Th history of thriller and Thriller directors

What is a Thriller? 

Thriller is a type of film genre that usual surprises the audience and creates suspense. Some of its features include cliff hangers and a twist in the plot to excite the audience and to create tension. There are also many sub-genres and hybrids included in the thriller genre. These include crime thrillers, psychological thrillers, action thriller, supernatural thrillers and many more. 

The history of thriller 

One of the first thriller movies was made in 1923 and was called Safety Last by Harold Lloyd.  This film is mainly known for its thrilling climax, a stunt performed on the side of a twelve-story skyscraper above busy city streets. The film was extremely successful and is still viewed as one of the best film of its genre. What makes this film so incredibly popular is the scene in which Harold Lloyd (the protagonist) hangs from a clock holding only just one hand of the clock, dangling above a rather busy street. This scene inspired many other filmmakers as well, in Back to the future Doc, one of the main characters in the plot, is made to hang from a clock. Other films such as Hugo (2011) also used this scene.

Not long after Safety Last, Alfred Hitchcock created The Lodger. This is a silent suspense thriller which was created in 1926. Based on a novel, the plot of the film is to hunt down a dangerous killer. However the wrong man is accused and is made to prove his innocence. With only a £12, 00 budget, the film was given good criticisms and is now one of the most famous and iconic thriller films of all time.

The next thriller film was the well known Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Made in 1931, this thriller film was directed and produced by Rouben Mamoulian and was nominated three times and even won an academy award. After that Alfred Hitchcock grabbed the wheel and ruled the thriller films making over ten films of the thriller genre, including Psycho and North by Northwest.

Iconic thriller directors

A very famous iconic thriller director is Sir Alfred Hitchcock. Alfred Hitchcock was also known as the master of suspense as he was the creator of many thriller films including Psycho, Vertigo and Dial M for murder. These are thriller masterpieces as they include many iconic and famous features such as the spiralling eye and the ever famous shower scene. He also creates a lot of tension and suspense in his films using different camera shots and fast paced music.

In 1940 Hitchcock made his first American movie. Rebecca. It was a psychological dramatic thriller and had a lot of success. It won two academy awards and was nominated eleven times. However this was only the beginning of Alfred Hitchcock’s success.

In 1958 he made Vertigo. This is a psychological thriller film, however critics gave the film mostly negative reviews and critics and so it did not do as well as any other of Hitchcock’s pieces. However many people agree that this film is one of Hitchcock’s classics and should never be forgotten. What is iconic about this film is the infamous spiralling eye during the opening of the film. This is very iconic as Alfred Hitchcock is well known for his spirals and also represents him.

Two years after Hitchcock made Psycho. The film is a suspense horror and won four academy awards along with a brilliant review. The film also holds the very famous shower scene in which a young girl is stabbed repeatedly by a dark, shadowy figure in her shower. In the background there are very loud and sharp violins, composed by Bernard Herrmann, thus creating the perfect suspense and horror scene.

Furthermore, back in the 1960's, violent murders and nude women were uncommon. So this scene undoubtedly surprised and shocked its audience and making it one of the iconic and greatest horror films of all time.

My next iconic director is Steven Spielberg. Spielberg is famous for directing films including Jurassic Park, E.T and Saving Private Ryan. He also produced the famous Back to the Future, Men in Black and Super 8.

Aside from all this, Spielberg also directed Jaws. Jaws is one of the most famous and well known thriller films of all time. Made in 1975, Jaws was one of the highest grossing films of all time and won several awards and very positive reviews. The film is mostly famous for its soundtrack, produced by John Williams who is also the creator of the Jurassic Park, Star Wars and Superman soundtracks. The films soundtrack is partially known for its "DA-DUM", this is a very iconic section of the theme and is used in many other films and is very popular around the world. This is because the soundtrack in Jaws makes the villain (in this case a great white shark) seem unstoppable and powerful.

Jaws is also a very well known thriller because of it editing and effects. Back in the 1970s there wasn’t any special editing equipment that we have today. So they had to make do with a mechanical shark. However the editing and special effects were added and, to the 1970's audience, made a totally "convincing" shark. This then resulted in brilliant reviews and the films great success. It made $470,653,000 at the box office and is still a very popular thriller film today.

My final iconic thriller director is Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino is the director of Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill. Pulp Fiction is a crime film with a lot of rich dialogue humour and violence. It stars John Travolta and Samuel Leroy Jackson. Critics claim that it is a postmodern film while others say it is a black comedy. The film had a budget of 8.5 million and made $212.9 million at the box office. He also directed Reservoir Dogs in 1992. It is an American crime film and was named the greatest independent film of all time. Although many critics disapproved of the film and stated that it was too disturbing to watch, it gained $14,661,007 at the box office and only had $1.2 million budgets.