Thriller (genre) facts for kids

A thriller is a type of story found in literature, movies, and television shows. It's designed to make you feel excited and a little bit nervous, wondering what will happen next. This feeling is called wikt:suspense. Thrillers often include elements of horror or crime. Some famous thriller movies include Vertigo, Rear Window, and The Birds.

What is a Thriller?

A thriller is a story that keeps you on the edge of your seat. It's all about building suspense, which means making the audience guess and worry about what's coming next. Imagine watching a movie where the hero is in danger, and you're constantly wondering if they will escape. That's suspense!

How Thrillers Create Suspense

Thrillers use different tricks to create this exciting feeling. They might:

• Show a character in danger.
• Introduce a mystery that needs to be solved.
• Make you wonder who the bad guy is.
• Have unexpected twists and turns in the plot.
• Use music and camera angles to make you feel tense.

Common Themes in Thrillers

While every thriller is different, many share common themes. These often include:

• Crime: Stories about detectives solving mysteries, or characters trying to escape criminals.
• Danger: Characters facing threats like natural disasters, spies, or dangerous situations.
• Psychological puzzles: Stories that play with your mind, making you question what is real or who to trust.
• Survival: Characters trying to stay alive against big odds.

Types of Thrillers

There are many different kinds of thrillers, each with its own special focus.

Action Thrillers

These thrillers combine lots of exciting action scenes with suspense. Think of car chases, explosions, and heroes doing amazing stunts while trying to stop a villain or solve a big problem.

Psychological Thrillers

In a psychological thriller, the suspense comes from the characters' minds. These stories often explore fear, guilt, and mental struggles. They might make you wonder if a character is imagining things or if someone is secretly trying to trick them.

Crime Thrillers

Crime thrillers focus on crimes and their investigation. They often involve police, detectives, or even ordinary people trying to solve a mystery, catch a criminal, or escape from one.

Spy Thrillers

These stories are about secret agents, spies, and international plots. They often involve hidden identities, double-crossing, and high-stakes missions to save the world or uncover a conspiracy.

Famous Thriller Examples

Many famous movies and books are thrillers.

• Vertigo (1958) is a classic psychological thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It's about a detective with a fear of heights who gets caught up in a mysterious case.
• Rear Window (1954), also by Hitchcock, is another suspenseful film where a man stuck in a wheelchair thinks he sees a murder happening across the street.
• The Birds (1963) is a horror-thriller where birds suddenly start attacking people without warning.

These examples show how thrillers can use different ideas to keep audiences guessing and entertained.

Images for kids

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  A common occurrence in thrillers is characters being taken as hostages who are to be ransomed. (Hostages, 1896 painting by Jean-Paul Laurens, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon)

See also

In Spanish: Suspenso para niños