A classic of feminist independent film. As with many of her films, Potter places great weight on the idea of looking and being looked at, and the idea of the female quest is important, with a female sleuth trying to understand and revise women's roles in film and other art forms. "Thriller" quotes freely from "La Bohème" and the score of "Psycho" as it examines the sacrifices of their two heroines. Making ironic use of the thriller genre she reconstructs the death of Mimi, linking theories of psychoanalysis, feminism and Marxism. Mimi asks herself, "What if I had been the subject of this scenario, instead of an object?" Potter has stated that the film was intended in part 'to evaluate, and to a certain extent use the power of cinema, rather than deflect it.