Subgenres

Subgenres

A subgenre is a subcategory within a genre.

For the Thriller genre, there are many subgenres that can be included in films. These are combination of two genres but mostly have the Thriller genre. Examples for this are mystery thriller, erotic thriller, psychological thriller, supernatural thriller, techno thriller, crime thriller, action-adventure thriller, disaster thriller, medical thriller and religious thriller.

Another genre which is horror is quite close to thriller genre however they both have different conventions; There are two types of horror which are 'wet horror'. and 'dry horror'. An example of a dry horror film is 'The Shinning'. An example of a wet horror film is 'The Chainsaw Massacre'. A dry horror is more closer to a thriller. A thriller normally concentrates on the narrative and gets the audience to think mentally about the story-plot and characters whereas horror normally shows violence with lots of ‘disgusting’ features and things like blood, gore and unrealistic material therefore is more graphic and the audience feel fear and disgust rather than tension and suspense.

Mystery Thriller
In this subgenre, there is lots of suspense where characters attempt in solving a mystery or track criminals; these would normally be detective and viewers also normally try to solve the mystery as different clues get revealed, however there is normally a surprise as to who the murderer is at the end. Some examples for this subgenre are Chinatown, Vertigo and Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock. Vertigo released in the late 1950s starring James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel and Geddes.

Erotic Thriller
This subgenre comes from erotica and thriller. Some examples of erotic thrillers are ‘Dressed to Kill’ released in 1980, ‘Poison Ivy’ released in 1992 and a ‘Lust, Caution’ released in 2007.

Psychological Thriller
A Psychological Thriller is when characters in the film use mental resources rather than physical; this could be done when the characters play deceptive games. Famous films for this subgenre is by Alfred Hitchcock called ‘Psycho’ ‘Strangers on a Train’. The film Psycho initially had the rating of M (Mature Audience Only) but changed to a rating of R (Restricted) which meant audiences under 18 would require having an adult present/ accompanied when watching the film.


Supernatural Thriller
In this subgenre, there is a lot of suspense and twists, sometimes the characters have psychic/ abnormal abilities. Examples for supernatural thriller are ‘The Sixth Sense’ (1999) which was rate PG13 (Audience must be over 13, ‘Paranormal Activity 2’ (2010) which was rated R.

Conspiracy Thriller
There are many television series and films which use the subgenre conspiracy thriller. One of the oldest films of this subgenre is Foreign Correspondent made in 1940 which was produced by Alfred Hitchcock; it had also been nominated for six academy awards.