Talk:Thriller (genre)/Archive 1

Merge
Is their a need to have this page and Thriller fiction? Whats the difference they both just seem to be two different approaches to the same topic.. its a little confusing. I vote they be merged unless their is a reason not to. Also why is seuxal thriller not mentioned? Is not classed as a *real* thriller? - UnlimitedAccess 16:50, 8 June 2005 (UTC)


 * Merging makes sense. --194.83.200.150 12:02, 3 January 2006 (UTC)


 * Thats stupid, why are there 2 seperate articles anyway? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.71.53.63 (talk) 15:15, 7 February 2006 (UTC)


 * I agree. These days in publishing, there's such a thing as thriller nonfiction, too. So "Thriller" theoretically should be broken into two subjects --- "thriller nonfiction" and "thriller fiction."
 * Right now in Wikipedia, "thriller" covers briefly only fiction. Some is redundant with the content in "thriller fiction," as you point out.  Some of it disagrees.


 * It'd be really useful if someone would do thorough articles on Thriller Fiction and Thriller Nonfiction.


 * That way the "Thriller" article could be a stub directing readers to both thriller nonfiction and thriller fiction.


 * And yes, I agree that anyone who tackles Thriller Fiction should mention all of the subgenres, which include erotic thrillers. Also romantic thrillers, adventure thrillers, legal thrillers, medical thrillers, spy thrillers, military thrillers, etc etc etc.  It will be a real challenge.  The definition at International Thriller Writers website might help — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.6.68.13 (talk) 07:13, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Merging Thriller and Thriller fiction
I am a bit weary of quarrells right now, so I will explain here why I made a major edit. It was suggested by at least three editors that the two articles (Thriller and Thriller fiction) be merged. I placed a tag on both articles in January 2006, and the discussion that followed was scarce, but almost all who had an opinion thought merging was overdue. One editor suggested that thriller be made into a disambiguation page, so as to accomodate "nonfiction thriller", but that can be done with a top links disambiguation. I have now proceeded per WP:BOLD and merged those two articles. I have attempted to leave nothing out, but alas, that was not possible – as I thought some content was errorneous or unnecessary. I also rephrased somewhat so as to make it possible to merge two different articles. It is up to you to reinsert what you believe I have left out .. be bold as well. I would also like to point out that the difference between thriller in literature and thriller in film is entirely perceived, and not an argument against my merging the two articles. And yes, I have too much time on my hands. --Ezeu 13:26, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

Examples --> History
Any objections if I recast the "Examples" section as a (brief) "History of the Thriller" that incorporates some of the same material but has a bit more narrative flow to it? I envision something like this (the bullet points being sub-subsections):


 * Antecedents (pre-1900): Odyssey, Monte Cristo, King Solomon's Mines, Heart of Darkness
 * The Birth of the Thriller (1900-1950s): Erskine Childers, John Buchan, Eric Ambler, Geoffrey Household, Patricia Highsmith
 * The Best-Seller Era (late 1950s-early 1980s): Ian Fleming, Alistair MacLean, Jack Higgins, Robert Ludlum, Desmond Bagley
 * Specialization (mid-1980s-now): proliferation of subgenres . . . Clancy, Harris, Grisham, Crichton, Cornwell(?), etc.

Also: Any objection to similar-but-shorter histories (no subsections) on "The Thriller on Film" and "The Thriller on Television"?

--ABVR 03:24, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

Thrillers - types
I am missing the BUSINESS THRILLER as a genre. Examples the Bonfire of the Vanities, Liars Poker. Gregor Vincent —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gregor Witteveen (talk • contribs) 11:04, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

Technothriller?
I'm puzzled that Michael Crichton is listed as one of the "fathers" of the technothriller. Technothrillers certainly existed before Clancy popularized them--The Penetrators, Fail-Safe, North Cape, Treefrog, to name a few-- but the genre category is more than just "any thriller that has techhnology in it." Crichton's work is, for the most part, out of the technothriller genre-- his early work was medical thrillers (the Andromeda Strain reads as a medical thriller, as does The Terminal Man) and much of his later work is nearly straight science fiction. So I'm going to delete him from that sentence, unless somebody has a good solid reference. Geoffrey.landis 17:46, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Horror Movie Definition/Silence of the Lambs Issue
Either something is wrong with "The main character(s) . . .are or will soon become the victims themselves and directly feel the fear that comes by attracting the monster's attention," or Silence of the lambs is not a horror movie. IMDB says Crime/Thriller. Google says Psychological Thriller. Wikipedia says Horror thriller and contradicts itself. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.80.40.86 (talk) 11:45, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

Characteristics
Something is up here. Too many movies are listed that aren't thrillers. Your confusing thriller with horror. The Ring is not a thriller. Halloween is not a thriller. Friday the 13th is not a thriller. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is not a thriller. Cabin Fever is not a thriller. The genres are similar, but when was the last time you ever heard someone say "Oh, yeah! Halloween! What a great thriller that was!"?--Plasma Twa 2 (talk) 18:43, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

is this even a genre?
do you guys have any proof that thriller is a genre? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Haseo445 (talk • contribs) 15:59, 19 March 2009 (UTC)
 * You may want to look up the meaning of genre. --Ezeu (talk) 16:12, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Deleted some obviously non-thriller examples
Are you guys serious? The epic of Gilgamesh, the Odyssey, Arabian Nights, the Count of Monte Christo and Dracula as examples fo the thriller genre?? I'm sure I'll also find some "thriller techniques" in Goethe's Faust, or maybe in Robert Frost's poems... Please give your example a second thought before adding it! Here a hint: if the word "thriller" did not exist when it was narrated, it is probably not a thriller. --84.173.212.132 (talk) 19:39, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Media
In reading the subgenres section, I've noticed that its heavily biased towards film. For example, the "drama thriller" refers specifically to "drama film", rather than just "drama". And there are similar examples throughout. Yet thrillers can also be books, and maybe other media as well. I don't have time to fix it at the moment, but I thought I should mention it. --TimNelson (talk) 04:37, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Is Lost really a Thriller?
I disagree with the inclusion of Lost being a thriller based television program, especially considering the example suggests the survivors of the fictional plane crash are primarily dealing with the conspiracy of the "others", of which little is known about, and the mysterious smoke monster, both mysteries that have long since faded out. There are now much less thriller elements, so either the article is changed to specify the early episodes of the show as light examples of the thriller-genre, or the example is removeed altogether, since it is more of a sci-fi series. —Preceding unsigned comment added by BillyAtWiiloveit (talk • contribs) 15:03, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Suspense
Basicallyyyyy a thriller is a really scary film which makes you like jump and stuff :) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.168.182.160 (talk) 19:58, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

It is dispicable that there is no differentiation between thriller and suspense films. For movie buffs there is a big difference and being redirected to the thriller page when asking for suspense is an insult to both genres.

(To the author of the above paragraph and everyone else:) What is the difference then? "Suspense film", "Thriller" and "Suspense thriller" - if these expressions don't mean the same, I'm sure many would appreciate definitions.201.218.110.129 (talk) 00:23, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

plagiarism
This article is a mess, and I'm not sure why it even exists, so efforts to clean it up seem pointless to me, however: this passage, The genre is a fascinatingly flexible form that can undermine audience complacency through a dramatic rendering of psychological, social, familial and political tensions and encourages sheltered but sensation-hungry audiences, in Hitchcock's phrase, "to put their toe in the cold water offear to see what it's like." needs to be removed until it's rewritten in a form that doesn't copy verbatim the source identified in the footnote. You can't just footnote something and think you're covered folks. The actual wording belongs to the original author (in this case, Neil Sinyard), not to the editor. Here is the original:

''Recent examples have tended to lack that political and social edge and have been slick but relatively conventional in their dramatic strategies, such as Danny Boyle's Shallow Grave (1994) and two popular gangster-thrillers, Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and Jonathan Glazer's Sexy Beast (2000). Nowadays it is more common to find a good British thriller on television than in the cinema, but it remains a fascinatingly flexible form that, at its best, can undermine complacency through a dramatic rendering of psychological, social, familial and political tensions; and can encourage sheltered but sensation-hungry audiences, in Hitchcock's phrase, "to put their toe in the cold water of fear to see what it's like."'' http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/444810/

Please don't just copy and paste stuff, people. That's a serious copyright violation, and even if the legalities didn't matter, why in the world would you even want to do it? What's the point? And anyway, Sinyard's material is being wrenched out of context He was talking specifically about film thrillers, not "thriller" as an alleged literary genre, as is implied in this article. 72.229.55.245 (talk) 05:05, 28 April 2010 (UTC)


 * In case of a revert or quibbling about plagiarism vs copyright violations (I've been through this before) here is a portion of the terms of service for the site that was plundered:


 * The Materials contained in the Site are either owned by the bfi or have been licensed by the owners to the bfi for inclusion within the Site. Under no circumstances may the Materials contained in the Site be copied, downloaded, reproduced, transmitted, broadcast, distributed or modified in any way, unless otherwise stated in pop-up notices throughout the Site.


 * The whole article should be googled for other copied text. 72.229.55.245 (talk) 05:11, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

Fixing links to dab pages
This article has links to the disambiguation pages tension, excitement, and chase. I don't think these links provide value for this article, but my attempts to remove the links or mark them as needing disambiguation have been reverted. What's consensus here? GoingBatty (talk) 21:35, 24 June 2010 (UTC)

Assessment as Top importance
The assessment as Top importance is inconsistent, it is the only one among the genres.--Sum (talk) 15:27, 23 September 2010 (UTC)


 * I changed it to "High". -- &oelig; &trade; 06:57, 28 September 2010 (UTC)