Iconography, what usually appears in thrillers?

What is iconography?

Iconography is the use of visual images, props and symbols conventional to the genre. The iconography allows an audience to associate with the genre. 

Isolation or confined space  typically composed of low key, underexposed, unnatural lighting, which creates a sense of the unknown within the shadows, alongside an urban stretch of land, particularly surrounded by living plants much like brushes, and trees which would allow the culprit to hide his or hers identity, creating tension as the movie progresses to action, also creating shadows and unfamiliar shapes. The lighting usually is streaming from one small, weak source, to convey a sense of flickering hope, usually a candle, with the danger to easily be disrupted to allow the victim to be senseless. Characters are usually framed alone to reflect upon their vulnerability, without help or not within the range of rescue, which foreshadows further occurrences in the movie leading to typically a murder. Large rundown ghost towns or back alleyways seem particularly a common aspect of thriller as again, the theme of segregation is portrayed. Specifically, historical factors are shown as frightening, containing a past anecdote, now abandoned, holding ghastly figures of the past, with a dark history, much like asylums, haunted houses and run down hotels/derelict buildings. Other locations seen as excluded from publicity are woodland areas, highways, country lanes, cabins, graveyards, basements, attics, planets/space, and underground locations. These are used against deep focus, shallow focus and mostly blurred setting to create mise-en-scene, alongside tilts and whip pans to create a disorderly, distorted tone. These areas are usually shot via an establishing long shot to enable location to be revealed and established, perhaps alongside a filter, either red, green or grey commonly, to connote a different worldly feature or to indicate a sense of danger.

Camera Work is cleverly designed to elicit certain feelings of fear and nightmare. These are not displayed to be natural, as they are very expressive in order to highlight certain emotions. This may be extreme differences from a low angle to a high. Handhelds shots allow the audience to feel great difficulty into knowing the surroundings, therefore building tension and fear of the unknown. This works amongst whip pans, which allow very small parts of setting to be shown, as the camera moves too quickly, conveying a sense of fright and fast occurrences. Point of view shots and reaction shots allow the audience to feel empathy with the characters being in frightening situations or on the other hand, from the culprits eye, with the victim being unaware, showing vulnerability. Using certain techniques, such as depth of field allows the culprit to be shown once closer, and unknown on approach, making the escaping method difficult, therefore creating a terrifying experience. Usually threats not seen on camera tend to be more terrifying, as the viewers create imagery in their minds of what may be behind the camera, again adding to a sense of build up. This may be followed by an eye line match, showing the audience the fear of the victim, allowing them to match their expectations, giving the addictive yet terrifying emotion horror movies do.

Sound (Diegetic and non diegetic) 

Both diegetic and non digetic sound are major aspects of thriller. This is due to sound allowing disturbing and tension adding affects to the movie, for example heart beats, which are diegetic sound, played during the scene to allow a sense of panic, movies of this genre tend to portray. Non diegetic sound would include eerie music playing off the set, allowing a build up of tension, again, which works alongside images and changes between shots, usually used against fast paced editing for the chaotic occurrences, or against slower paced editing for an unsettling torturous feel. This may also be used to scare the audience with a calm atmosphere, then a sudden jump, as shots are put to a faster pace. 



Classic narrative structure allows the typical conventions to be used. For example, the ending is either a cliff hanger, allowing more sequels or franchises to be brought out, or a sense of closure via a death of a character, or what we expect to be a happy ending, then subverting to be that the culprit makes a reappearance. Usually the killer, which is predominantly male, has had an awful past life, as a child, particularly in thriller or slashed movies, or some type of brain disorder, driving them to insanity. This may be a psychotic, medical issue or another issue associated. The main types of characters to appear are: The main protagonist often the victim or hero, the villain normally a serial killer , the stupid character which may be seen murdered first, authority perhaps police officers which tend to turn out to be part of the horrific event, therefore the characters are left helpless. A thriller typically follows Propps theory of having differing actors but following the same structure of characters in a thrilller. Children shown in thriller usually play a more sinister role, being part of a group or vunerable to become part of evil, this is shown in the thriller 'Sinister 2012' ( the trailer is below ). 

Themes may include good versus evil, depression, religion, supernatural, science, nightmares, suicide, teenagers exploring different dangerous areas, insanity or lust.

Weapons are typically sharp or have connotations of death, for example a knife or gun with the ability to inforce an instant death. Different weapons which are less common may include a base ball bat or pipes and other features used in every day life. 

Purposes may vary, for example most crime thriller films are brought to cinemas in order to renovate income as they are some of the highest grossing movies, however thrillers tend to have other purposes too. For example the hype created is a sense of an adrenaline rush, therefore they can become addictive yet frightening to view, this relates to audience theory where an audience may use a movie for their own enjoyment, for example to perhaps highten their moods when they are feeling drained, the movement within a movie may bring them a sense of energy.