Aspects of the Thriller Genre

A Noir Thriller: 
This is a cinematic technique used around the 1940s to 1950s period. It uses low-key black-and-white images to give harsh/dark shadows and evoke mystery, adding to the mise-en-scene of the whole film, generally. It is also to create silhouettes and therefore the ease of hiding a person's face in the darkness or giving light to a specific area to put focus onto a certain point and retain the audience's focus on that subject. 


Femme Fatale:
A femme fatale is a mysterious and/or seductive woman whom is subdued by domesticity or marriage, punished or exiled or killed off. This was mainly used in the same classic period as the Noir Thriller (1940s-1950s), but is still used today in films such as 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)'. At the time it was a very crucial shift in the film industry and the social context of the conformities of woman at the time. Historically, women are the mothers and carers, but in these films we are shown that women can be much more, thus breaking the social barrier for women. 


Flawed/ambiguous anti-hero:
This type of hero is an anti-hero because they are reluctant to help people in the first place, but ultimately end up being the hero even if they don't mean to be. 'Gene Hunt' in the 2006-2007 series of 'Life on Mars' was an anti-hero as he was a policeman, but didn't really want to help people. Also these type of heroes are very ambiguous, meaning you can't quite work them out or work out their reasoning and also have flaws themselves - which shows that even people with flaws, such as a drink problem, can also be a hero even if it is reluctantly. This also breaks the traditional values and characterisation of a 'hero'.


Attractive/sympathetic villain:
This is the type of villain that the audience fall in love with even though they know that they shouldn't because they are obviously a villain. This technique would be used to perhaps keep the audience on the edge of their seat because they love and hate the villain. This oxymoron of love hate means the director can evoke deep emotional reactions from the audience if the villain is attractive. Also if the villain is sympathetic the audience becomes sympathetic with the villain themselves which confuses the audience even more because you should side with the good, not the evil, but in some cases you're not sure who is who until the end of the film. 


Generic Characters:
Convicts, criminals, stalkers, assassins, down-on-their-luck losers, innocent victims, prison inmates, menaced women, characters with dark pasts, psychotic individuals, terrorists, cops, hit men, fugitives, twisted relationships, world-weary men and women, femme fatales, psycho-fiends, drug addicts. 


Generic Themes:
Greed, envy, jealousy, terrorism, political conspiracy, pursuit or romantic triangles leading to murder. 


Generic Locations:
Dimly lit often wet narrow streets, alleyways, lifts, staircases, basements, large featureless exteriors, shower cubical, toilets, phone booths, bank safes, interior of cars, car parks, top of a skyscraper, shores, muddy rivers, scrap yards, derelict factories/warehouses, tunnels.