The Thriller

<i>The Thriller: Scripting Seat-Gripping Suspense</i> plumbs nine-score thrillers for recurring features that build nape-prickling heart-pounding suspense. Fodder for analysis embraces domestic and foreign fare classic and contemporary ranging from <I>Ghost Speed Seven Psycho</I> and <I>The Silence of the Lambs</I> to <I>La Femme Nikita</I> and <I>Yogen [Premonition]</I>.<p>Text eschews a connecting-the-dots painting-by-numbers approach in belief that formulas drain the lifeblood of creativity and inevitably spawn a ho-hum product. That said the eight factors culled from the covered films constitute useful tools in the screenwriter's arsenal.<p>Perhaps the best groundwork for a thriller is infiltrating the ATF/FBI/IRA or a brigade of arms-running mercenaries. Short of that watching films and reading scripts will work wonders. In that spirit the book debuts three feature-film scripts for critical scrutiny: mystery thriller Stateline; police thriller Cashing Out; supernatural thriller Birthmarks.