A Good Thriller

What i have noticed is that there is one key difference between a good thriller and an amazing thriller: a good storyline. This seems strange but a good thriller doesn't need an amazing storyline to be successful or even a believable (even within the diegetic world created), all it needs is enigma + suspense - because to me a good thriller keeps you on the edge of your seat right until the very end.

Example: The Omen - Original, 1976
Basically the plot is that a wealthy family's child was switched at birth with the actual offspring of Satan - personally i thought the plot was awful but it kept me interested through out. It did this by having suspense, but also in the way that it created enigma - through hints and clues left throughout the film for the audience to piece together. I particularly love it in films (especially in the SAW series) when you try to second guess the ending, so maybe that's why i liked it, but even so, despite the appalling storyline i still enjoyed actually watching the film.

Now, an amazing film has to have a good storyline - with twists and turns and hints etc as well as lots of enigma and suspense. Examples i love are shown on the right hand side (Primal fear, The Butterfly Effect etc).

So in order for my opening sequence to have the potential to turn into an amazing thriller, it will have to do one of two things:

1. Have an event/conversation which is interesting in itself but doesn't lead onto anything in particular in the reader's mind - e.g. the discovery of a body (without any clues as to who the villain is) as this should disorientate the audience and keep their attention
2. OR, it has to make the viewer read into it in as many different ways as they can, so they are trying to second guess it and make sense of it - e.g. discovery of diary (which of course won't make sense to them at the time, but that would come later on)