Audience Expectations in Thrillers

PRIMARY RESEARCH

I asked 20 people to complete this questionnaire, the results were all fairly similar. 

• The audiences expectations of what is conventional in a thriller are very similar to secondary research and the correct conventions.
• Some themes can be misinterpreted with horror, such as the supernatural and jump scares.

I also asked the question alongside whether they enjoyed watching thrillers, and 65% answers yes, which could relate to the accurate answers to what is expected in a thriller.

Thriller film research source

SECONDARY RESEARCH
From this blog post, it is shown that the highest expectations from a thriller film are blood, police and action, which are conventions relating most to crime thrillers such as 'Silence of the Lambs' and 'Memento'. This supports the results of one of the other charts from the source which shows that from the participants, crime thrillers are most watched with 35%, and action thrillers at 30%. The sub genres of action and crime thrillers overlap each other in terms of conventions, and would supposedly create the most suspense and perhaps enigma in narrative.

"A thing that the audience may expect is most likely to be alot of drama and investigation.The reason for this is because within a thriller genre, there is usually a good person as well as a bad person. The bad person usually does something wrong and it causes investigation by the good person. Another example of something that the audience may expect is a complex narrative. . .This is something that is expected within a thriller genre because it creates enigmas for the audience and makes them ask questions."