Genre

Thriller is a genre of Literature, film and television programming that uses suspense, tension and excitement as its key elements. All thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer's moods, giving them a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and terror. Most films that are involved in this genre always contain the emotion of an adrenaline rush and contain rousing and fast paced tension.

Additionally, a thriller will always provide the sudden rush of emotions, excitement and exhilaration that drive the narrative, most times subtly with peaks and lulls. As well as, at a constant breakneck pace. This keeps the audience on the "edge of their seats", akin to a sensation of hanging from a cliff, as the plot builds towards a climax. Also, a thriller is usually a villain-driven plot, whereby he or she presents obstacles that the protagonist must overcome.

Furthermore, the common sub-genres are the following; psychological thrillers, erotic thrillers, crime thrillers and mystery thrillers. Likewise, another common sub-genre of thriller is the spy genre which deals with fictional espionage. Some of the following are examples of thrillers are the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Equally, the horror and action genres often overlap with the thriller. Nevertheless, thrillers will contain scenes of and tend to be psychological, threatening, mysterious and at times contains large-scale villainy such as espionage, terrorism and conspiracy. Consequently, there are some popular genres in the world of media which are comedy, action, sci-fi, fantasy, horror and thriller.

A certain genre can inform someone of what is going to be involved in a piece of music or film. An example of this can be, movies that keep you on the edge of your seat and make you get scared by having "Jump scares" or give you that "Want to look away" felling, would be categorised into the genre of horror. Nonetheless, movies that get to your emotions are listed as romantic films.