History of Thriller Films - Miss Georgiou

In this present time, thriller films have developed since the 1940's because now days we have better technology so we can create more realistic sounds and effects whereas in the 1940's they didn't have the type of technology that we have now so they had to use their own interpretations and voices. Also they hadn't developed make-up at that time so that effects wasn't as realistic as they could be, so now that we have make-up it makes it more realistic which makes the film more horrifying e.g bloods and bruises. In addition directors in the 1940's relied on sound and editing to help the films more scary.

 

In the 1940's the film "Before I Hang" was directed by Nick Grande.

"Before I hang" was an American sci-fi thriller sub-genre. It was created and produced in 1940. The film is about a physician on death row for a mercy killing is allowed to experiment on a serum using a criminal's blood, but secretly tests it on himself. He gets a pardon, but finds out he's become a Jekyll-&- Hyde. This narrative is conventional to the thriller genre as the main character in this film is consistently using blood which is a key convention towards a thriller genre and makes the audience question this behavior and make them curious. In addition, this makes the audience suspicious as why he only uses the blood from criminals and not anybody else. Does he have hate against criminals? Is there any personal reason behind this behavior. This leaves the audience with suspense and a tension that is gradually building up. Furthermore, the use of him secretly testing this experiments on himself discreetly conventional to a thriller genre because this creates enigma as it is mysterious of why he has to do this experiments secretly which builds up the tension and suspense as the audience wonder why he is acting in the manner. Moreover, the fact that he is a Jekyll-&-Hyde displays that he constantly alternating between good and evil behavior which builds up suspense and tension because we do not know why he is acting in this behavior. The constant switching behavior between the two displays that he is clearly hasn't got his mind set and is obviously not being himself which builds up the tension towards the audience as it makes the audience unsteady of what is going through his mind. Furthermore, the clip has no colour as it is in black and white which maybe because at this time there was so colour filming however the loss of colour creates more tension and enigma as the setting is not clear so therefore creates tension towards the audience which is ideal for a thriller genre. The style of the film by including no colour has a bigger impact on the audience as it creates more suspense. The made the thriller successful as the key conventions of a thriller genre were being used in the film as this was one of the very first thriller films to be made and include conventions such as death and blood which made the audience's more eager so sold many copies.

In the 1960's the film "Wait until dark" was directed by Terence Young.

The film "Wait until dark" was created in October 1967 and was directed by Terence Young. Wait until dark is a mystery/thriller play by Frederick Knott. The heroine is recently blind Susy Hendrix, a Greenwich Village housewife who becomes the target of three thugs searching for the heroin hidden in a doll, which her husband transported from Canada as a favor to a woman who since has been murdered. The trio tries to convince Susy her spouse has been implicated in the crime and the only way to protect him is to surrender the doll. More murder and mayhem ensue when she refuses. It was originally produced on Broadway in 1966, and made into a film the next year starring Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin. This narrative is conventional to a thriller genre as it uses a combination of the elements of murder and manipulations which are both key features within the genre. This feature makes the audience feel disgusted as they are taking advantage and manipulating a poor, innocent young female. Furthermore the narrative also consist of a vulnerable female victim who in this case happens to be blind making her chances of becoming in danger higher than a victim who is not blind.In a typical thriller, the victim always tends to a vulnerable female. In addition some of the conventions that can be identified in the sequence is the use of non-diagetic music which can identified once the female victim realises that the phone chord has been cut of by someone and then a loud, haunted, panicking music is played when this moment occurs. This automatically alerts the audience that the chord has been cut of deliberately and that there is someone out there clearly watching her and wants to put her in danger. This makes the audience more alert as they know that she's in great danger as she is vulnerable. Furthermore the music tends to be more deep noted which creates a more tensed atmosphere building up the suspense. To add, the music also speeds up while the victim is panicking turning off all the lights which builds up the tension as this could be parallel to her heart beats as she is clearly scared. More over another convention that is included within the sequence is the use of dark lighting. The purpose of this convention is to display the increase in how vulnerable the victim is as she is now in the dark which makes her more easily targeted and less resistant which put her in a very dangerous position. Furthermore as it is dark, it is easy for someone to approach her and harm her in any way. This makes the audience scared as we panic as we know that she is immediately in grave danger as she is now in the most vulnerable position which makes the audience terrified. This is conventional to the thriller genre as this alone builds up the suspense and tension throughout as we do not know what to expect as we are not able to anything that is happening so it keeps the audience on the edge of their seats which is ideal for a thriller genre. This was a successful thriller as it was an unusual story line which consisted of typical conventions which made the film unique and kept the audience on edge and raised a lot of tension throughout which is key for a thriller genre. 

A film that was made in the 1980's was "Dressed to Kill" which was directed by Brian De Palma, 

"Dress to Kill" was a film produced in 1980 was was directed by Brian De Palma. To summarise the narrative; While taking a shower, Kate Miller who is a middle aged, sexually frustrated housewife who lives in New York City, has a rape fantasy while her husband is standing at the sink shaving. Later on in that same day, after complaining to her psychiatrist Dr. Robert Elliott about her husbands pathetic performance in bed, she meets a strange man at a museum and returns to his apartment where they continue an adulterous encounter that began in the taxi. Before she leaves his apartment, she finds documents which display that the man has a venereal disease. As she panics, Kate rushes into the elevator, but then has to return to his apartment as she realises she forgot her wedding ring. When the elevator door's open, she's brutally slashed to death by a tall blond woman wearing dark sunglasses. Liz Blake, a high-classes girl, is the only witness to the murder and she becomes the prime suspect, and the murderess's next target. Liz is rescued from being killed by Kate's son Peter, who enlist the help of Liz to catch his mother's killer as Detective Marino who's in charge of the case is uncooperative in the investigation. This narrative is conventional to a thriller genre as it is consisting female victims which is conventional as female characters tend to be more weaker making them more vulnerable and easily endangered than male characters. In contrast, the antagonist in this sequence is also a female which is different in comparison to a typical thriller, as the female's don't tend to have the ability to over power other characters so other sequence typically contain either a male or a fictional character e.g monster, doll etc. This convention concept keeps the audience feeling mysterious towards the antagonist especially as an enigma is created because the audience do not know why she is acting in this manner and what her relationship with the victim is, whether there is any bad history between the two females or whether there is a reason this particular female is targeted. In addition, the convention of iconography with a blade occurs in the sequence. The use of the blade is conventional to a thriller genre as it is the iconography that is being used to kill the victims. Furthermore it is also linking the iconography to the use of blood and that is what the blade is creating as a result. This is conventional to the genre as it creates a lot of tension and suspense as we do not know what to expect as we do not know whether the blade is being used on specific people or just random people. Moreover, the blade itself is creating death's as a result and death is one of the conventions to a thriller genre. This use keeps the audience alerted as we do not know the blades targets and who it is intended for. In addition it creates an enigma towards the audience as we do not know the story behind the blade of where its from as it appears to be a razor blade therefore is stolen from someone so this makes the audience more mysterious and questioned which is ideal for a thriller as when their question answers are revealed it will create a shock which is ideal for a thriller genre as it keeps the audience on the edge of their seat. The film was successful as it was based on a unique narrative and there are no thriller's like this so created good rated levels and was successful on the audience expectations as there was a lot of enigma produced within the film which is ideal for a thriller genre. 

A film that was created in the 2000's was "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" (2005) and was directed by Scott Derrickson.

"The Exorcism of Emily Rose" was produced in 2005 and was directed by Scott Derrickson. The narrative of this film is loosely based on a roman catholic church exorcism in 1979. It is based on a true story of Emily Rose, a 19 year old college student who suffers problems of sufficiently ill-defined nature, that medicine and later an actual exorcism fail to cure. The movie refuses to make an explicit statement on whether the problems are psychotic or demonic, and whether the medicine and exorcism are helping or interfering with one another. Her questions unanswered, Emily eventually dies from self injury and malnutrition. The story is told in flashbacks after the priest who performed the exorcism and oversaw Emily's care is arrested on charges of negligent homicide. The flashbacks are told from various perspectives, each providing a spiritual or medical reason for her condition and death. The narrative is conventional to a thriller genre as it uses the convention of possession and manipulation as there is someone try to get inside Emily's body by possessing her. Eventually she dies which is a key convention in the thriller as this is what builds up the most suspense and tension within a sequence as it keeps the audience alerted and on the edge of their seats. Furthermore the narrative consist of a female victim which is typical towards a thriller genre and audience as female are more vulnerable and weak and are less resistant to any harm that comes towards them. This makes the audience feel sympathetic towards the female as we are scared for her and her vulnerability as she can clearly be easily manipulated. In addition it makes the audience more aware of the situation that is going on and keeps the audience on the edge of their seats because they are eager to know what is to come next. Moreover, the sequence consist of fast non-diagetic music which is played in the background. The purpose of this is to keep the audience on edge as this could be representing the panic and heart beat levels which builds up the tension as the audience are now alerted that something bad is going to occur. Furthermore it also keeps the audience's heart racing as they are now on edge because the tension levels are rising and this keeps the audience more interested. This makes the sequence more dramatic and exaggerated which are key conventions within a thriller genre. It also keeps the audience more alerted and aware of the situation. This film was successful as it was based on a true story it questions the audience beliefs in demons and possessions as before this film was produced they may of been people that didn't believe in these but as it's based on a true story the audience question their own belief which also raises the tension levels and creates enigma as a whole.         

The top thriller film in the top rated thriller list is 'The Purge: Anarchy'. This could be because it was created in 2014 so there is more technology so the producers can make the film more realistic with more scary effects which makes it more realistic which then leads to increasing the popularity of the film. This was a top thriller film because it was based around a thriller and action theme at the same time which made it more eye catching to attract more viewers that like those types of genres as it is more satisfying for them. The narrative of the top thriller film following a would-be-vigilante, a married couple stranded in the slaughterhouse of downtown, and a mother and he daughter from the projects, as they all collide in a desperate bid to escape the worst maniacs and predators roaming the streets. But as the nights of horrors continue, the vigilante and his charges begin to realize that The Purge is about much more than the primal release people celebrate. As they begin to understand the designs and intentions behind the blood and chaos, the rag-tag group of survivors find themselves on the front lines of a social revolution. The narrative itself is unique compared to any other film as commonly the use of crime is illegal and consequence's would be given however in this film anyone can do anything they want without getting in trouble which means that an extremely high chance of danger occurring as people are at more risk. This would attract many more audiences as it's a more unique and different in comparison to any other film so the audiences would be more eager and excited as they do not know what they are going to expect. The characters within the film also contribute to the uniqueness of the film as typically the members of a group tend to be similar whereas in this thriller there appears to be a child accompanied with her mother and also there is a married couple which is also unusual as these are people you wouldn't expect to be involved in such a thriller. The general theme of the film is different as this would be an unusual event to take place in reality as they would be severe consequences so this also makes the film unique as audiences want to watch something never seen before which is what they get when they see this. The general uniqueness of this film is what attracts so many different audiences towards this film.


The film at position number 14 is 'Enemy'. The narrative of this film is about a character called Adam who rents a movie and find his reality challenged and potentially even threatened. An actor in the film that he rents looks exactly like him and Adam feels the need to investigate. The narrative for this film is unusual as is consist of an actor representing himself as two different characters which audiences love as it makes the film more interesting to watch. Furthermore the narrative creates an untold enigma at the start because the audience are confused of why there are two of the same characters and this keeps the audience questioned which is ideal as it creates more suspense. In addition, the characters consist of the same actor in two different representations which keeps the audience more interested because they is a more focus included as the audience are eager to educate themselves on the contrast between the two characters. The theme of this film may create slight confusion which is why the film may not be towards the top end of the chart. Furthermore it is more of a mystery than a thriller as it doesn't contain of what a typical thriller would so many not attract as many audiences. The targeted audiences for this film would generally be the ones who like action and mystery combined as this film consist mainly of these two as there is tension being built up from the minute that Adam see's this similar looking character.

The film at position number 34 is 'Murder 11'. The narrative of this film is about a serial killer is loose on the streets of Atlantic City. His 10 victims are prostitutes, his methods are ruthless and yet his motives are unknown. Two embattled homicide detectives, Mayfield and Jessee, are in race against time to catch this killer. They only have a few hours to utilize all of their resources and prevent murder number 11. But with very few leads, very little support and luck playing against them they are in for a long night because being wrong is unforgiving and number 11 is already gone. The narrative for this film is interesting and keeps the audience on the edge of their seat as the audience don't know what is to be expected so keeps them eager to continue watching the film as there is a killer on the loose and two people are trying to prevent this killer from continuing. The characters also keep the audience occupied as it is a 2 versus 1 extremely dangerous character so the audience tension levels rise as we do not know whether the killer is going to be defeated or whether they killer will overpower the two detectives. The targeted audiences for this film are most likely to be towards people who like action and the theme of death as this occurring throughout. Both of these keeps the audience on edge as they is no knowledge of what is to be expected and all the audience can do it wait. Furthermore the theme of death is typical towards a thriller genre and this is seen in a lot of thriller film which could be the reason that the film is towards the bottom of the chart as it is very common and the audiences would rather see something more unusual and unique.