Thriller Genre & Sub-Genres

Thriller: One that thrills, especially a sensational or suspenseful book, story, play, or movie. (From The Dictionary of the English Language)

Charles Derry was a very famous thriller theorist. He produced the first book that analysed the popular genre of suspense thriller. His research led him to the popular theorist Michael Ballint. Ballint studied the concept of "thrill". He wanted to know why some people liked putting themselves into dangerous situations and others completely avoided them.
As Derry continued to conduct his research he found that it could be split further into six different sub-genres.

1.) Thriller of murderous passions= This is often a love triangle and includes the murder of one member. This is usually has a motive such as passion or greed.

2.) The Political Thriller= This usually has the assassination of a political figure or someone associated with the Government.

3.) The Thriller of Acquired Identity= This is when the protagonist has taken on the identity of another character. This often has implications which in most cases is murder.

4.) Psychosomatic Thriller= In this type of thriller, the protagonist is always the victim and is usually suffering from psychotic effects of trauma.

5.) Moral Confrontation= This is your basic good versus evil. It shows a clash between them and allows us to see their differences. It leads the audience to question who will triumph.

6.) Innocent on the Run= This is pretty self explanatory. This is usually when the victim finds themselves on the run from the villian and the police.

Despite there being six sub-genres, all of these still split up further into hybrids!