Key Conventions of a Thriller and Examples

I examined the techniques filmmakers’ use in their productions to create tension. The two films I used are The Grey and Law Abiding Citizen.

The mise-en-scene is used to create a sense of tension in two very different ways. The setting of Law Abiding citizen is a prison, this creates tension because of the connotations we find with a prison. The other point to this is to emphasize how unlikely the circumstances can be with the amount of prisoners inside the prison. Yet, the producer of The Grey uses isolation to create a great sense of tension in the thriller. The setting in this film is a frozen wasteland, this creates the sense that the protagonists of the film aren’t just running from beings that are living, and they are also trying to survive the possibility of death from their environment. The overall point to the setting of the thriller is to make the audience believe that the environment the characters are in is a dangerous one.

The mise-en-scene through props and costume design is used in the thriller genre to hint to the viewer what is happening next to the protagonist. The producer of Law Abiding Citizen uses weapons to show the next actions to the antagonist’s plans. One example being the bone that he pulls from a steak; it also shows the unpredictability of the antagonist. Whereas the producer of The Grey uses less in terms of props and more in terms of costume, to show the lack of protection the men have. They have no props because they have nothing to defend themselves.  The costumes they have are from the corpses of the crash, this again emphasises this sense of isolation in the film.

The cinematography of Law Abiding Citizen ranges through the techniques that the producer uses. In the beginning we see the main antagonist turn to criminality through the use of close-ups of his face so the audience can see his expression. In the thriller these techniques create empathy for the antagonists from the audience. We also see there is a great range of shot types when showing us the scenery around the events occurring. The Grey too has a great range of shot types, to show the landscapes that the men are in. Here too we also see the close-ups of the protagonists as we watch them evolve through the film.

There is a large use of fast-cut editing to create the sense of tension in the films. When an action sequence is taking place. This shows all parts of the action rather than the action being slow paced. Yet we also see the more calm moments where the editing is far slower. We do not see any montage effects in these thrillers because they are far more focussed on the events surrounding the individuals rather than the whole. 

There is a mixture between diegetic and non-diegetic sounds too, this is to create both a tension that is more human, and another that is being put in by the producer, such as a gunshot. These sounds in the two films are usually distinctive and are signs of threat. The Grey has the non-diegetic wolf-howls, these are loud and give the audience the impression that the protagonists are constantly being stalked. The producer also uses the diegetic sounds such as foot-steps in the snow to imitate the effort that the men have to go through to reach safety. Law Abiding Citizen uses different techniques as the film is set in a busy city rather than and isolated wasteland. The non-diegetic sounds come from the city and explosions that occur when the antagonist instigates another sequence of action. There is also great use of the soundtrack to build adrenaline with the minor key and the crescendo when action is taking place. The diegetic sounds we hear in the film come from the sounds of knifes (when the antagonist attacks a cell-mate), and the reactions people have to the action taking place around them. The sounds used overall only increase this level of tension around the characters involved. 

Most thrillers work around the concept of good vs. evil. They all normally have a typical "good guy" and "bad guy". Yet it is what we see in these characters and how they affect the audience that changes the story of the thriller. In Law Abiding Citizen we can empathise with the antagonist because in his position he wants revenge for what has happened and to a certain extent the main protagonist is somewhat to blame for this. However the producer of the thriller keeps a fine line to the acceptable and unacceptable in terms of morality of the antagonist. We see in The Grey a different scenario where there is no obvious antagonist. There are wolves and the wilderness, yet the thriller is showing another theme which is man vs. nature, instead of a man vs. man situation. This is effective because it allows us to sympathise far more with the protagonists knowing that the situation isn't a past event coming to haunt them, like the events in Law Abiding Citizen.