Thriller Genre History

Thriller is one of the many genres that is commonly used in film and television. The purpose of thrillers is to create suspense and tension for the audiences making them except something to happen or to keep them on the "edge of their seats". This is similar to horror films which do a similar thing. However, the two should not be mixed up. Thriller relies on suspense and tension, whilst horror whilst it might have certain aspects of thriller, has gore and a lot more blood. Horror can be split up into two "categories" dry horror (close to thriller) and wet horror being the more traditional horror view which has more gore and blood scenes.

History Of Thriller

The thriller film industry mainly came from thriller novels which were adapted in films. The main character of thriller films is usually put into a situation in which to them it seems impossible to escape from the particular situation. Sometimes in the films the character is usually, sometimes unknown to them, put in a situation which unintentionally puts them into a dangerous situation.

Thriller has been around in books since the late 17th century. An early example can be found in the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood. It is about a girl who is stalked by a wolf who wants to eat her,but then eats the grandmother after having found out where she was going. The girl unintentionally told the wolf where she was going and so, put herself in a dangerous situation. This built suspense to audiences and dramatic irony who knew what was happening but were powerless to do anything to try and stop the events from occurring.

        Alfred Hitchcock

In terms of the history for films, the first person to do a thriller film was Alfred Hitchcock. His first thriller film was a silent film called The Lodger, it was a suspenseful Jack the Ripper story based on the latter. This marked the beginning of the thriller genre in terms of films. As time went on Hitchcock continued to create more thriller films, his most famous being the 1960 film Psycho. In it included one of the most famous scenes in the thriller genre which is known as the shower scene. In this scene Hitchcock included a variety of different camera shots, and angles coupled with enigmas to add tension to the scene. For this scene, it marked a beginning in why this scene is so famous. For the first time in film history, it was the first time that a graphic depiction of a murder was ever filmed, coupled with the fact that she was murdered in the shower it shows her vulnerability that she had. This is why Hitchcock is considered the man to start all thrillers due to creating new things which other directors would never have done. Below is the famous shower scene which shows just how graphic and terrifying it was for audiences back in the 1960's.

Thriller Development 

As time has changed the thriller genre has changed slightly. Thriller used to borrow themes from past films. But now recent thrillers to get out of this repetitiveness approach tend to go slightly more into the horror genre, leaning into more violence and blood. A good example of this is Eden Lake which whilst being a thriller film tends to have a lot of elements or a horror film. This is how the thriller genre has changed over time. The trailer below whilst adds tension and constant enigmas throughout, halfway through has a scene of the bloody protagonist where he looks beat up. Due to this not usually have been found in thriller films before  it shows just how much horror is now implemented into them. Thriller age ratings have also been reduced as well. Something that might have been considered to have an age rating of 18 now would be considered to have an age rating of 15 or 12. This is due to the changing audiences attitudes. As time has gone on and thriller has developed people are wanting more and more violence in thriller films leading it to edge into horror.

In terms of the plots, using an example of a crime thriller they are usually revenge or kidnappings most of which the audience can relate to and therefore have an affect on the audience. Red herrings which is when the audience are purposely giving false or mislead information/detail are also commonly used in thriller films. The audience are giving bits of information which lead to the assumption of that person being the culprit. For example, in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho we are made to think that a women was the one who was murdering all of the victims when actually, it was a man. As well as red herrings, the plot usually unravels through the use of playing with our minds, such as stalking when  no one is actually there, or hearing a door slam. All this make the film tense.

The actual overall affect of the thriller movie plays an important part as well. Lighting and music usually play a key part in the film. In the opening of a thriller film the lighting is usually low key with little to no dialogue used at all. The music occasionally has a build up to it, reaching a peak when the climax actually happens.
I will use an example of the opening sequence thriller film Seven (Se7en) to explain this more.

From the clip above, a lot of low key lighting is used which again, as said before creates a part in a thriller film by creating tension. The fact that everything is dark also possibly suggests danger that will approach in this film In this case it creates suspense for the audience in questioning what is going to happen later on in the film. The use of silhouette also helps to create a suspicious character that is possibly going to be emerging. The close ups of certain body parts such as the fingers question what is in his hand and what he plans to use it for. The extreme close ups of the highlighted words transsexual and sexual to the audience suggest that something about those two will possibly appear later in the film and that they have a key part to play. Extreme close ups and enigmas are a key part to play in thriller films as shown by the opening sequence. They create a sense of mystery of what is happening in the situation and can make the audience suspect a character even when that character is innocent. This leads on the the red herring. The score in the opening sequence is very suspenseful and mysterious. For the audience, it would as mentioned before create a sense of fearing what is going to happen next. The score also has certain screeches which like in psycho can make the audience cringe. Overall the clip above uses a lot of low key lighting close ups and an ominous score to get the message that it is a thriller film. All of this i.e. low key lighting and music have a key part to play in terms of how well the opening of the thriller film will be.

Femme Fatale
Another common trait that is found in some thriller films is the use of femme fatales. They are usually a mysterious and seductive type women who men cant resist. Therefore, in terms of thriller she can be seen to be a threat, exposing a potential weakness for the protagonist. In the scene from Vertigo the protagonist is shown to be rescuing the female after she falls into the sea purposefully to get his attention. Here, it could be said that she poses a potential danger for the male protagonist.

Key Sub-Genres In Thriller

In thriller films, whilst thriller is the main genre found within, there are also key sub-genres which are also used. Several examples are potentially: American Psycho (Psychological Thriller), The Interpreter (Political Thriller) and The Others (Supernatural Thriller). Sub-genres are some of the key areas which set one group of audiences from another group audiences (Romantic thriller audiences from Action thriller audiences)

Thrillers are often as well genre hybrids where two different genres are "merged" or referred to in the film. An example of this would be the Science-Fiction thriller film Super 8. All of these aim to create suspense and tension for the audiences.

The use of the low key lighting that is used in the poster of the film also suggests tension and suspicion of what is going to happen. Possible enigmas here are occurring  questioning what they are looking at and what the light is. This is one of the reasons why this is a good example of a sci-fi thriller film.