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.

Research of the Thriller Genre

What is a thriller film?

A thriller is where a single minded goal is relentlessly pursued by a protagonist, in which usually there is an enemy force to fight against creating a fast paced narrative with frequent action. The film should keep the audience on the edge of their seats as the plot builds towards an intense climax, this could be done with literary devices such as suspense and cliff-hangers to achieve a slow build up to the climax of the plot. Horror films are often confused with thrillers, however horrors are more graphic and the audience will feel fear and disgust more than tension and suspense that is required in a thriller.

Horror can be split into dry horror and wet horror and dry horror has more in common with the thriller genre.

Blair witch project is an example of dry horror because the audience does not see anything scary, all the suspense and tension is created by events off screen. This means the blair witch project shares alot in common with the characteristics of a thriller film. Final destination on the other hand is an example of wet horror and its aim is to scare the audience by visual displays of blood and guts.

Thriller and suspense films are synonymous and have interchangeable categorizations. They are types of films known to promote intense excitement, suspense, anticipation, high expectation for the climax, uncertainty and nerve-wracking tension.

Thrillers can come in many forms of sub-genre and hybrid genres and each one has its own individual set of conventions and audience expectations.

Some common thriller sub genres include:

espionage thrillers (james bond from russia with love)

action thrillers (bourne identity)

conspiracy thrillers (the manchurian candidate)

psychological thrillers (silence of the lambs)