the film. The main character is typically placed as the most prominent in the picture. The colour scheme of the picture is mostly blue and white and black which gives a futuristic and technological feel, and also makes the red title stand out.

This poster contains some relevent text to the film. The text is at the top of the poster suggesting that the image is a result of the quote. The text seems to immerge from the clouds. Typically the actor/actress names are placed along the bottom of the poster, they are just above the title making them stand out, as the actors have big fan bases it is important for the success of the film, to have their names visible. As with most movie posters the main character of the film is the closest in the image to the front of the poster. Both inception and the Dark night include skyscrapers in the background of the image. The typical logo for the branded batman is also cleverly placed on the building. The angle of the shot is a low angle shot, so the viewer is looking up at the main character "Batman" showing he is superior to the audience and "superhuman". The Batman logo is also placed at the "golden section" of the poster.

From psycho we are planning on using the idea of a death in shower scene. This poster draws on the most famous aspect of the movie psycho therefore marketing itself typically, the shower picture with her hand on the glass shows she is reaching for help, with the blood on her hands it shows desperation and therefore inticing the audience and suggesting the genre. The title is again apparent at the bottom of the poster along with the release date in red, the black and red colours are typical of the horror genre. The text is very simple and plain which draws the audiences eye to the picture. The picture of the hand is located at the "golden section" of the poster. The title is ripped suggesting destruction.

Thriller murders

Deaths in thrillers are most commonly murder or suicide. By looking into different locations of stereotypical death scenes we can decide where to locate the scenes for which our death scenes will be. Murder scenes are most common in the shower or bathroom almost making this a stereotypical location for a death in films such a Psycho:

Death in a car is also a stereotypical location in films such as Tormented and Texas Chainsaw Massacre:

Another stereotypical location for a death is from tall buildings/heights from which someone could be killed in films such as The Grudge and The Number 23:

Codes and Conventions of Thrillers

The main codes and conventions of a thriller are quite easy to spot.

- There is always a chase of some kind, whether it's obvious or metaphorical.
- The pace of the film is always very very fast, making the chase seem even faster.
- Thrillers are usually set in a city or town, so you expect to see large buildings and lots of people.
- Therefore are therefore men in suits, who are usually portrayed as the "baddies."
- There is surveillance of some kind, usually through cameras, which adds to the audience's fear of being watched, thus adding to the suspense of the genre.
- Thrillers are usually seen as 'masculine' as the men are usually seen as the people in charge and causing the action in the film.


There are also micro-elements within the sub-genres of thrillers. For example, you get guns in crime thrillers, elevators in political thrillers and the colour red in any erotic thriller.


Alfred Hitchcock set the codes and conventions we see in most modern thrillers. His well-known films include The Lodger, Rear Window, North by Northwest, Pscho and The Birds, all of these showing chases, men in suits and surveillance.


We will be analysing many of these films, see how successful they were, as see if we can use some of these original codes and conventions of these thrillers to make our teaser trailer more successful.

More thriller/horror research

More codes and conventions of thriller movies are, not having a steady timeline, so this means including flashbacks and passing of time. Another one is that often in thriller movies, the point of view of the villain is often shown rather than the victim, but most often, both are shown. We will probably put this into our trailer from our idea of having the first scene as a point of view shot from the victim (who is the villain throughout the film).

Our main idea is in the thriller/horror genre, so we've looked into horror too.

-Horrors are designed to panic and frighten the audience, invoke fears (films often relate to everyday situations and places to provoke fear from the audience, such as scary attics and graveyards) also if we show flahses of crime scenes where the teenages die, they would be normal places, such as a bathroom, but with blood and slashes through the shower curtains etc.

-There is always a lead character who is the survivor in the film, if we use our bullying idea, then the survivor would be the victim who turns into the villain.

-In horrors young people are often the main characters, as our main idea is set around schoolyard bullying, our main characters will probably be teenagers.

- Real life news stories also often influence the villains in movies, such as 'Ed Gein,' a serial killer who influenced the characters of Norman from 'Psycho,' Jame from 'Silence of the Lambs' and Leatherface from 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.' Therefore we are going to look into real life bullying cases and victims to help create our characters.

Looking into the codes and conventions of thriller genre

In most thriller films, and their trailers, the codes and conventions of the genre largely depend on quick cut editing to create a fast pace to the movie/trailer, music and lighting is also largely important to create tension, use of light and dark, if used correctly creates a sense of mystery, combined with music can create a very powerful atmosphere, and create unbearable tension and thrill.

Noticable in most thrillers are the use of mirrors,  the different angles used filming this, and the use of a regular household object, and the unexpected appearance of a villian in the mirror creates fear in the real world, making the effect of the movie/trailer even greater.