The plot builds keeps the audience at the edge of their seats whilst builiding up to a climax.
Usually take place in ordinary suburbs/cities.
The hero is usually a normal person, who has had danger thrown their way, yet in "crime-thrillers" the hero tends to be a detective or a police officer.
"Thrillers provide ... a ... literary feast. There are all kinds of thriller... with new variations constantly being invented... this openness to expansion is one of the genre's most enduring characteristics. But what gives ... thrillers a common ground is the intensity of emotions they create, particularly those of apprehension and exhilaration, of excitement and breathlessness, all designed to generate ...thrill. By definition, if a thriller doesn't thrill, it's not doing its job." - James Patterson - 2008, "Introduction" Thriller.
A lot of modern thrillers collaborate with the horror genre, they are more sadistic with more gore & brutality (Untraceable, Saw).
Some thrillers over-lap genres (political/psychological).
Conventions:
The locations included can stand as a very important clue as to what the film is about. For example; in American Psycho for example the locations are used to reflect the contrasting civil behaviour with his psychotic personality.
