slow-burn thriller
- noun
- /sloʊ bɜrn ˈθrɪlər/
:
thriller de desarrollo lento
- The director's latest film is a slow-burn thriller that rewards patient viewers with a powerful climax.
Examples
-
Critics praised the novel as a slow-burn thriller that keeps readers on edge without relying on constant action.
-
If you enjoy stories that unfold gradually, you'll love this slow-burn thriller set in rural France.
-
I enjoy a good slow-burn thriller.
-
Have you seen any slow-burn thrillers recently?
-
Critics praised the novel as a slow-burn thriller that keeps readers on edge without relying on constant action.
-
If you enjoy stories that unfold gradually, you'll love this slow-burn thriller set in rural France.
-
The director's latest film is a slow-burn thriller that rewards patient viewers with a powerful climax.
Synonyms
97
3.0
An exciting book or film about dangerous events that keeps you in suspense
Surface Forms
Morphology
slow-burn + thriller
The compound signals a thriller whose tension develops gradually: 'slow' is transparent and 'burn' is used metaphorically to mean gradual intensification, and 'thriller' is clear. A B1 learner who knows the constituent words can probably infer the general meaning from this compositional, metaphorical logic, but the metaphoric use of 'burn' and the fixed collocation make the sense not fully predictable without exposure.
Etymology
Slow-burn thriller comes from the picture of a fire that burns slowly: slow and burn suggest a quiet heat that grows and then suddenly flares. That's why the term describes a story that 'builds suspense gradually' instead of using constant action, with a big, powerful ending.