Special effects in thrillers, good or bad?

After conducting my previous research on sub-genres within thrillers i found that action thrillers were more popular than any other sub-genre in a film. So I decided to conduct more research into whether this was because of the special effects or because of the film itself. I showed the same 13 students the two new clips.

I predict that the audience will prefer thriller films that have special effects than those that dont display any or no special effects.

I showed another set of video clips this time two, one of an action thriller and another of an independent thriller.

The first film i showed was 'The Bourne Ultimatum'

This is an action thriller with lots of special effects with are eye catching. This clip includes many explosions and car chases, use of guns and car crashes. Its fast paced and fast moving with lots of jump cuts.

The second filmed that was viewed was 'Red Road'

This film on the other hand is an independent thriller with a slower pace and no special effects in which it just follows its main character. More realistic.

Special Effects - 11

No special Effects - 2

This shows that most students preffered thrillers with special effects as opposed to those without special effects. This helps me with my thriller because it means that because people prefer special effects it may mean that in our thriller we shouldnt use special effects which will then mean we are going to be pushing boundaries and forcing different ideas on the audience.