Similar Products- A Brief Timeline of the Thriller Genre

Beginnings

‘Thriller’ as a film genre originated, like nearly every film genre, from Literature.

The epic poem ‘The Odyssey’ is considered one of the first Thrillers due to the obstacles placed before Odysseus and the fast paced, sometimes suspenseful and non-linear narrative.

Modern thrillers in Literature include the Da Vinci Code, Rebus novels, The Day of the Jackal etc…

Early Cinema

Early films now considered ‘Film Noir’ have been retrospectively rebranded Thrillers, such as ‘What Women Suffer’ (1911), ‘Safety Last’ (1923) and ‘Laura’ (1944) for complex narrative structures, suspenseful action scenes and defined character roles

However, ‘thriller’ as a film genre was not taken into consciousness until later in the Century

Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock or ‘the master of suspense’ is often seen as a pioneer of modern thriller

Thriller films of his creation include: Psycho (1960), Strangers on a Train (1951) and Vertigo (1958)

Hitchcock was known for using framing and editing in a unique way to convey suspense, thus, amongst other pioneering filmmaking techniques, securing his place as one of the best film directors of all time, and more importantly the father of modern thriller

1970s

The 1970s saw a boom in thriller films after Hitchcock’s success in the 50s and 60s. The filmmaking techniques Hitchcock had pioneered were being brough into mainstream and commercial cinema.

To name a few…

•       1971- ‘Dirty Harry’- Don Siegel

•       1972- ‘Pulp’- Mike Hodges

•       1973- ‘The Day of the Jackal’- Fred Zinnemann

•       1975-  ‘Jaws’- Stephen Spielberg

  1980s

The 1980s are seen as less of a ‘thriller’ period, but in fact, this was the decade in which ‘thriller’ truly branched out into the sub-genres known today, with films such as ‘Cujo’ (1983)  falling into the Horror-Thriller sub genre, and ‘Die Hard’(1988) the Action-Thriller category

The 80s also saw a boom in James Bond movies, with 5 released in the decade

  1990s

The 90s saw such institutionalised classic thrillers as ‘Silence of the Lambs’ by Jonathan Demme, ‘Reservoir Dogs’ by Quentin Tarantino, ‘Se7en’ by David Fincher and ‘The Sixth Sense’ by M Night Shyamalan.

Other notable thrillers included ‘Misery’, ‘Sleeping with the Enemy’, ‘The Usual Suspects’ and ‘Jurassic Park’

The use of special effects became more prevalent and advanced throughout the period

  2000s

The noughties have seen a huge amount of thriller films produced.

The ‘thriller’ genre has become associated with and almost synonymous with blockbusters.

The use of special effects have been further engrained in thriller movies, with filmmakers often now relying on CGI to drive the plot (i.e. Michael Bay)

Notable recent thrillers include ‘Inception’ and ‘The Dark Knight’ by Christopher Nolan, ‘Taken’ by Pierre Morel, ‘V for Vendetta’ by James McTeigue and ‘Black Swan’ by Daren Aronofsky