Thriller
Thriller genre usually revolves around suspense tension. These are the main elements of a thriller genre film. This genre is also has themes of horror. There is another type of thriller that is very common Physiological thrillers, These thrillers play with your minds. Thriller films aim to change the moods of its audience like tension , expectation , suspense and anxiety.
Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock is known as the person who invented the thriller genre. He is known as the master of suspense. He manipulates his audiences fears and desires. He was an expert in playing with peoples minds. He made ''The Lodger '' basing it on 'Jack the Ripper' Murders. His film ''The lodger '' which is a 1927 classic thriller film by Alfred Hitchcock. The story involves around a Psychotic killer who targets young blond women and kills them. This is a silent film which was a hit in the 1920's. In the clip below are the elements that Hitchcock uses suspense , tension and sympathy
Another Hitchcock Masterpiece was Psycho which was more of a Physiological thriller. This films involves a person who dresses up as his mother who is dead and kills people. This film included the horror part in a thriller film. There was a use of blood. This is a black and white film. One of the scenes from this movie is particularly famous 'The shower scene''. The 'shower scene' i when the female character is in the bathroom when the protagonist appears his identity is hidden. He comes in and stabs the female character. This scene is moderately violent and there is a little use of blood.
In the 1940's Director called created another Thriller film that was a big hit. This film was called ''Gaslight''. This film explored the different sub-genre's within thriller genre. This film was about a guy who plot's against her wife to gain her inheritance. The thriller genre developed over the years and become more and more better and started using more elements that complements thriller genre.
In the 1970's thriller films had more violent themes. Alfred Hitchcock made the film called 'Frenzy' . This film was an R rated film ; it had explicit violent scenes. Extreme Strangulation. These films were rated R because of the extreme topics that can exploit people. especially young children's mind can be exploited with these particular scenes.
Over the years the different elements of thriller e.g. suspense , mystery , tension horror , gore etc has become more graphic.
A film called ''They callher one eye ) ( the cruel picture) .This was a Swedish film that evolved explicit content. These films are usually called 'B movies '' as these films have a low budget and they exploit different themes such as sex , violence crime etc to gain attention . This particular film had graphic content regarding rape and revenge. This film was originally 107 minutes it was then banned by the Swedish film censorship board ; this was then cut down to 104 minutes and then to 86 minutes but was till banned for playing. It was then finally cut down to 82 minutes in Sweden as well as USA. The contentof this film was quite explicit.The narrative of this film involves a young innocent girl who is sexually asulted as a young girl. The trauma makes hermute
From the 90's to present day
Thrillers of the 90's and present day have different topics that the thrillers are based on like mental illnesses , obsession and violence. A thriller that turn out to be massive was '' The silence of the lambs '' , This film involved a FBI agent dealing with a cannibalistic Psychiatrist. This films is mixture of thriller horror and crime. This film is known as one of the top thriller films and it received Oscars in the top five categories Best Actor , Best Actress , Best Director, Best Adapted, screenplay and Best film. This film gave the audience list of different conventions of a thriller film and different themes that a thriller can have. This film stars one of the biggest actors living '' Anthony Hopkins '' and is best known for playing the Protagonist in this film. THe content of this film is quite explicit.
Another Modern day film staring Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt which is about two agents trying to track down a serial killer who relates its murder's to the seven deadly sin's.
Thrillers nowadays have conventions that include bloodshed , gore mass murders violence etc. These conventions are used to lure the audience and make them want to desire these themes as this is what people search for in thrillers. Thrillers always have some kind of twists that can change the entire context of the film and the outcome would be different to what the audience imagines.
Nowadays the themes of thrillers are extreme and more descriptive and graphic. The development in technology also plays a big part as it has allowed filmmakers to make more complex films and make these film seem real to the viewers. Most of thrillers today have themes of horror in them as that is what the audience looks for. These films can be based on real life events as well as fiction. These themes are being increased day by day.
Below are some of the best Thriller films
This post shows some understanding of how thriller films have changed and developed over the years. You have included a variety of examples, which helps to show your understanding well.
ReplyDeleteTo make this post more detailed, you need to include more still images and video links to support the examples. You also need to explain in more detail why certain films were rated 'R' by considering the content of the film in further detail.