What is the thriller genre and how is it different to the action-adventure genre?

What is the thriller genre and how is it different to the action-adventure genre?

The thriller genre aims to keep aims to keep audiences on the edge of theirs eats in film or television. It uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements. Thrillers tend to be adrenaline rushing and gritty and have a sense of realism in them. They also don’t tend to be set in the future but there is the exception of films like ‘Blade Runner’ which is. The genre can be split into many sub genres, which all contain the same elements but rely on a different theme or setting. For example, psychological thriller's focus on the battle between the main characters mental and emotional state as opposed to the conflict between a real antagonistic entities such as a stalker or gang member. Thrillers also usually have a character lead and complex narrative. Like mentioned before, thrillers have a sense of realism as opposed to the action adventure genre which has less realism and has an action lead. The audiences for thrillers would be an adult aged 18 plus males. The lead roles in thrillers have a trend of being males however some directors have female leading roles for example Tarantino has a female lead role in ‘Jackie Brown’ and both of the ‘Kill Bill’ films by doing this Tarantino has challenged the generic representations of females and their roles. By challenging the generic convention this also develops the thriller genre to have more female leading roles rather than males.

The action-adventure genre has a sense of no realism, for example characters usually defy gravity and survive huge falls or get themselves out of very unlikely situations.  They have an action lead and focuses mainly on action such as fighting scenes or car chases. The narrative of a lot of action-adventure films is also linear and they have an action hero. Films such as ‘Quantum of Solace’ and ‘Casino Royale’ are hard to distinguish weather they are thrillers or action-adventure, however one could say they are more towards the action-adventure genre because of the action lead and James Bond being an action hero. Following this the action-adventure genre target audience is about 12-18 boys because of the action and that age group being related to action and video games. Thrillers rely more on dialogue than the action genre.

An example of a thriller would be ‘Shallow Grave’ in which three flatmates discover their new flatmate dead but has a suitcase full of money. The three decide to keep the money and not report their new flatmates death, so dispose of his corpse. 

A clip from 'Casino Royale' which shows how it is nearer to the action-adventure genre than a thriller