History Of Thriller Films - Miss Georgiou

History of Thriller Films

The production of thriller films have changed over the years since the 1940's due to the wide variety of developed technology available in the present day. In the 1940's producers didn't have the appropriate equipment required to create advanced and extremely frightening thriller films such as the ones we have now. Some elements that we have now make the production all the more effective to an audience such as media makeup and sound effects and lighting. In the 1940's they relied solely on the sound and editing to make the film seem as frightening as possible.

In the 1940's Rebecca was a thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

"Rebecca" was a 1940's American psychological thriller film that was directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  It was created and produced in 1940 and was released on April 12th 1940. The film is about a women who is tormented by the memories of her new husbands dead first wife. She has to figure out how her husbands first wife mysteriously died whilst also dealing with the highly jealous and obsessed housekeeper who will not except her as the mistress of the house. This narrative is conventional to the thriller genre because it has themes of the unknown and creates an enigma as she needs to understand the murder of an ex wife. This is conventional as it leaves the audience wondering about the characters and their intentions and also makes them anticipate something bad will happen creating a sense of foreboding. Also the fact that there is some type of character who is known to be the antagonist makes this conventional to the thriller genre. This is because we would expect there to be a character that has evil intentions towards one of the character which is usually the victim. Additionally this is expected of thriller films from this early era as they do not have the required equipment to heighten the thriller genre of a film. Therefore including an antagonist in the film this helps to ensure the audience will be scared of this character and also make it clear the film is of the thriller genre. Furthermore the film is in black and white perhaps due to the lack of colour whilst filming and editing at this time. However the lack of colour helps to create an enigma and also creates tension and suspicion. This thriller film was successful as it followed the codes and conventions of a thriller film for example the issue of death and an evil being (the antagonist), this made the audience excited but also scared making them eager to see more and by more copies.

In the 1960's The Housemaid was a thriller film directed by Kim Ki-young.

"The Housemaid" is a 1960's black and white Korean thriller film directed by Kim Ky-young. The story is about a man and his pregnant wife and family who need extra help and decide to hire a maid. The maid and the man begin to have a love affair and the maid begins to turn jealous of his wife. Whilst the wife's pregnancy ends in a miscarriage this results in the maid becoming obsessed with killing the whole family. This narrative is conventional to the thriller genre as the main theme is murder. This is conventional as it makes the audience feel scared of the antagonist and also feel sympathy for the characters who are victims of the antagonist murderer. Alongside murder there will also be blood which is also conventional to the thriller genre because this is a splash of red. Red indicates many different things in the thriller genre such as blood, death, danger and brutality. Another element that is conventional to the thriller genre within this film is the dishonesty of the characters and especially the antagonist housemaid. The two characters the man and the housemaid having an affair is one example of deceit but also the housemaid has also got many secrets. This is conventional because it gives a sense of the unknown to the audience which makes them anticipate something and also gives them a sense of foreboding.

"Dressed to Kill" was a 1980's thriller film directed by Brian de Palma.

"Dressed to Kill" is an 1980's erotic crime thriller film written and directed by Brian De Palma. To summarise the narrative when a prostitute Liz Blake witnesses a mysterious women brutally slay homemaker Kate Miller she finds herself in a difficult situation when the police think she is the murderer but the real killer wants to silence the crimes only witness. With only victim Kate's son Peter believing Liz was not the murderer of his mother they set out to find the real culprit who has an unexpected means of hiding her identity and an evening more surprising motivation to kill. This narrative is conventional to the thriller genre for many different reasons. Firstly the victims in the are all female which is conventional because women tend to be weaker and more vulnerable than men so therefore are usually the victims of male antagonists. However in "Dress to Kill" the antagonist is also female which is slightly unconventional to the thriller genre as females don't usually have the strength and power to overpower other characters to are seemed to have the most power e.g. males or other fictional characters e.g. monster, zombie. Also the antagonist has a hidden identity which is conventional to the thriller genre. This is conventional because it makes the audience feel uneasy about the character as they are unable to engage with the character and build a relationship with them. They are unknown to the characters facial expressions and their intentions which makes the audience anticipate what the character may be up to and this could make them fear the character and feel sympathy for the victims. Another key convention in the scene is the iconography. This is where we see a blade used as a murder weapon. This is conventional because we as an audience understand that this is a murder weapon and it is also linked to the idea of blood as this type of object would cause this. The blade is conventional because it is a sharp object which is not usually known as a murder weapon so therefore this will create questions in the audiences mind and this will create suspense and tension and also a mysterious enigma for the audience. This was a successful thriller film due to its unique narrative and mysterious enigmas created.

"The Cell" is a 2000 thriller film directed by Tarsem Singh.

"The Cell" is a 2000 science fiction psychological thriller film directed by Tarsem Singh. The film is about a psyche who can enter peoples mind. When a serial killer strikes again and a young girl goes missing it is the psyche's chance to go into the mind of a serial killer and try and discover his scheme and where the missing girl and all his victims are. This narrative is conventional as it is quite unique and unrealistic although it used developed technology to make this seem realistic. The narrative also follows the conventions of a male antagonist and female victim which is conventional and is what we expected. However the narrative of the psyche being female and having the power to enter the male antagonists mind and try to stop him shows power and therefore makes her the protagonist which is unconventional as we usually expect this to be a male figure. The film also ends in a death which is also a convention of the thriller genre. This is because we would usually expect death, pain and brutality in this type of genre. Death makes an audience feel sympathy for the characters but also makes them scared as also imagine themselves in the film which makes them all the more frightened as they watch the film themselves. The lighting and editing used in this film has to be heightened to fit in with the narrative as the film also has an element of sci-fi which is more interesting and mysterious for the audience and keeps them on the edge of their seat as they don't know what to expect as anything can happen in the sci-fi genre. This film was successful due to the sub-genre and unique and unrealistic narrative as this makes the audience more excited and the atmosphere more intense as anything can happen with a fictional narrative which would intrigue the audience and make them more eager to watch the film.

The film in the top rated thriller list is "The Purge: Anarchy" . The film was created in 2014 and therefore seems more developed due to advanced technology used within the production of thriller films now. The film had a sub genre of crime and action which would be satisfying for a wider range audience, these type of sub genres would be more interesting for more people and eye catching for both male and females. The narrative of "The Purge: Anarchy" is one night a year where all crime is legal. The narrative follows a group of people who are trying to survive purge night including a highly trained sergeant who is on a mission to find his sons murderer and get revenge. The group have to avoid many obstacles of violent gangs and criminals around the city to try and survive. This type of narrative is conventional to the thriller genre as it is very intense and would keep an audience on the edge of their seat throughout the whole movie as they never know what to expect at any point within the film. Also the main focus of the night is that performing criminal events is legal which means doing bad things to people is acceptable. This will keep the audience aware that anything is possible and therefore will give them a sense of foreboding as they expect the worst case scenario in the film. The narrative itself is unique as we wouldn't usually expect this in a film as most films follow the governments true rules of crime leads to punishment and consequences. This may also attract audiences as they are intrigued to know the lengths of which the characters would go to in a night where all crime is legal. The characters used in the film are also unique as they aren't usually people we would expect to be involved in crime and action movies. These included a mother and her son and also a married couple. The main reasons that the film was such a success was due to the unique yet intense narrative and also the elements of sub-genre used to attract a much wider range of audience.

The film positioned at number 16 is "The Signal". The film was released in June 2014 and has a sub-genre of sci-fi. The narrative of the film is about a group of friends who find themselves in a abnormal alien world after visiting an old abandoned house and experiencing a black out by an unseen force. This type of narrative is quite unusual and would intrigue an audience due to the main focus being on aliens and unknown forces and creatures that some people would like to believe in fact does exist. This would also intrigue an audience as an audience would expect developed and advanced CGI in these types of films and especially including an element of sci-fi as the whole look is expected to be very professional and futuristic. However due to the advanced technology and computer programmes available now a days the production team were able to make realistic models of aliens and alien technology for the film which may have targeted a wider audience and also a niche audience of scientists and also people who are interested in and enjoy the experiment of aliens and the unknown forces and creatures.

The film positioned at number 34 is "Murder 11". The film was released in October 2014. The narrative of the film follows two detectives who are in a race against time to stop a serial killer who is looking to kill his 11th prostitute victim. They only have a limited amount of time until number 11 is killed and the serial killer will be onto the next one, they have to utilize all of their resources and get into the mind of a serial killer to be better than him and save the victims. This type if narrative is interesting for the audience as they begin to understand the cunningness of the serial killer and this makes them intrigued to see if he will succeed and overpower the two detectives or whether they will beat the time and defeat the serial killer. The audience will be on the edge of their seat as they don't know what to expect. The film keeps most secrets a mystery which will make the audience want to continue watching to find out what happens to the characters and whether victim 11 will be saved. Also the focus on time makes the whole narrative more intense as this is the only thing that is a possible obstruction that can stop them for good and destroy their chances of being the protagonists and saving the day. The film has a sub-genre of action and crime so is most likely to be targeted towards an audience who enjoy this and therefore probably have a majority of male viewers over female. Both sub-genres help to keep the audience intrigued and on edge which are conventions of the thriller genre. This will also force the audience to wait and anticipate what will happen in the end of the film. Furthermore the possibility of death in the film is highly possible which is also a convention of thrillers. This is because when we watch a thriller film we expect their to be some type of weapon iconography which is mostly used in the consequence of pain, brutality and eventually death.