RESEARCH INTO GENRE AND THE HISTORY

Genre

The genre of our final film idea is thriller. A thriller is a type of genre that is designed to create a feel of suspense within the viewers using sensational and suspenseful action. Thrillers are aimed to thrill the audience-that is to shock and scare but thriller does not include the conventions of a typical horror which are used also to shock and scare. A thriller relentlessly purses a single-minded goal. The aim for Thrillers is to keep the audience alert and on the edge of their seats. The protagonist in these films is set against a problem – an escape, a mission, or a mystery. No matter what sub-genre a Thriller film falls into, it will emphasize the danger that the protagonist faces. The tension with the main problem is built on throughout the film and leads to a highly stressful climax.  

Some sub-genres of thriller films are: Conspiracy thriller which usually consists of some sort of hero who are stereotypically journalists or amateur investigators who find themselves trapped in a very powerful organisation. These thrillers often play with the secrecy of governments and major organisations in history. 

Another sub-genre is crime thriller. The hybrid between crime and thriller has created a more suspenseful account to showing sucsessful and failed crime acts on film. Crime thriller focus more on the criminals and their activities in leading up to the crime . Central topics of the films include serial killers and murderers, robberies, chases, shootouts and double-crosses. 

Disaster thrillers follows a certain groups or persons survival in conflict with natural or artificial disaster like floods, earthquakes, hurricanes or volcanoes. 

A mystery thriller relates a lot to crime thrillers. It focuses mostly on the efforts of the detective or private investigator in order to solve the mystery. It looks at the circumstances of the mystery or crime itself in order to try and figure out what the clues are and the audience usually tries to join in with solving the crime aswell. 

Political thrillers look into the stability of a government and the reliance on a hero who must ensure the stability of the government that employs them in order to prevent bad things happening. 

Psychological thrillers play with audiences minds and produces suspense in film because it reflects the main characters conflict being mental and emotional hindered. It shows the mentality of a character and the thought processes that they go through which makes this sub-genre so suspenseful. 

A religious thriller connects the plots closely through religious objects, institutions and questions. Many religious related films usually unravel the good and bad points about religion in particular the catholic belief. This connoting the good and how it overcomes the bad in films, through a quest to finding out the truth. 

Supernatural thrillers often bring and otherworldy element that shows something out of the ordinary happening to 

a protagonist that has to overcome this powerful factor. This genre is also mixed in with tension and suspense in 

addition to also having unsuspected twist during the film. The protagonist or villains usually have a supernatural 

gift that help them to get to the source of the problem.

Techno thrillers look into the manipulation of sophisticated technology playing a prominent part in taking over the 

world giving the new world order where mankind is over run by robots. This sub-genre is based on fictional 

speculations in life that tend to follow a science fiction trend.

History of Genre

1940's: In the 1940's Hitchcock continued to release films in the suspense-thriller genre which included: Foreign Correspondent(1940), Rebecca(1940), Saboteur(1942) and Shadow of a doubt(1943.) Alfred Hitchcock released his first thriller 'The Lodger', a silent thriller that followed a plot much like Jack The Ripper. The thriller films that were released within this time period could be said to be the most key thriller films produced.



  

1950's:In the 1950's Alfred Hitchcock made a massive change to the thriller genre. He added technicolour to his films and so they were no longer black and white only. He added also glamour by casting blondes to play the leading parts. He released films in the 1950's such as: Strangers on a Train(1951), Dial M For Murder(1954), Rear Window(1954), To Catch a thief(1955) and Vertigo(1958.)

"The Lodger" in technicolour.

1970's-1980's:Thriller films in this era began to move closer to the horror genre by including violence while still maintaining clear differences between the two genres. Some films released in this era were Frenzy, Duel, Dont look now and Play misty for me.

1990's: Films released were Misery(1990), Sleeping with the enemy(1991), Unlawful entry(1992) and Malice(1993)

2000 onwards: During the 21st century the thriller genre moved even closer towards the horror genre. Films contained more blood, gore and deaths. Also combining codes and conventions of action films. Instead of re-using plots from old thriller films they modernised the plots. They did this by adding plots that involved government conspiracy, terrorism and world-wide issues.