History of genre: Thriller

Mehbobur Rahman

HISTORY: 1920s Alfred Hitchcock ( 1899 - 1980)

A popular thriller movie(in the 1920s) was called ‘The lodger’; made in 1926 by a man named Alfred Hitchcock. This was one of the three non sounded movies that he created. However, his second thriller movie: ‘Blackmail’(1929) was Alfred’s first sounded movie.

History: 1930sAlfred Hitchcock(continued) Hitchcock’s British movies were: ‘The man who knew too much’(1934), ‘The 39 steps’(his first romantic thriller - 1935) & ‘The Lady Vanishes’(1938).

Alfred was inspired by many movie creators like: Walter Forde, Victor Saville and Michael Powell ect. Many movies were made during the 1920s-1930s but Alfred kept to traditions of the directors by making thrillers which he still carried on making.

Another person who made a popular thriller movie was by Fritz Lang. It was a German Film called ‘M’ and it is about a man who is a serial killer.

History: 1940sAlfred Hitchcock (continued)

Alfred carried on making more thriller movies during the 1940s. He directed many movies like: ‘Foreign Correspondent’(1940), an oscar winning movie ‘Rebecca’(1940) and one of Albert’s favourite movie ‘Shadow of a doubt’(1943) which was based on a true story.

Many movies like ‘The spiral staircase’(1946) was about a serial killer who terrorized a family living in a house. The movie ‘The woman from shanghai night’(1948) was about a number of suspects who were involved in a murder scheme.

History: 1950s Alfred Hitchcock(continued) The new era of movies was not in black and white… it was in colours. So Alfred used colours instead of black & white during the 1950s.

The coloured movies that Alfred created were: ‘Strangers on a train’(1951).This movie was about two killers who were on a train. ‘Dial m for murder’(1954) was about a man who tried killing his own wife.

There were other thriller films like ‘Niagara’(1955) which starred Marilyn Monroe and ‘Kiss me deadly’ which was about a nuclear apocalypse.

History: 1960sAlfred Hitchcock(continued)

Another favorite thriller movie is ‘Psycho’ made by Alfred during the 1960s. This movie contains most generic conventions of a thriller and it is about a mother owns a motel and a stranger who stayed at the motel.

Another famous thriller movie was ‘Repulsion’(1965). It was Roman Polanski’s first English movie and it was about a woman who was psychotic. Also ‘Wait until Dark’(1967) was another favourite and it was about a blind women and a distress man who searches for drugs. The movie was directed Terence Young.

History: 1970s Hitchcock’s ‘R’ rated film was called ‘Frenzy’(1972). It was rated ‘R’ due to its explicit and disturbing scenes. Also Steven Spielberg released his new movie called ‘Duel’(1971) and this movie was about a road between a truck driver and a salesman.

Clint Eastwood’s film ‘Play misty for me’(1971) was about an obsessed fan who was disturbed about his idol. Also ‘Don’t look now’(1973) was directed by Nicola Roeg and it was a very puzzling thriller movie which included a lot of enigma and action codes.

History: 1980s Brian De Palma was a famous film maker and most of thriller film included themes of: paranoia,guilt and obsession. He mostly used a multi-strand, non-linear narrative and some films include Brian killing off his main actors within the movies. Some of the thriller films he created were: ‘Dressed to kill’ (1980) and ‘Body double’(1984).

Another famous director Sam Peckinpah created his last film called ‘The osterman weekend’(1983).

History: 1990s The new era of thriller films started off with the new movie called ‘Misery’(1990) which was directed by Rob Reiner. additional thriller films shown during this era were: ‘The hand that rocks the cradle’(1992), ‘The talented Mr Ripley’(1999) and ‘The unlawful entry’(1992).

NOWThe obsession for thriller movies grew within the 21st century and they are still continuing to grow.

Recent thriller hits were: ‘Animal’(2014) which is about an alien species which terrorises travellers who a camping in the woods. ‘The equalizer’ is about a retired black ops who is troubled but is underestimated.

There are many new hits of thriller movies like: ‘Fast 7’(2015)which is about a black ops who takes revenge for the fall of his brother and this movie mostly includes a road rage. also there are other like ‘Chappie’(2015) and ‘Wild Card’(2015).

Explanation The research that I have found has helped me to plan my film opening. The history of the genre: thriller has really shown me that most movies are about psychos or serial killer who were mostly women. This is a good plan for a movie opening as I would use serial killers for my opening film.

The Initial concept of Thrillers are to make the viewers think more and figure out more puzzles due to the fact that; Thrillers have become as more thrilling and confusing. This is the change over the years from the 1920s to NOW. As technology improves... thriller films have improved. They look more realistic from an audience's perspective but movies from the 20s or 60s would have been a 'Black & White' experience; Thrillers back then would have definitely looked fake.