Media Studies: Book, "Thrillers - Martin Rubin"

A Book written by Martin Rubin, titled "Thrillers" explored the topic of the Thriller genre in film and where it came from. There is also a historical overview of the genre as well as how it's adapted in modern times. There is then a four film analysis of different sub genres in Thriller: A Detective Thriller, A Psychological Crime Thriller, A Spy Thriller and then finally a Police Thriller before drawing conclusions from what is stated in the book.

I will be highlighting some of the main points that I picked up from reading the book and how I can draw comparisons and how it also may help to identify our own short film, If it does not fit into what is considered a Thriller based on the authors own research, then we may have to adapt and change aspects of our film.

One of the first interesting points Martin makes is the confusion that often surrounds the Thriller genre, highlighting the example that Black Widow (1987) was seen as a Thriller whereas an extremely similar film called The Banker (1989) was stated to be a Crime Drama, According to the US TV guide. It then goes onto explain that Thrillers are now often linked to some other sub-genre and that it is extremely rare to find a true "Thriller Thriller" (NB: This means that perhaps adapting our film to a more suitable sub genre of a Thriller-Drama could be seen as both appropriate and infact normal, many other films do this) 

Another aspect of what occurs in Thrillers is the aspect of what happens to Characters, The book states that characters are often swept up in events that they have little control in. When thinking about this, many of the true Thriller films I am aware of do this, For example John McClane in Die Hard, or Teddy Daniels in Shutter Island. In relation to our film I believe we have a much more emotional focus on the characters and their own choices, This again leads me to believe that our film has aspects of Drama in it, which has a priority focus on character development.

There is almost a tribute to the work Alfred Hitchcock "The Master of Suspense" as the author briefly analysis his impact on the development of Thrillers to modern times and how suspense is made from the Audience knowing something the characters don't. This area of the book allowed me to draw comparisons to my own research on Thrillers and my own references to some of Hitchcock's works (Psycho, Rear Window), this is a factor we considered placing in our own film however we appear to have gone for the surprise element with a twist at the end of our sequence, which differs slightly from suspense however it should still have the desired "Thrilling" effect on our audience.

There were varying reviews on Thriller films, however the sub-genres analysed did not fit in with our own storyline, Therefore this allowed me to narrow out the possibility that our film would not classify as the sub-genres stated above (See Highlights).

The author, towards the end of the book concludes by stating the appeal these types of films bring to audiences. Thrillers give audiences an insight of a world which would be unlikely to happen to them, so viewing films of this genre can create a means of escape from their daily life. Rubin recognises that audiences do not watch thrillers to resolve their own problems, they just "Go along for the ride" which in itself gives us a better idea of who our target audience is going to be.

Upon review, The book has allowed me to be able to criticize our own short film and again to raise the question of whether or not our film needs to be narrowed down and expanded into a sub or mixed genre.