Thriller Signifiers.

Plot and Narrative:
Mystery and intrigue - keep the audience guessing, draws them in.
A twisting and turning narrative - shock and surprise, makes the film more interesting.
Spiralling narrative - keeps the audience in awe, again, adds interest.
Narrated by a male protagonist? (First Person)
Chases & Pursuits - action and excitement.

Tone and Atmosphere:
Sinister or threatening atmosphere - keeps interest and excitement.
Sexual/Sleaze.
Claustrophobia - introduces fear and worry.

Mise en Scene:
Bleak settings.
Urban.
Rain lashed streets.
Shadows - dark spaces where we can't seem creating mystery.
Set in the night time - more darkness and more shadows, mystery and danger.
Slatted Blinds - introducing shadows again.
Slanting light, creating shadows - connoting mystery.
Staircases - long and winding, no end/fear/anxious.
Enclosed spaces - claustrophobia again, fear and worry.
Chiaroscuro lighting - originated with artwork, includes dark shadows contrasted with bright light.

Characters:
Femme Fatales - red lips, "sexy" clothing - but not revealing, usually "dangerous" and vulnerable.
Hard-boiled detectives - don't like to show emotions, spying and deception included.
Flawed heroes - E.g: Chinatown - acrophobia, other movies the hero could smoke/drink excessively.
Male protagonist - usually a detective, or socially alienated individual.
Women as sex objects.
Police - authority, police are meant to be good, good-cop/bad-cop could come in. Flawed or corrupted police-men?

Themes:
Corruption - fake identities/lies/good-cop gone bad.
Mystery - unknowing circumstances, guessing, intrigue!
Deceit - misleading, falsehood, half-truths and lies.
Sexuality - women using as a weapon.
Women's sexuality as dangerous and destructive - men fighting over a woman? woman using her sexuality to get her way? woman's sexuality destroying evidence or a case against a murder?
Moral ambiguity - who is right and wrong?

Cinematography:
Tilted camera angles - not straightforward, wonky, twisted narrative? suggestive.
Use of vanishing points - roads that vanish in the distance, whats over the horizon? is there more than what appears in the mise-en-scene? creates mystery.
High angle and low angle shots.