Thriller

Chesterton: The Transformed City.
In the film Seven, some of the shots outdoors in the city are always dark and dull. Mainly raining. These gives us the impression the storyline so far is all negative with the connotations of rain an darkness. Even in the middle if the film the detective's wife breaks down and express's her negative attitude on the city.It is only right at the end of the film however, when the sun comes out and the city looks alot nicer. This is because all 7 of the sins. have been completed and they are getting closer to finding the killer.

Northrop Frye: Northrop Frye’s idea that the victims or hero's of a thriller are usually just ordinary people in everyday life we see that this is very true in the film seven. Mill’s wife is an innocent normal person who is pregnant which just happens to be married to the Mill's who is searching for the killer. Mills to some extent is also just a normal man, his job is too solve crimes but in this case his wife and unborn baby at the end of film are killed due to his job.

John Cawelti: The Seven Deadly Sins. These play a main revolving role around the action and without this the film would be more of a horror than a thriller. The seven deadly sins are a main part of the plot and the idea that people should die for their sins is a key part of the motives of John Doe - the killer.

W. H. Matthews: The main example of a maze/labyrinth area of the film is where Mills is chasing John Doe around the apartment block in and outside. This leads to tension and many areas of climax as you never know where the villain is or where he may appear from. Furthermore there is the overall maze were don't no until the end who the real killer actually is.

Pascal Bonitzer: The partial vision theory is achieved well in this film. The villains name and motives are kept very secret until the very end of the film. Both, the audience and detectives are all very unsure of why the murders are taking place and who is doing them which adds to the thriller greatly as there are questions asked.


Noel Carroll: There are many questions asked through out the film which demand answers that are not always given, or not given until later on. The question for the first half of the film is who is committing the murders and why are they doing it? These two questions are not answered till later on in the film and in the case of who is doing it, the killers identity is never fully revealed to the audience. The other major question is what is in the box, as an audience we never actually find out what or who is in the box. This leads our imagination and questions were asking ourselves to picture what could be in there.


Thriller is a loose genre term referring to any film that generates suspense and excitement as a major aspect of its narrative. A thriller film usually consists of fear, suspense, build up of tension which has an effect on the audience also, can contain blood scenes.

Chesterton - was a man in the 20Th century writer of thriller stories. He argued that thrillers took urban settings and transformed them into exciting locations of dramatic stories eg- batman were it takes an ordinary city like Gotham and changes it into a different different type of world with some obscure characters

Frye - argued that thrillers were stories that took ordinary people and threw them into extraordinary situations. eg - in spider man were the spider bites him and changes his life!

Cawelti - argued that thrillers took elements of ordinary life and added an exotic element eg- just a regular guy like James bond is a secret spy who works for the British government an works with top of the range gad jets.

Mathews - writes about how human beings have a fascination for physical puzzles often seen in mazes and laby. Thrillers often use the idea of mysterious quest in a confined location that feels labyrinth. eg - in the matrix were there is two different types of worlds, an u have to focus throughout the film to understand.

Bontizer - discusses how in thrillers the audience is given a partial view of things with important detail being obscured eg - in the film charlies angels were you never get to see the main boss - charlie but has a key role to play in the film.

Noel Carrol - question an answers argues that thrillers are structured around a series of questions for which the audience is led to answers. scream were there is a series of kills and the audiense is unsure of who the actually killer is

Barthes - analysed all narratives in term of code and operates moment by moment.