Week 13 - Genre analysis - Thriller films

Genre analysis - Thriller Films

Thriller and suspense film are the type that have its main purpose to thrills the audiences out with intense excitement, suspense, unexpected event, and nerve-wrecking tension. This type of movie will be count as successful if it can build audiences’ tension up to the climax. In this blog, I will explore this genre through its historical context and some of their key features.

Historical context

1920’s – 1930’s

One of the earliest thriller films was Harold Lloyd's comedy Safety Last! (1923), which is about boys performing crazy stunt on a skyscraper, but for the greatest director in thriller, it would definitely be Alfred Hitchcock, who was called the “Master of Suspense”. He released his early silent film, The lodger (1927), which based on Jack the Ripper story filled with suspense. After that, he released his first sound thriller film, Blackmail (1929). Hitchcock was well known for manipulating audiences’ fears and desires. His narrative style always contained powerful villains or external forces that symbolized death, and often connect a taboo or sexually related theme into his films. He then became one of the most important influencers to the modern-day thriller genre later. He has influenced many filmmakers, including Steven Spielberg, Jonathan Demme, and Martin Scorcese.

1940’s – 1960’s

Alfred Hitchcock still created many memorable films like Notorious (1946), Strangers on a Train(1951), and Psycho (1960), with various techniques, like, the extreme zoom shot, the prolonged cross-cutting, and others.

1970’s – 1990’s

Thriller films had an increase of violence in this period, for example, Hitchcock’s film, The Frenzy (1972), which was given an R rating for its vicious and explicit scene, Brian De Palma’s film, Sisters (1973), which was a tale of murderous Siamese twins, and the film that brought Steven Spielberg to prominence, Jaws (1975). Silence of the Lambs (1991) by Jonathan Demme was probably the most famous phycological thriller of the decade too.

2000’s – present

Recently, various thrillers have used twisting plots and surprise endings to capture audiences like, Christopher Nolan’s Momento (2000), which told the plot backward. More horror-thriller films were presented, for example, the purge (2013), and The house October Built (2014)

Lacey’s “repertoire of elements” genre analysis

Setting

Setting in thriller films often take place in ordinary suburbs and cities, but some settings are in dangerous and mysterious areas like woods, desert, seas, etc. Most of them usually tough to survive or have to be resourceful for the protagonist to face the villain. Houses are also commonly used in phycological thrillers to show safety and danger.

Characters

Thriller films need a victim to show the power of antagonist, which often stereotyped females and children as victim who can’t fight back, while males are often stereotyped as the antagonist or the strong protector of the group. Other than the innocent victim and the criminals or stalkers, there are often the general law characters in the form of police or court to support the protagonists or the end goal after the victim be able to escape.

Narrative/theme

The narration often focuses on an individual character or a group of survivors which are placed in an inevitable danger situation. It is also often narrated events in linear narrative, except some films that have different story telling techniques like putting events in separated sequences.

Iconography

There are plenty of recognizable things in thriller films, for example, weapon like knives, guns, and axes, which are a typical symbol associated with blood, death, and pain. Shadows of antagonists usually show up to build up fear and curiosity of the audiences too. Places like restricted space and woods also often used to stress out and give the feeling of being lost to the audiences.

Style

The most noticeable style of thriller films is that the protagonists (victims) often faced or in a dangerous situation unwillingly and have to escape it. This type of genre usually associated with sci-fi, crime, psychology, and action. The characters like polices, cops, and detectives often show up to help in solving the issues too.

Further resources

These are further useful resources that linked to thriller genre. The first book is about the issues of crime film, which have some context in the hybrid genre of crime-thriller films. The second book is about one of the most important director in thriller genre, Alfred Hitchcock, which will definitely gives plenty informations about his narrative style.

Leitch, T. (2002). Crime Film, [Online] Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ntuuk/reader.action?docID=202033 [Accessed 6 February 2021]

Ryall, T. (2001). Alfred Hitchcock and the British Cinema : Second Edition, [Online] Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ntuuk/reader.action?docID=436875 [Accessed 6 February 2021]

References

Wikipedia (2021). Thriller film, [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_film#1920s%E2%80%931930s [Accessed 7 February 2021]

Filmsite (n.d.). Thriller - Suspense Films, [online] Available at: https://www.filmsite.org/thrillerfilms.html [Accessed 6 February 2021]

alicesmithbarnsley (2016). The History of The Thriller Genre, [online] Available at: https://www.slideshare.net/alicesmithbarnsley/the-history-of-the-thriller-genre [Accessed 6 February 2021]

Laight, P. (2017). The Evolution of the Hollywood Thriller, [online] Available at: https://www.sothetheorygoes.com/killing-softly-evolution-hollywood-thriller/ [Accessed 6 February 2021]

joebsmedia (2017). Characters in thriller movies, [online] Available at: https://www.slideshare.net/joebsmedia/characters-in-thriller-movies [Accessed 7 February 2021]

alicesmith92 (2017). Iconography of the thriller genre, [online] Available at: https://www.slideshare.net/alicesmith92/iconography-of-the-thriller-genre#:~:text=Shadows%20Silhouettes%20and%20shadows%20are,some%20kind%20of%20animal%2Fmonster. [Accessed 7 February 2021]