SECTION 1 THE THRILLER GENRE

The thriller genre in general is greatly misinterpreted and not understood properly. this is mainly because there are so many opinions on what makes a thriller a thriller. Luckily a man called Martin Rubin came along and created a book that includes all thriller writers and what they had to say about what makes a thriller, so basically he just got stuff that other people had said and put it in a book (cheater), so since he didn't put much effort in to writing the book you would of though he would of put more effort into the tittle "thrillers"(wow, how did he think of that one). Anyway that's enough about Martin, he isn't the important one, its what the people inside said that counts, such as:

G K Chesterton

who said :

It is a modern genre (yes well that was obvious)

Not set in the normal countryside landscape but instead set in modern urban cities

It attempts to find the poetry of modern life

Finds excitement in everyday environments (in G K's case at the buffet)

Transforms the ordinary into the extordinary

Northrop Frye

This guy (who looks uncannily like Jerry springer) basically agreed with Chesterton's theory, but added his own ideas as well, such as:

The hero is often just an ordinary person

The audience is happy to believe the extraordinary situations that occur (suspended belief)

It turns the modern city into the "enchanted forest"

John Cawelti

This happy chappy combined Chesterton's and Frye's theory's, he said:

The genre transforms the city from 'a modern centre of commerce, industry and science into a place of enchantment and mystery.'

He said that this was achieved by introducing 'the exotic' into the everyday world, like the board game in Jamange, or introducing a book or a ring or something that makes the character start an adventure.

W H Matthews

Now this guy was obsessed with puzzles, mazes and labyrinths, so he Incorporated this into his theory he talked about:

The image of Theseus descending into the underground maze, full of twists and turns, puzzles and dead-ends.

To design a thriller narrative, add complex twists and turns so that the audience doesn't solve the problem too easily, but it should be designed so that when the audience look back they can understand why that was the outcome.

Pascal Bonitzer

This cool dude basically stole Matthews' theory and re-named it. He said:

Matthews was describing "partial vision" when he advocates mazes

The audience should only see so much

What the audience doesn't see is part of the thrill

The narrative picks a way through the maze.

Lars Ole Saurberg

This person who's name i can't pronounce was interested in concealment and protraction in the thriller genre, he talks about:

• Two ways in which suspense can be added, the first
  

Deliberately hiding something from the audience (concealment)

delaying or protracting an expected outcome

For example in the film Apollo 13 the audience knows that the characters survive, yet they are still on the edge of their seet.

Noel Carroll

The clues are all there, white beard, chubby exterior and the name 'noel', 'Carroll' this guy is definitely Santa. Aanyway Carroll believed in the Question-answer model, he said:

it is important to create questions, which keeps the audience in suspence until they are answered.

will the hero survive?

one factor for creating suspence is a battle against the odds (the probability factor)

the moral factor also increases suspence as it may not be morrally right for the hero to survive

In conclusion the genre of thriller is extreamly hard to define, and now that all the off-shoot sub-genres have appeared, i don't think anyone ever will.