History of a thriller - Miss Georgiou

History of thriller films

Over the years, many different thriller films have been produced and brought to the cinema for audiences to enjoy. No two thriller films are the same, but they all have the purpose of engaging their audiences by providing them with thriller and keeping them on the edge of their seats constantly as the narrative builds up towards its climax. It is usually the when the character(s) are placed in impossible situations that tension within the audience begins to build, and an enigma of whether the character(s) is going to escape beings to surface. The most common sub themes in the thriller genre are crime, psychological, erotic and mystery and revolve around building tension and suspense to keep the audience anticipated and alert while they are watching the film. Thriller films have often been described as disturbing and paranoiac, which is why they tend to be targeted at the older audience. Through the years, thriller films have been developed due to the advancement in the filmmaking equipment, special effects and the overall narratives.


Notorious


The 1940s were a time of war and crisis for Britain, which ultimately led to a change in the British film industry itself. Thriller films were brought to the big screen to show the audience, some of whom had lived through the war, reflections and adaptations of those tragic events that had taken place in Britain. The thriller genre gave directors a chance to take the tragic events that had happened in Britain and turn them into an interesting and enjoyable film for people to watch.



Notorious (1946) is an example of a war based film from the 1940s, that was directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, and tells the story of Alicia Huberman, a woman who is sent to spy on a group of her father's Nazi friends, following his conviction for treason against the U.S. The film itself was made just as the Cold War was beginning and contains some of Hitchcock's most effective camera shots. In the clip from Notorious the age of the film can be seen purely by the fact that the footage is in black and white. The lack of colour in the clip tells the audience straight away that the film is old, and that it was made during a period in time that was less technologically advanced compared to nowadays. The clip that I have chosen from Notorious is the final scene from the film, in which Mr Devlin finds Alicia Huberman in bed, looking as if she is about to die. When he finds her, she then reveals to him that she had been poisoned by another character, Alex Sebastian. The black and white footage naturally creates a low key lighting and dark shadows that most current thriller films purposely try to achieve in order to create an eerie, mysterious atmosphere. The audience cannot see if there is anyone lurking in the shadows, which creates suspense. The clip is conventional to the thriller genre as the suspense created when the character of Alex Sebastian tries to stop Mr Devlin from taking Alicia Huberman to the hospital leaves the audience wondering whether she is going to survive or whether there will be conflict between the two men. This suspense is heightened when Mr Devlin places one of his hands in his pocket and threatens to use his gun on Alex Sebastian if he does not let them leave, which portrays Mr Devlin as the protagonist of the film who is trying to save the female character. In the sequence, sound is used in order to create tension as the eerie background sound that constantly plays, gradually becomes louder as the clip goes on, reaching its peak when the film comes to an end. The audience will react to the change in volume due to it suggesting that something climactic is going to happen but they do not yet know what.

Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock, a British director, has directed and produced some of the most well known thriller films of all time, including his first thriller film The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927). This silent thriller became the basis for all thriller films. He was undeniably a big influence in the thriller genre, introducing many of the conventions that film directors still use today. Psycho (1960) is considered to be one of Hitchcock's best works, described as a 'powerful and complex psychological thriller'. The film was made famous for its brutal shower scene in which the main female character, Marion, is stabbed to death by Norman Bates. It is a typical convention of the thriller genre for the victim to be a female. There are also many thriller films that have disturbing names, a category in which Psycho falls. On the poster for the film we can see an obscured face in the background, this connotes the idea that the character is mentally unstable, and so possibly the antagonist. He looks as if he is lurking behind the female character that is also featured, which suggests that she is his victim but that she does not know who he is. The idea of the antagonists identity being hidden is a convention that is typical to the thriller genre.

Psycho was made during a period where directors were not allowed to show nudity on screen, and in this case, the audience were not allowed to be shown the knife stabbing the victims skin. In order to follow these censorship rules, the film also had to break the 180 rule which states that the director must imagine there is a line drawn between two or more actors and the camera cannot pass it. I have chosen to analyse the shower scene from Psycho, as it is arguably one of the most memorable scenes from within the film. The audience cannot see the identity of the antagonist, which is conventional to the thriller genre as it helps to build tension and also an enigma due to the audience wanting to know who the killer is. Also, the knife is the most important piece of iconography in the scene and is conventional to the thriller genre as stabbing is more physical compared to shooting someone, therefore the scene engages the audience more and becomes more personal.

The Silence of the Lambs

The 1990s are described as the era of mainstream films and 'indie' cinema. The rise of computer generated imagery began and some of the most well known thriller films were produced. An example of this was The Silence of the Lambs (1991), a manipulative, chilling and suspenseful psychological thriller. The narrative follows a young FBI agent who is forced to work with the disturbed serial killer 'Hannibal Lector' in order to find another psychopathic serial killer 'Buffalo Bill'. The film title is unusual, and similar to the film, it makes the audience think. The poster shows us a woman with a butterfly covering her mouth which connotes the idea of mystery and silence, implying that she is the 'lamb'. Lambs can be seen as an easy target, in the way that there is not always a lot they can do to protect themselves from predators, which further implies that the woman on the poster is the victim within the film, a typical convention of the thriller genre as they are usually more vulnerable characters and an easier target for the male antagonist.

In this clip from The Silence of the Lambs, Anthony Hopkins (Hannibal Lector) is sitting alone in his cell, being closely watched by two security guards. The setting itself is enough to suggest that Hopkins' character is a dangerous man, and the sight of him talking to himself implies that he is mentally unstable. The use of a close up can make the audience feel tense and on edge as they will physically feel closer to the antagonist and will feel as though he is talking directly to them. This is conventional to the thriller genre as it builds tension within the sequence due to the audience believing that they are part of the scene and that they are a possible target for the killer. Also, the way that Hannibal Lector kills the two security guards is brutal and violent, and the use of blood emphasises the pain that they are feeling and the force that the killer is using. This is conventional to the thriller genre as it creates shock due to the rapid change in pace within the sequence as Hannibal suddenly goes from being calm to violent, which the audience will find unexpected.

Shutter Island

Thriller films often borrow themes and elements of the narrative from those in the past decades. Many thriller films from the early period of cinema are great influences on those that are being created today. However, in order to prevent repetitiveness, 21st century thriller films incorporate more aspects of the horror genre such as gore, violence and terror to help them create a reaction from the audience. The film Shutter Island (2010) is an example of a 21st century thriller film that has succumb slightly to the horror genre, as shown by the main character, Teddy, who occasionally behaves in a violent manner and lashes out on the characters around him. The film is described as 'one of the most well crafted psychological thrillers since The Silence of the Lambs'. This statement itself tells us that 21st century thrillers are living up to the standards that were set by the thriller films from previous decades.

This clip from Shutter Island happens towards the middle of the film, following the scene where the patients from the most dangerous prison centre on the island escape. The character Teddy is walking through the empty prison cells, holding a match stick as his only source of light. This helps to produce a Low Key Lighting, which is used throughout the clip and is conventional to the thriller genre due to it creating suspense as the audience do not know if he is alone or what is going on in the background. Also, the audience can see that the lights in the prison are faulty, due to them continuously flickering on and off. Typically, this indicates that there is a dangerous presence around which creates tension within the sequence as the only character that the audience can see is Teddy. As Teddy walks further into the prison cell, the audience can hear the sound of water hitting the ground, which is gradually emphasised more as the clip goes on. The sound is used to show the audience how empty and silent the prison is, which implies that he is alone. This further creates shock towards the end of the sequence when Teddy walks past the cells that still have patients in them. One of these patients begins screaming, which is unexpected and therefore causes a jump scare within the audience. This is conventional to the thriller genre as directors want to keep their audience on the edge of their seats, and in the dark about what is going to happen.

The four thriller films that I chose to analyse clearly show that no two thriller films are the same, and that as the years have gone on, the thriller genre has developed and has begun to incorporate more elements from the action and horror genre to make the narrative more detailed and twisted, the characters more deceiving and the films themselves more appealing to watch. The Silence of the Lambs and Shutter Island show the audience much more violence, which alone tells us that censorship eased off after the 1960's and that the development in camera equipment and computers allowed directors to produce their films in colour.

 

 Successful thriller films

Rank	Title (click to view)	Studio	Lifetime Gross /Theatres		Opening / Theatres		Date
1	Hannibal	MGM	$165,092,268	3,292	$58,003,121	3,230	2/9/01
2	The Silence of the Lambs	Orion	$130,742,922	1,642	$13,766,814	1,497	2/14/91
3	Basic Instinct	TriS	$117,727,224	1,884	$15,129,385	1,567	3/20/92
4	Seven	NL	$100,125,643	2,528	$13,949,807	2,441	9/22/95
5	Red Dragon	Uni.	$93,149,898	3,363	$36,540,945	3,357	10/4/02
6	Saw II	Lions	$87,039,965	2,949	$31,725,652	2,949	10/28/05
7	Saw III	LGF	$80,238,724	3,167	$33,610,391	3,167	10/27/06
8	The Bone Collector	Uni.	$66,518,655	2,623	$16,712,020	2,587	11/5/99
9	Saw IV	LGF	$63,300,095	3,183	$31,756,764	3,183	10/26/07
10	The Cell	NL	$61,334,059	2,476	$17,515,050	2,411	8/18/00

Hannibal was the highest ranked thriller film and received $58,003,121 on its opening night. The Silence of the Lambs was the second highest ranked film and only received $13,766,814 on its opening night. These statistics prove that the success of a thriller film cannot be determined by how much money it makes on the opening night, but whether an audience will still want to watch it decades after its release date. The film Hannibal is the follow on from The Silence of the Lambs, suggesting that Hannibal was so successful so quickly due to the popularity that The Silence of the Lambs had already picked up over the years. Having said that, another contributing factor to the success of Hannibal could have been due to the well known actors, such as Anthony Hopkins and Gary Oldman, who played key roles within the film. Red Dragon received $36,540,945 on its opening night, which was the second highest amount out of the ten films on the list. However, Red Dragon only ranked fifth overall. It is clear from looking at the table that some of the thriller films are more adaptable to the new taste of modern viewers and will continue to thrive as time goes on.