What is Thriller?

A type of film genre that is simply defined to help create thrills and keep the numerous amounts of cliff hangers shown to keep the audience at the 'edge of their seats' as the plot reaches towards a climax. This generally happens if the protagonist is put into a difficult situation, or an escape mission whereby it is difficult for the character to leave. But it could be argued that Vladimir Propp's seven distinctive characters that are presented in all films, including Thriller films therefore the audience is always rooted around these characters rather than always focused on the protagonist.

These 7 features include:

• The Hero- The person who tends to lead the narrative and is seeking out for a specific item or on some form of quest which is succeeded. The Hero tends to be male especially in Thriller films because heroes are of a greater intelligence, skills and are psychically strong which the film industry think it's much more logical if men have that 'hero' role than women because men in nature are risk-takers in nature and much more stronger as well as more capable of doing psychical skills than women. Therefore, the Effects Model(1923- set up by the Frankfurt school) which is a media theory that simply argues that media products has a negative effect(or influence) on the audience as they are left passive and not thinking about the implications of the power it has on them- they wouldn't realise that the fact that men and women in Thriller films are highly differentiated through women being sexualised presents women to only have significance in the film industry if they are shown to be as sex objects, which the passive audience wouldn't subvert against these stereotypes films make.
• The Villain- The person who struggles to eradicate the existence of the hero and tends to be shown as morally bad thus this representation drives the audience away from the Villain whereby they are more likely to support the hero. It could be argued that this creates 'moral panic' as the audience wouldn't want to be evil or breaking binding laws because the Villain tends to be left nothing for all the wrong-doing done throughout the film. A great example of the Villain is the Joker in the Batman series which his crazy nature, his lack of co-ordination of clothes as well as his appearance makes us detest him throughout the series and makes us more eager to watch the fight between Batman vs the Joker- an obvious technique usually used by Thriller films as numerous amounts of scenes of the Villain's plan makes us hate the Villain thus showing the effectiveness of film industry's representation of characters that help prevail a certain type of emotion to the audience.
• The Donor: The person who gives the hero something special to help with the quest which is not always physical. In most Spy-Thriller films, the person who is head of the spy generally gives them a special document that will help with their mission. 
• The Helper: The person who helps supports the hero(similar to donor) who usually appears at the intense moments of the film whereby the supporter gives support and guidance to the hero. The helper can help the hero physically whereby showing that the hero limits physical hero at moments. An example of this is in the Harry Potter series, Ron and Hermione help Harry in most critical moments thus implying that he's not as powerful as some people may think and his successes goes to his helpers also.
• The Princess- The person, generally a female, who could be used in two ways as the princess is generally an object/ reward for the hero's successes whereby she has seen barely in the film, or could be an important character. As argued by Johnny W Unger and Jane Sunderland in the book "Gendered discourses in a contemporary animated film:subversion and confirmation of gender stereotypes in Shrek"(2005, University of Lancaster) that 'a new heroine has been created'(Dundes 2001) whereby Princess Fiona doesn't require any male help and 'when this is offered she rejects it'. Whereas, this contrasts with the representation of the 'Bond Girls' in all the 'James Bond film series' whereby they are shown to be attractive(in the most recent Bond films the females are presented as intelligent) that are all used by James Bond(aka 007) as a sexual object thus conforming the stereotype that the only significance women has is sexually even if they have some masculine traits. Therefore, these two differing views clearly shows that women have some significance sexually or they are real-life representations of 'Princess Fiona' whereby they subvert the stereotypes put on them and make their own meaning to what they personally they think them to be like.
• The Princess' father- The person who gives the task to hero and is seen as a key figure for the hero to persuade and have a good relationship as the father tends to be protective of his daughter which could be in competition with the hero as who the princess would listen to. Vladimir Propp said that they can be hard to distinguish and it is isn't always easy to figure out who exactly who has this role. This role is generally presented in animation films or any films that has a fairy-tale element to it as they generally conform to traditional thoughts and values that the hero must meet the Princess' father in order for him to get married to her e.g. Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Shrek etc. But, the Princess' father could be rescued from her father rather than a hero if he is mentioned, particularly in Thriller films. E.g. this was highly focused in the Taken series, Rape, Commando, True Lies etc. 
• The dispatcher- The person who sends the hero on a mission which may be a family member and can also be combined with another role. But generally with films now, there isn't one dispatcher but various dispatchers that send the hero to different missions. This could be evident in the Hunger Games series where the dispatchers help Katniss in various ways it could be emotionally, physically thus there isn't a 'dispatcher' but rather 'dispatchers'. This is reinforced by the Harry Potter series whereby Harry is send to different missions(even in one film) by different people. 
• The false hero- The person who appears to act heroically throughout the movie, and can be mistaken for the actual hero. This could be clearly evident in the Shrek film series whereby 'Prince Charming' is mistaken as heroic when Shrek is in fact heroic because when Shrek gains full attention and his credibility is reinforced, Prince Charming tries to make Shrek look bad which completely fails. Generally, in Thriller films, if a 'false hero' is shown in the film we would automatically know his true colours therefore this isn't barely used. The reason for this is because films' ending shouldn't be obvious to us through the character types therefore it would be more effective if the representations of these character types aren't that clear to us. This would make the ending of these films more memorable as these age-ranges are far greater than the age range of the Shrek film series. 

Evaluation- what I learnt

During this research of these seven distinctive features of character types, it has helped me figure out how different character types are shown to be and if I should make it explicit their representations in my Thriller opening sequence. The drawbacks and strengths of Propps' character type would be considered thoroughly of whether or not I should incorporate his representation of these character types. The character representation and whether or not I should include all the typical code and conventions of a Thriller film would be considered throughout the research and planning process furthers.