Research into the history of Thriller films-Miss Georgiou

Research into the history of Thriller films
02/10/2013
Vasil Nikolov

(Images to support points, info on directors, actors and successful narratives, how will it help me)

Looking into the history of thrillers is a useful thing to know as it is very interesting to see how thrillers have developed over the years. The really old ones seemed unrealistic as technology has improved a lot now, but back then I realise that it would have looked very real and shocked viewers.

 Alfred Hitchcock's first thriller was his third silent film (known as The Lodger (1926)), a suspenseful Jack the Ripper story which frightened the audience using sound techniques, such as non-diagetic sound. Non-diagetic sound is sound that is not part of the film eg. soundtrack, sound effects and voice over. In the film, there is a lot of  music that can be erie in order to surprise the audience from the cheerful music played earlier on. Using this type of music, the audience would experience a shocking sensation as they would be surprised to hear the music change and the events at the same time. This is common for a thriller movie as the sound used in thrillers is to aid the producer to frighten the audience.

Talk about next film Psycho (1960`s)

The next thriller that gave an impact on the genre of thrillers is called Psycho. Psycho is a 1960 American suspense/horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock starring. It was based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch loosely inspired by the crimes of Wisconsinmurderer and grave robber Ed Gein. The film is centered on the encounter between a secretary, Marion Crane (Leigh), who ends up at a secluded motel after filching money from her employer, and the motel's disturbed owner-manager, Norman Bates. 
When originally made, the film was seen as a departure from Hitchcock's previous film North by Northwest, being filmed on a low budget, with a television crew and in black and white. 

Comparedm to "The Lodger", "Psycho" is much more modern as the audience can hear diagetic sounds, such as stabbing, actor`s voices, etc. Also compared to The Lodger, Psycho is breaking the 4th wall rule as he changes the camera angles constantly, in order to provide enough gory detail of the attacks on the victims.

Jaws (1975)

Jaws is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. 

In the story, a giant man-eating great white shark attacks beachgoers on Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, prompting the local police chief to hunt it with the help of a marine biologist and a professional shark hunter. The film stars Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody, Richard Dreyfuss as oceanographer Matt Hooper, Robert Shaw as shark hunter Quint and Lorraine Gary as Brody's wife, Ellen.






hot mostly on location on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, the film had a troubled production, going over budget and past schedule. As the art department's mechanical sharks suffered many malfunctions, Spielberg decided to mostly suggest the animal's presence, employing an ominous, minimalistic theme created by composer John Williams to indicate the shark's impending appearances. Spielberg and others have compared this suggestive approach to that of classic thriller director Alfred Hitchcock.

The shining (1980`s)

The Shining is a 1980 British-American psychological horror film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, co-written with novelist Diane Johnson, and starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, and Scatman Crothers. The film is based on Stephen King's novel of the same name.

A writer, Jack Torrance, takes a job as an off-season caretaker at an isolated hotel. His young son possesses psychic abilities and is able to see things from the past and future, such as the ghosts who inhabit the hotel. Soon after settling in, the family is trapped in the hotel by a snowstorm, and Jack gradually becomes influenced by a supernatural presence; he descends into madness and attempts to murder his wife and son.

 Unlike previous Kubrick films, which developed an audience gradually by building on word-of mouth, The Shining was released as a mass-market film, opening at first in just two cities on Memorial Day, then nationwide a month later.

The actresses who played the Grady daughters, Lisa and Louise Burns, are identical twins; however, the characters in the book and film script are merely sisters, not twins. In the film's dialogue, Mr. Ullman identifies them as "about eight and ten". Nonetheless, they are frequently referred to in discussions about the film as "the Grady twins". The Shining was shot on soundstages at EMI Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, Britain. The set for the Overlook Hotel was then the largest ever built, including a full re-creation of the exterior of the hotel.

From this film, one will use the weapons and how the dialogue is displayed and developed

American psycho (2000`s)

Thrillers now, borrow themes and elements from those in the past, but to avoid repetition, tend to add in aspects of horrors genres, such as sadistic violence/gore etc. This is why often, some people mistake thrillers for horrors. 

As you can see by watching these thriller scenes, the thriller narratives and technology used to make them has developed and evolved very much. I think the old thrillers are very classic and interesting to watch. In 'The lodger' you can see that it's shot in a sepia tone and the characters almost have a glowing outline around them. The characters' makeup looks very subtly gothic, making the film more ominous. The opening of 'Strangers on a train' is very ambiguous and shoots from a high angle only allowing the viewer to see feet walking, this causes curiosity for the viewer and keeps them interested. 'The ward' is very different from the previous two opening sequences and shows a more modern approach to thriller movies. The shattered glass could connote to the reader that the protagonist herself is broken into pieces. This opening sequence, unlike the other two, is shot in colour, reinforcing the difference between old and new thrillers.

In the picture above, the audience would see a list with the top 17 viewed thrillers. As we can see, not all modern thrillers are viewed or liked as much as some old thrillers. For example Seven (which is nominated at 4th place (the film is from1995), while Saw 3D (Filmed in 2010) is listed in 16th place. there might be two reasons for this. The first one is that Saw 3D is almoast brand new film, while Seven is 18 year old. In the gap it has, Seven should have gathered a lot of people to se it, while Saw 3D is just 3 years of age. Then again, the film might have been unpopular with the crowds as films such as Sea of Love from 1989 were came at 12th place.

Another reason why Saw 3D ended in 16th place might be because it is a sequel to 4 saw films. After the original movie, many sequels loose the interest of the audience about the series. A exclusion would be Saw 2 which was ranked in 6th place while Saw 1 was ranked at 13th place.