Characters:
In most typical thrillers there is usually an Innocent victim that is put into a situation that they either can't control and/or are not prepared for, for example 'The Resident' where the Innocent woman gradually realise that her landlord is watching her in the flat she lives in and can't get control of that situation. How ever, there is also the law side of thrillers where they can have the police, FBI, detectives and even politician In some thrillers and not all of them do follow the law, for example in 'Enemy of the State' Will Smith's character is being hunted down by the corrupt government agents, who are presented as the villain. Also when it come to the police as the main characters in thrillers there is sometimes a policemen that acts like the wise one who is very knowledgeable and does things persicly, then you have his/her side kick who is raring to go does things quickly and pays no attention to doing thing 'the right way' and who acts very cocky. This combination of characters is seen with Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitts in 'Se7en'
Theme:
Themes are what the movies narrative is based around. In many typical thrillers the themes are based on obsession and deception and some thrillers can contain both of these themes. For example in 'se7en' the psychotic killer's character in the movie has an obsession with Christ and the 7 deadly sins and then deceives the audience by giving themselves up to the police. However the character that has an obsession in the movie is not always the main character, for example, in 'The Residents' the movie is biased around Hilary Swank's character and the obsessed character (her landlord) slowly comes into the movie as time goes on. Other themes such as jealousy and revenge are not used as often in the thriller genre, but they are found in some movies. These theme are usually put together into the same movie, for example, in 'The Bodyguard' the main character (Whitney Huston) is being stalked by a person is jealous of her fame and wealth and plans there revenge.
Narrative:
In most thriller movies there are a lot of chases and shootouts, but these are all based around a 'race against time' scenario, where the main character has a limited amount of time to figure out the truth or to catch the villain. Films like 'Enemy of the State' is based around this scenario, where Will Smiths character is caught in a situation and has to catch the villain (Politicians) in a limited amount of time. Whereas the film 'Leon' where Natalie Portman's character seek revenge on the enemy with the help of an assassin (Leon) they have a limited time to do this, because the enemy will hunt them down and also because its all gang related there a lot of shootouts and chases between the police, the enemy's and the hero/heroins.
Iconography:
In most typical thrillers you usually have an urban setting, but it's the run down side of life. There is a lot of high tech equipment such as mobiles, bugging equipment, fast and suit up cars and guns also in a typical thrillers. all of this iconography is used in, for example, 'Silence of the Lambs' (Psychological) its set up in an urban setting, that is quite run down and is gun related. also in 'Leon' (Crime) that is based around some very rough streets and is very run down place to live. However not all urban setting are run down. In 'Enemy of the State', (Conspiracy) Will Smiths character lives in a very clean and quite way of life, the house are big and people dress like first class, suits and dresses. Also its very high tech, it has bugging devices, satellite computers and fast suit up cars.
Audio-Visual Style:In most typical thrillers, they mainly use low key lighting to create a very paranoid and gloomy atmosphere, Also a lot of unusual camera angles to create a creepy atmosphere, and to keep the auidence on there feet. They use tense and dramtic music to keep the auidence on the edge of there seats and also it help set the sence of action happing on then screen. However in action thrillers they use a lot of fast paste editing for such thing as shootout, for example, in 'Leon' this creates an element of suspence.
