What is a thriller?

In order to shoot the thriller, it was essential to learn what a thriller is and the difference between the thriller and horror genre. A thriller film is designed to keep the viewer on edge with suspense. Thrillers have also been produced for radio, books and television. Thriller is a 'meta-genre' because it is difficult to define as the emotions and reactions come from the experience the audience has of the entire film. The genre of thriller is flexible and ambiguous and can easily cross over with other genres for example, horror. There are many sub-genres of Thriller, for example supernatural thriller, crime thriller etc. The Thriller relies on a detailed plot to create fear, tension and suspense for the audience.

A thriller plays on the audience's everyday basic fears by focusing on the most infantile and therefore repressed thoughts. These thoughts can be voyeuristic, sexual or violent. Thrillers raise questions or Enigma codes in the mind of the audience. Thrillers also have universals themes for e.g. love, death, and money. There is also a sense of delay which is follower by a sense of relief from that tension. However the Thriller genre is sadomasochistic meaning that the audience often enjoys watching the director cause pain and suffering to the characters. Our pleasure is derived from their discomfort. We know this due to the popularity of thrillers. As well as evoking visceral, gut-level feelings rather than more sensitive, delicate emotions, thrillers also create a sense of ambivalence- they feel a sense of identification and sympathy with the hero or victim’s vulnerability.

For example, Flight Plan which is a thriller focusing on abduction of a mother's child on a plane. The tension is built up throughout the film because the child seems to not exists to the other pass angers and staff as she did not have a ticket for the child. This makes the audience believe the women is mentally in and believes she has a child, however there is a sense of relief from the tension when her daughter is found in the plane and has in fact been abducted.
A horror is different to a thriller, in the sense that a horror is intended to scare, unsettle and horrify an audience. A horror film experience is often the intrusion of a disturbing supernatural element into everyday human experience. Horrors have morbid, gruesome, surreal, or exceptionally suspenseful or frightening themes.
Horror often overlaps science fiction or fantasy. Horrors are more visceral meaning the audience get a more immediate reaction of they see on screen.
For example, The Strangers. This is a horror film based on the brutal murder of a couple in their isolated holiday home. The are murdered by strangers from the village in masks. This is horror because although tension is built up, it is through the murders and gruesome scenes. Instead of questions being asked, the audience is horrified by the events in the film.