What Makes A Good Thriller Film?

What Makes a Good Thriller Film?

by Danny Whitebread

This question is regularly asked across film database websites worldwide and the answer is usually the same, it is difficult to specify what makes a good thriller film because I think the majority lies with the viewer, what their preferences are? What atmosphere they like? But there are components I think that are needed, maybe not to create a good thriller, but at least make a watchable one.

Firstly a pace needs to be distinguished in the first few minutes of the movie, the protagonist needs to be in some sense of danger at a fast pace to kick start the events later to happen this fast pace needs to be kept throughout the movie, if this is done correctly will draw the audience in and hopefully keep them watching.

All thriller films should have a villain or villainous type character, the antagonist, which should have the balance of power turned in their favour for the majority of the film; this is brilliant at building tension throughout a movie, as the audience have no idea whether the protagonist will survive.

However in order for tension to be built, the audience need to view character growth, they need to view the protagonists strengths, weaknesses, thoughts and feelings, this is to ensure the audience feel empathetic and sympathetic towards the main character in the variety of life or death situations that feature during the film, for example in ‘Taken’ the audience see Liam Neeson’s characters heartbreak when his only child is kidnapped which reveals one of his emotional weaknesses, and gives a sense of vulnerability .

This brings me onto my next point, in order to create a decent Thriller film, there needs to be the risk of death throughout the film, the protagonist needs to be in life or death situations, where survival in only scraped by the skin of their teeth, this is to keep the audience on ‘the edge of their seats’ and what critics call, ‘the white knuckle’ theory, where the audience are so captivated by the film that they feel the anticipation, anxiety and nervousness that the protagonist will feel when he or she’s life is in danger, In the thriller, ‘Panic Room’ featuring Jodie Foster and a young Kristen Stewart, Kristen Stewarts characters life is threatened not only by the men who have broken into her house but also by the fact that her character is asthmatic and during the majority of the film, her asthma pump is not with her causing her to have regular panic attacks and close to death situations.

A great way to captivate an audience during a thriller film is to give them a false sense of security, if the audience are taken on a journey where they don’t know the outcome or when a scene falsely builds up to where the audience think they know the outcome but then the scene dramatically changes, for example in ‘Shutter Island’ featuring Leonardo DiCaprio the twist at the end which shows that Leo’s character is actually not who the audience think he is during the film gives a great finish to this thriller as the audience feel they have been fooled and that they never would have guessed it but then when thinking about it post movie they are able to see how they where misguided.

To finish, all thriller films need a climax after the tension building, this is where sometimes I think many writers, producers and directors go wrong as and the climax is many thriller films almost do not seem worth the amount of tension that was built, for example in ‘Taken’ the audience see Liam Neeson’s character travel across continents for 70 minutes to find his daughter all for a 12 minute climax aboard a boat where everyone dies but Liam Neeson’s character and his daughter, although the rest of the film was high intensity the climax leaves the audience slightly disappointed.