Thriller Assignment

Thriller's are a genre of film, tv and literature that are one of the most popular and widely respected. With film legends such as Alfred Hitchcock and titles such as The Shining, Shutter Island, Silence of the Lambs and Misery. All these titles are known across the world and have shocked audiences through the decades.
In this essay we will be looking at the codes and conventions used with in this specific genre and how they manage to build the effects and responses they do trough the simplest of means. Thrillers are expert at playing with the viewers mind and emotions. Heightened senses of tension and expectation are common among thrillers, they are generally speaking gritty, dark and face paced. Often with suggestions that the safety of the protagonist are thrown in to nearly unrecoverable doubt. Literary devices such as cliff hangers redherrings and maguffins are commonly put to use throughout the genre. These are all used to throw the viewers sense of understanding and always leaves questions that are sometimes never answered. Throw this all together and the thriller is born.  
Initially i want to talk about the vast range of character types adopted and used within thrillers. In every thriller with out a doubt there will always be a protagonist, this is the main character that the audience feel affiliated with. Generally the protagonist is the "good guy" the item of the antagonists interest and often obsessions. The protagonist is often put through harrowing mental and physical torture in order to fulfill the perverted pleasures of the antagonist.
The simplicity of the protagonist is often not that straightforward. There are a rang of aspects that can add to the effect of the film often by gifting the protagonist a weakness or strength that the audience can feel empathetic or endearment towards. Examples of this would be a handicapped protagonist, such as in Misery, that prevents the protagonist from being at full strength and thus unable to fully defend his or hers self. This automatically puts the antagonist, bad guy, in a position of power. You'll generally find that when a protagonist has been deprived of one skill or ability he or her is often gifted the pleasure of another, this brings us nicely on to our next type of protagonist. The Picaresque this is an aspect of protagonist that is gifted with speech, wit and charm. They have the ability to use this skill to work there way out of problems and temporarily appease there tormentor.
The antagonist is essentially the bad guy, to put it simply. Such as the protagonist there are many different types of antagonist, similar to the protagonist there is the handicapped antagonist in the sense that he is deformed or mentally challenged. An example of the is the medley of obvious mental disorders she seems to accommodates.
Thrillers have a large amount of general conventions that are used to employ suspense and tension. Camera angles and lighting are two of the most useful techniques. Whether thrillers are being shot for film or tv the general rules apply across the board. Lighting has the ability to set tone extremely effectively. Examples of this are evident in thrillers throughout the ages. Quick views are often employed, this is down by having a flash of light in a dark room so you only catch a short glimpse of the antagonist. By doing this you hit home fairly quickly with the audience as its only natural to feel immediate empathy for the protagonist in that situation. This, i think, is one of the things that directors play on the most in thrillers, empathy. Empathy is ingrained in all of us,   by lighting the character from an angel you can achieve a face shrouded in shadow, such a simple technique but adds a huge amount of effect. especially if you feel as though something bad is going to happen to our protagonist you put yourself in their position and feel, to an extent, what they feel.
When you see a character, or not as the case may be, that is only half view-able you immediately begin asking questions. Who is this? why can you only see some of them ? what are they hiding etc etc.
Music is also a key idea used with in thrillers in order to build up suspense again, it assists the theory of "theater of the mind". This is where the audience knows more than the protagonist for example the cat and mouse concept which is often used, split camera shots showing the actions of two people. Often the protagonist trying to escape before the antagonist arrives back to the scene. You are shown the antagonist drawing ever closer without the protagonists knowledge. As i mentioned earlier this is aided with the use of predominately stringed instruments building and then fading away again. If you are an active audience member it is easy to read the tone of the scene simply by listening to the music. If you are a passive audience member the music still plays a pivotal role with out you being fully aware. These theories combined can make for a truly nail biting, chilling scene.

To discuss this i have chosen Misery, 1990, to look at. Directed by Rob Reiner starring James Caan and Kathy Bates in award winning performances, this film was a classic of its time and remains so to this day.
Misery employs a number of the concepts discussed above. Paul Sheldon a coveted author leaving the remote district of Northern Colorado crashes his car on the way back to New York only to be saved by an unidentifiable savior. Immediately the questions begin to get asked, who is that?
Shortly after this scene her identity is revealed to be the seemingly lovely, warm and caring Catholic women in the form of the delightfully rotund Annie Wilkes. She reveals to a bed-bound, battered and bruised Paul Sheldon that his legs are broken in a number of places and that the hospital is out of the question due to closed roads attributed to the very snow storm that sent Paul cascading off the ledge in the first place. Lucky to be alive Paul makes a simple request to phone his daughter and agent, this request is denied due to the phones being down. Paul is assured that as soon as the roads are cleared and the phones are back up he will be on his way to the hospital. But for the moment he is, for all intents and purposes, trapped. Problem numero uno.
Almost instantaneously we identify Paul is the handicapped protagonist. As well as this it is revealed in the following scene is Paul's agent getting on to the towns local sheriff Buster to try and find out where Paul is. This is an example of dramatic irony, the audience has had revealed to them that all is not as it seems. That people are beginning to worry as to his where about. Paul does not know this.
Straight after this scene we see Annie giving Paul a shave, suggesting an amount of time has passed, she is telling Paul how she is his number one fan and that the only reason she was able to save him was because she was following him. She disguises this as normal and almost brushes over it. Which helps the audience not pay to much attention to this comment.
This film uses alot of devices in order to instill fear and suspense into the audience. I personally think the most important of these would be the music they use. It is ever present in even the most, what would at first appear, regular scenes. The thing that's scariest about this film and is accentuated by the music is the lack of stability within the mind of Annie Wilkes and the frailties of Paul's situation.