BRIEF HISTORY AND EXAMPLES OF THRILLER DIRECTORS AND PRODUCERS

HISTORY

One of the very first thriller films was a comic made in 1923 by Harold Lloyd called Safety Last, however, the breakthrough of thriller genres didn't come about until Alfred Hitchcock made films that set the standard of the modern thriller genre.

In the 1970s and 1980s thrillers became very popular, and suddenly the industry had many new directors, for example, Steven Spielberg's Jaws and Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver. It was in the 1990s when crime and mystery thrillers became more popular with serial killers and investigations.

Thriller films have always had a recurring change in camera angles, they use scores and soundtracks to raise the tension and suspense within a scene.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK

He had a distinctive and recognisable directional style. He was very clever in the way he pioneered use of camera movements and framed shots to maximise: fear, anxiety and empathy, he also often used: twist endings, murder and crime.

His film Psycho is one of his best known films. The violence of the shower scene, the early death of the heroine, the innocent lives extinguished by a disturbed murderer became the defining hallmarks of Hitchcock's new horror movie genre and has been copied by many authors of subsequent horror thriller films.

Hitchcock developed the genre and was England’s best director and producer who pioneered many different techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres.

DAVID FINCHER

Brought more money to it.

He is often known for dark thrillers and stylish thrillers, he includes: violent content, resolutions or ‘happy endings’, dark colours/tones and low angles in his thrillers.

He achieved huge success with se7en and panic room.

CHRISTOPHER NOLAN

He redefined thrillers.

He is well known for unconventional and oftenhighly conceptual narratives.

His most well known thrillers include: Batman, Inception, Memento