History of the Thriller Genre

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock is regarded to as the original 'auteur' of the thriller genre. In his thriller films he would manipulate and exploit his audiences fears, his main techniques were to put innocent people into threatening situations. Hitchcock also played with the hierarchy of knowledge to create unbearable suspense as it waits for the audience.
Hitchcock was often responsible for pulling together all the elements of a plot, music, sound effects, visual effects, rhythm and pace of a film. To create many enigmas in his most famous films by causing mistaken identities, wrongful accusations and wrong choices.

For example in Hitchcock’s "Psycho" the actress in the shower scene is naked and the fact that she is a woman implies she is very vulnerable. His use of piercing pleonastic sound of the violin stabs creates uneasiness also giving extra resonance to the stabbing actions keeping his audience tense.

Psycho shower scene

In this scene we also witness the use of dramatic irony when the masked killer is seen creeping up onto the un-expecting naked woman and the audience know what will happen but the character doesn’t, this is one of Hitchcock’s techniques to produce his famous tension.

Dramatic irony appears elswere in the film for example when the detective enters the bates' house and walks up the stairs. The audience thinks it knows that mrs Bates (the killer) is in the house, but the detective does not. This creates supspence and tension for the audience.

Psycho stairs scene

One other final way that Hitchcock incorporates visual effects to create his thriller genre is the use of certain cinematography techniques such as the ‘Dutch tilt’ or a canted view, where the camera is purposefully tilted onto its side creating a dramatic and unnatural effect.