The History of Thriller.

The History of Thriller 

Alfred Hitchcock was a British film director and was known as the'master of suspence' due to his mastry of suspence in thriller films. In 1926, Alfred Hitchcock released his first thriller 'The Lodger', which was a silent thriller based around Jack the Ripper. Thriller films relseased in this time period were thought to be the most key thirller film of our time as used techniques which are widely recognised as the codes and conventions of the thriller genre. For exampe, directors of thriller films used repatition of the codes and conventions which now allow an audience to recognise and identify a thriller genre.   

In the 1940's, Alfred Hitchcock continued to relsease suspence thrillers. For example, 'Foreign Correspondent' (1940), 'Saboteur' (1942), and 'Shadow of a Doubt' (1943). In 1994, an American film director, called George Cukor, released a psychological thriller named 'Gaslight'.

            'Shadow of a Doubt'                                                           'Saboteur'                 

In the 1950's, Alfred Hitchcok made a significant change to the thriller genre as he added technicolour which meant the films were no longer in black and white. Alfred Hitchcock also started casting blondes as the female leads in his thriller films. Consequently, today we still use vulnrable women as the leads in thriller films as they are a conventional character to the genre. Hitchcock made numerous thriller films in the 1950's: for example, 'Stangers on a Train' (1951), 'Dial M for Murder' (1954), and 'Virtigo' (1958). More directed relseased thriller films in the 1950's to the 1960's which implied that the thriller genre was becoming more popular. For example, Orson Welles, an American diretor released 'Touch of evil' in 1958. Through the use of repatition of the codes and conventions in the thriller genre, the audeince became more aware of what to expect in the genre and the directors contiued to set down the codes and conventions when creating their thriller films.

         'Strangers on a Train'                                                                      'Vertigo'                     

In the 1970's and 1980's era, the thriller genre become similar to the horror genre by adding violence to their thrillers. However, the directors still maintained a clear difference between the horror and thriller genre. For instance, Steven Speilburg, an American filmdirector, released 'Duel' in 1971 whioch contained violence. 

                                                                     'Duel'                                                                          

 

In the 1990's a numerous of directors released more thriller films and stook to the codes and conventions of the thriller genre which allowed the audeince to become more familiar and recognise props, shots, and sounds which assosiate with the thriller genre.

• Misery (Dir. Rob Riener, 1990). 
• Sleeping with the Enemy (Dir. Joseph Ruben, 1991). 
• The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (Dir. Curtis Hanson, 1992). 
• Single White Female (Dir. Barbet Schroeder, 1992). 
• Malice (Dir. Harold Beaker, 1993). 
• The Talented Mr. Ripley (Dir. Anthony Mingella, 1999). 

      'Sleeping With the Enemy'                                                         'Misery'                      

During the 21st century, the thriller genre became more similar to the horror genre as thriller films contained more blood, gore and deaths. Additionally, the thriller films also contained codes and conventions of action films. Instead of re-using the same thriller plots over and over again repetatively, the directors decided to modernise the thriller plots. Directors introduced new, modernised thriller plots by involving goverment conspiracy, terrorism, and large worldwide issues.
The thriller genre became extremely popular in the 21st century as more directors relseased more thriller films:
                                                               'Eden Lake'                              

 

• Eden Lake (Dir. James Watkins, 2008).    
• The Last House on the left (Dir. Denis Aladis, 2009)
• P2 (Dir. Franck Khalfoun, 2007).
• Capavity (Dir. Roland Joffe, 2007).
•  Funny Games (Dir. Michael Haneke, 2007).
• Unkown (Dir. Jaume Collet-Serra, 2011).
• Hostage (Dir. Florent-Emilio Siri and Myles Radcliffe, 2005).
• Cellular (Dir. David R. Ellis, 2004).
• A History of Violence (Dir. David Cronenberg, 2005).
• Firewall (Dir. Richard Loncraine, 2006). 

Over the course of time, there has been many changes to the thriller genre. For example, the stereotypical plots, although still used, have a been modernised to include which are relevent to our society today, such as a terrorism or goverment based plots. An example of a goverment based plot would be 'The Purge' (Dir. James DeMonaco, 2013). Lighting and colour effects, such as making rooms more gloomy and shadowy, also became available, which enabled the directors to emphasise the darkness and evilness of the characters and create a more sinister enviroment.

                                                        'The Purge'