What is a Thriller?

- The themes

The themes of this opening sequence in Saw 1 is a thriller/horror. The mood is set straight from the start of the clip, as it starts of dark, and underwater, with a glowing key being the only light source. The man then awakes from under the water to find himself in a dark and grimy place. This is a convention of a thriller, because it creates a sense of mystery. The audience also hears another voice from across the room before we see his face, creating once again mystery, and possibly fear within the audiences reactions. The lights are then turned on by the only character that has been introduced yet. this differs slightly to normal codes and conventions of a thriller as High Key Lighting is not usually seen in parts when things are meant to puzzle us. Once the light is turned on, the audience can see a dead body on the floor, covered in gruesome blood and gore. This is conventional to some of the more graphic thrillers, and this leaves the audience in suspense.


- Narrative

The narrative in this scene is very conventional to the thriller genre as there are characters that are introduced before they have been identified. Also, the suspense created by the dead body lying on the floor is also very conventional.

- Representation of characters

The characters represented are clearly ordinary everyday men. The first man we come across is in a bath, laying unconscious under water. He then wakes up in a panic and falls out of the bath onto the floor. His movements throughout this entire scene seem very representable of a realistic reaction. He then starts to cry for help, again very realistic, but maybe something with less of a real tone to it, is the calm monatone voice of Dr. Gordon. Dr. Gordon seems far to calm, no matter how long he may have been trapped there, he was in the dark the whole time, and he finally has someone to be scared with, yet he shows no sign of emoiton. He is however sweating a lot we realise once he turns the lights on. They then both see what is lying in the centre of the room, a dead body with a tape player in one hand, and a gun in the other. Again the first man we see,who we find out to be named Adam, has a very realistic reaction, and starts to gag at the sight of this bloody body.Dr. Gordon once again contrasts Adam, as he moves forward to take a closer look, and then simply reclines back to his original position. Adam eventually ends up screaming and sitting on the floor, trying to free himself from the chain by pulling it.


- Audience expectations

The audience would expect the most realistic reactions which they do get from Adam, but not from Dr. Gordon. Once you the first part of this scene is shown, an audience can expect the men to panic, as it would be a very traumatic thing.


- Target audience

This film is rated 18. So the target audience for this would be anywhere from 18-30. It's designed to shock the audiences, and leave you feeling sick. Will often make the audience think or say 'I don't know what I'd do if that was me'. This is a genre that people maybe a little over 30 may find slightly immature, or just something they would not be interested in.


- Shock, surprise and suspense.

The audience is left in complete suspense from the moment the film starts. As it starts with Adam unconscious underwater in the dark. Straight away what we can see from his surroundings, is the bathroom is filthy. We then notice once he has regained consciousness that his leg is chained to a pole, again creating suspense for the audience as they do not yet understand why this is. Shock then comes along once the lights have been turned on, and the dead body is viewable on the floor.






In 'The Book of Eli' the tone is set straight away as the setting is a dimly lit, hallowing old forest. The camera then pans to show a dead body just infront of the camera. Death being a key convention of thrillers, allows us to understand the genre of the film within the opening scene. Then on screen, an small cat appears on screen; something very unconventional to codes and conventions of a thriller, as animals are considered 'cute' and this would not be something expected to be seen in a thriller. The screen then turns to a solitary gas mask, and then in slow motion, and arrow is shot, which then kills the cat. Again using death as a thriller convention.

The character representation in this opening scene is not clear. It differs very greatly from Saw as this has no dialogue whatsoever, and character profile is not developed, so the audience understands very little about the character appearing on screen.

Its hard to decipher exactly what audience expectations should be within this film, but it certainly shows very strong conventions of a thriller, and therefore the audience should possibly expect the film to be dark, and gloomy throughout.

The shock and surprise in this clip may come from the start, when we immediately see a dead body lying on the forest floor, but it is more likely to come upon the death of the innocent cat. This is something completely different to most thrillers, and most likely would not be expected by the audience, therefore creating the element of surprise.