History Of Thriller
Angela Kibia
Thriller is a genre of film that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as its main elements. Thrillers heighten the viewer's moods, giving them a high level of anticipation, expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and terror.
The first ever thriller made in April 1923 was Safety Last; it was directed by Fred c. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor. Every other thriller film made after this had to have the same elements of this film or it wouldn’t be classified as a thriller. In 1931 came the German film M which was about a criminal deviant – a child killer. This film was based on the life of serial killer Peter Kurten (known as the ‘Vampire of Dusseldorf’). The film M along side The Lodger (1927), directed by Alfred Hitchcock, was one of the first thrillers based on true life events. In 1929 Alfred Hitchcock released another film called Blackmail which was the first sound thriller film and the first sound film made in Britain. Alfred Hitchcock is known to be the director that shaped how thrillers are made today. His films gripped the audience to the reality of danger facing the characters. He often took an average, innocent person and put them in a strange and life-threatening situation (i.e. in 39 steps, 1935). This would capture the viewers as they would relate to the normal character. He would use various cinematic techniques such as the extreme zoom shot of the key in Notorious (1946), the montage in the shower sequence in Psycho (1960) or the heightened of anticipation with long pull-back shot from inside a building to the outside and across the street in Frenzy (1972).
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Ethan Edwards
The genre thriller is portrayed across a range of different forms of entertainment such as films, video game stories and even in television programming. It is a very important genre that many people enjoy to watch and experience. The genre itself uses; suspense, tension and excitement all to its advantage, which are its key elements. Thrillers stimulate the viewer’s mood. It makes the viewer a lot more aware of their surroundings and causes them to concentrate a lot more on what they are watching. The effect it has on the viewer is a mixture of high level anticipation and ultra-heightened expectation. It creates the thoughts and feelings of uncertainty surprises, anxiety and terror.
The main conventions of the thriller genre are adrenaline, rushing, gritty and fast paced. It heightens the narrative and constantly keeps the audience on the edge of their seats. The plot of a thriller always builds to the climax, through constantly using plot twists and cliff hangers. Throughout the thrillers, preferably it is a villain driven plot; it presents obstacles that the protagonist must overcome. Subgenres of thrillers are; psychological thrillers, crime thrillers, erotic thrillers and mystery thrillers. The genre suspense is more of a characteristic of a thriller. Suspense gives the viewer a feeling of pleasurable fascination and excitement. Suspense produces an unpredictable and mysterious feeling during the rousing events throughout the narrative. Suspense builds to a final moment, no matter how large or important it is to the narrative it makes it memorable. It defines the features throughout the narrative/context. It constantly keeps the viewer hooked until the climax is reached; the thrill and amusement of being ‘on edge’ is what constantly keeps them concentrating.
There are many different thriller films produced over time, which all contain different aspects and narratives. A couple of thriller films produced over time are:
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Seven
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Psycho
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Leon: The Professional
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Jurassic Park
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Black Swan
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Taken
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Rear Shadow
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Mad Max: Fury Road
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The Game
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Sin City: A Dame To Kill For
Timeline
Jordan Cassell
Definition of Thriller/Suspense Film Genre: Thriller is a genre of literature, film, videogame stories and television programming that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as its main elements. Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer's moods, giving them a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and terror. Films of this genre tend to be adrenaline-rushing, gritty, rousing and fast-paced.
A thriller usually consists of a battle between the protagonist character and the antagonist, when there is a disruption in the equilibrium. Then the story shows a chain of bad events building tension and suspense for the climax. The aim of the protagonist is to restore justice, while the antagonist seeks to destroy it.
History & Information of the Thriller/Suspense genre: The thriller genre first stepped foot within the film industry in the 1920’s, leading onto Alfred Hitchcock’s first thriller and his third silent film titled “The Lodger” (1926) which was the beginning of many thrillers being produced by him during the 1930’s and 1940’s.
Common subgenres are psychological thrillers, crime thrillers, erotic thrillers and mystery thrillers. Another common subgenre of thriller is the spy genre which deals with fictional espionage. Successful examples of thrillers are the films of Alfred Hitchcock. The horror and action genres often overlap with the thriller. Thrillers tend to be psychological, threatening, mysterious and at times involve larger-scale villainy such as espionage, terrorism and conspiracy.
Zahra Lesforis
Thriller/Suspense is a film genre that involves the audience experiencing the feelings of anxiety, surprise and anticipation from the storyline. It involves a battle between the protagonist and antagonist. They tend to have a mysterious element, with the antagonist’s identity usually revealed gradually throughout the film or kept hidden from the audience until the end. This builds tension and keeps the viewer focused on what is going on. There are many different subgenres such as Crime Thriller, Action Thriller and Science Fiction Thriller, making Thriller a vast genre.
Sir Alfred Hitchcock was one of the first to produce a thriller film, his first film of the genre being The Lodger. Safety Last (1928), M (1931) and Murders in the Zoo (1933) were first ever thriller films. Safety Last, directed by Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor, was about a young man who moves to New York and has the idea of hanging from a building in order to make money. M, a film about a child murderer played by Peter Lorre, was directed by Fritz Lang and based on the life of a real serial killer.
Further thrillers in later history included Gaslight by George Cukor, which was a psychological thriller, The Night of the Hunter by Charles Laughton and Touch of Evil by Orson Welles. All these films repeated the use of particular objects, themes and settings which made these become the codes and conventions of thriller films. It wasn’t until the 1970s that thriller and horror began to intertwine, producing Hitchcock’s Frenzy, Duel by Steven Spielberg and Play Misty For Me by Clint Eastwood. These films all had the key aspect of violence.
The basic storyline of thrillers began to alter in the 21st century, with the introduction of world-wide issues and government conspiracies into the films. Funny Games, The Last House on the Left and Captivity were few of many thriller films that were included in the evolution of the thriller genre.
We used the internet and other resources to research the history of the thriller genre. This gave us insight into its origins. This included research on the first thriller films, the development of the genre throughout the 20th and 21st century and the best directors and producers.