MC: What are the conventions of horror, thriller and noir?

Horror Conventions

- Low-key lighting and lighting effects such as white flashes and lightning

- Graphic violence

- Non-diagetic sound:  low drones or suspenseful (strings) music as soundtrack.

- Diagetic: selective sound, classically for door creaks when an individual is cautiously moving. Heavy breathing of the antagonist or emphasised breathing from the protagonist to connote fear.

- It is typical for the main act of violence to happen in the opening sequence as a flashback. 

Thriller Conventions

- The thriller genre has some very typical conventions, being very popular recently in industrial cinema. If we understand the ‘Bourne series’ Bourne Identity (Liman, 2002), this popular blockbuster demonstrates many representative traits of the genre.

- Suspense is used throughout, with a tense atmosphere continually being present. This may be during a carefully executed sniper shot or other scene of action. Films of this genre rely almost entirely on the presence of action. Cinema is an immersive experience, and audiences will experience first-hand action scenes with high adrenaline levels. Other literary devices are utilised, with red herrings and cliffhangers in continuous use.

- There are often male heroes as the starring role, and main protagonist. Stereotypically ‘hard man’ play these roles; habituated to obeying orders and completing extremely dangerous missions, involving violence and assassination. There is always an air of mystery around these characters and they can be seen as an enigma.

- In psychological thriller, other literary devices are used, primarily first person narrative. The protagonist is identified with greatly, with their back-story being dominant; narration by the main character; and a stream of consciousness, which is the individuals point of view demonstrated through different aspects of camera and sound, such as POV shots and dialogue.

- There are multiple subgenres of thriller

- Action Thriller: Bourne Identity (Liman, 2002)

- Horror Thriller: 28 days later (Boyle, 2002)

- Political Thriller: Vantage Point (Travis, 2008)

- Comedy Thriller/Horror: Shaun of the Dead (Wright, 2004)

- Conspiracy Thriller: JFK (Stone, 1991)

- Psychological Thriller: Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960)

Film Noire

Section from 'Double Indemnity' (Wilder 1994)

- In film noir, definable as a style rather than a genre has some very notable conventions too. Faces of characters are often entirely or partially obscured to add mystery around them and continue their suspicious character. Typically, the protagonist is an ‘anti-hero’ and has taken matters into his ‘own hands’. This can be achieved through shooting many scenes at night; this is seen in typical noir, such as Double Indemnity (Wilder, 1944). Lamps are used to keep the shots low key, as well Venetian blinds playing a large role in letting strips of light into a room. This restricts clear viewing of a characters face.

- Trench coats with upturned collars and hats can keep faces obscured too. In Casino Royale (Campbell, 2006), the opening sequence displays Bond in an unconventional way; in a noir light. The audience can see typical noir traits in this sequence. It is shot in black and white, at night; with a lamp being the only (low-key) light source. The cold-blooded killer character, Bond is wearing an upturned-collared coat and has a retrained amount of dialogue.