What the audience would expect to see in a thriller.

Audience Expectations of a Thriller

What would the audience expect:

Within a thriller film, the audience expect the film to meet many conventions. The reason for this is because the conventions of the thriller genre is what makes up the genre itself. If the film doesn't meet the conventions of the genre, then it wouldn't count as a thriller genre, therefore it wouldn't meet the expectations of the audience. An example of a thing that the audience may expect is most likely to be a lot of drama and investigation. The reason for this is because within a thriller genre, there is usually a good person as well as a bad person. The bad person usually does something wrong and it causes investigation by the good person. Another example of something that the audience may expect is a complex narrative. For example, 'North by Northwest,' had a storyline which was complex because it had the audience wondering what was going on due to the fact that one of the characters were identified incorrectly. This is something that is expected within a thriller genre because it creates enigmas for the audience and makes them ask questions.

What the audience would not expect:

I personally believe that in a thriller genre, the audience wouldn't expect anything happy to happen until the end. The reason as to why I would say that nothing good will happen until the end is because at the end, the antagonist would have usually been found or exposed and they usually die in most thriller films. Another thing that I wouldn't expect in the thriller genre is if the antagonist is never revealed. I believe that there is only a certain amount of time in which the antagonist can hide for, I believe that before the end, its important for the protagonist to be revealed.