Examples of Thriller Films throughout the years:
The Great Escape - A large group of POW’s plan an escape from a German camp in World War II.
The Silence of the Lambs - An FBI agent develops a relationship with the notorious serial killer, Dr. Hannibal Lector, in order to gain Lector’s assistance in the hunt for another serial killer.
Prom Night- A deranged and obsessed psychopath sets out to kill a girl who rejected him on prom night, detective.
The most famous thriller films include films such as Jaws, Pulp Fiction and the shawshank redemption.
The atmosphere in a thriller film is also enhanced through the lighting and use of music. An example of this is from the opening of the film ‘Alien’ by Ridley Scott in 1979. In the opening of this film, the lighting is minimal and dull, this creates the atmosphere of suspense and mystery which links into the thriller genre. One of the most well known and popular thriller films is ‘Psycho’ which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and was produced during 1960. This film is a psychological thriller based on the American 1960‘s time period. The film was adapted from the 1959 novel which was written by Robert Bloch also called ‘psycho‘. Both the film and novel are based on the cases on convicted serial killer Ed Gein, this therefore allowed the directors of the film to associate the film with other genres such as horror, drama and mystery, as well as the thriller. Alfred Hitchcock is considered the pioneer of the thriller genre, and the true creator of these type of films, which led to in the following decades producing blockbuster thrillers such as Jaws, the silence of lambs and pulp fiction.
1940's- Rebecca (1940) - A psychological thriller from the legendary Alfred Hitchcock released in 1940 focuses on A shy ladies' companion, staying in Monte Carlo with her stuffy employer, who meets the wealthy Maxim de Winter. She and Max fall in love, marry and return to Manderley, his large country estate in Cornwall. Max is still troubled by the death of his first wife, Rebecca, in a boating accident the year before. The second Mrs. de Winter clashes with the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, and discovers that Rebecca still has a strange hold on everyone at Manderley. A scene that builds great suspense in this film is when she is about to kill herself realising how many people dislike her and tension is built in a number of ways.
1960's- Psycho (1960) Another Alfred Hitchcock great, released in 1960, this movie focuses on a Phoenix officeworker Marion Crane who is fed up with the way life has treated her. She has to meet her lover Sam in lunch breaks and they cannot get married because Sam has to give most of his money away in alimony. One Friday Marion is trusted to bank $40,000 by her employer. Seeing the opportunity to take the money and start a new life, Marion leaves town and heads towards Sam's California store. Tired after the long drive and caught in a storm, she gets off the main highway and pulls into The Bates Motel. The motel is managed by a quiet young man called Norman who seems to be dominated by his mother. Marion is then later killed by norman's mother, and this film is most well know for its shower scene, which adds huge suspense in a number of ways, through music that slowly builds heavily, the feeling of the character being alone and the hidden identity of marions killer punching the knife through the shower curtain.
1980's- Fatal attraction (1987) is about a Happily married New York lawyer Dan Callagher who has an affair with his colleague Alex, and the two enjoy a love weekend while Dan's wife and child are away. But Alex will not let go of him, and she will stop at nothing to have him for herself.
1940's- Rebecca (1940) - A psychological thriller from the legendary Alfred Hitchcock released in 1940 focuses on A shy ladies' companion, staying in Monte Carlo with her stuffy employer, who meets the wealthy Maxim de Winter. She and Max fall in love, marry and return to Manderley, his large country estate in Cornwall. Max is still troubled by the death of his first wife, Rebecca, in a boating accident the year before. The second Mrs. de Winter clashes with the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, and discovers that Rebecca still has a strange hold on everyone at Manderley. A scene that builds great suspense in this film is when she is about to kill herself realising how many people dislike her and tension is built in a number of ways.
1960's- Psycho (1960) Another Alfred Hitchcock great, released in 1960, this movie focuses on a Phoenix officeworker Marion Crane who is fed up with the way life has treated her. She has to meet her lover Sam in lunch breaks and they cannot get married because Sam has to give most of his money away in alimony. One Friday Marion is trusted to bank $40,000 by her employer. Seeing the opportunity to take the money and start a new life, Marion leaves town and heads towards Sam's California store. Tired after the long drive and caught in a storm, she gets off the main highway and pulls into The Bates Motel. The motel is managed by a quiet young man called Norman who seems to be dominated by his mother. Marion is then later killed by norman's mother, and this film is most well know for its shower scene, which adds huge suspense in a number of ways, through music that slowly builds heavily, the feeling of the character being alone and the hidden identity of marions killer punching the knife through the shower curtain.
1980's- Fatal attraction (1987) is about a Happily married New York lawyer Dan Callagher who has an affair with his colleague Alex, and the two enjoy a love weekend while Dan's wife and child are away. But Alex will not let go of him, and she will stop at nothing to have him for herself.
2000's- Sin City (2005) Four tales of crime adapted from Frank Miller's popular comics, focusing around a muscular brute who's looking for the person responsible for the death of his beloved Goldie, a man fed up with Sin City's corrupt law enforcement who takes the law into his own hands after a horrible mistake, a cop who risks his life to protect a girl from a deformed pedophile, and a hitman looking to make a little cash. A suspenseful scene is when the main villain is using the toilet and clive owen stealth attacks him from the toilet and drowns the villain in another toilet, suspense built as the audience do not know what could happen to either character.
2010's- Shutter island (2010) It's 1954, and up-and-coming U.S. marshal Teddy Daniels is assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient from Boston's Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital. He's been pushing for an assignment on the island for personal reasons, but before long he wonders whether he hasn't been brought there as part of a twisted plot by hospital doctors whose radical treatments range from unethical to illegal to downright sinister. Teddy's shrewd investigating skills soon provide a promising lead, but the hospital refuses him access to records he suspects would break the case wide open. As a hurricane cuts off communication with the mainland, more dangerous criminals "escape" in the confusion, and the puzzling, improbable clues multiply, Teddy begins to doubt everything - his memory, his partner, even his own sanity. A suspenseful scene in this is when Leonardo Dicaprio is given a gun which appears real and he shoots the man opposite him with blood on the board but it is all just in his mind and the gun was fake, misleading the audience.
List of top 10 Thriller films
| 1. | Psycho | 1960 |
| 2. | Jaws | 1975 |
| 3. | The Exorcist | 1973 |
| 4. | North by Northwest | 1959 |
| 5. | The Silence of the Lambs | 1991 |
| 6. | Alien | 1979 |
| 7. | The Birds | 1963 |
| 8. | The French Connection | 1971 |
| 9. | Rosemary's Baby | 1968 |
| 10. Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981 1. This film is iconic in a number of ways, but most famous for its shower scene at the end of the film which creates great suspense and keeps the reader on edge. It's also mainly famous for it's music in one of the films final scenes where Marion and is even recognizable in today's day and age. 2. A film also easily recognizable by it's suspenseful and terryfing music, this film builds suspense in a number of ways, including never showing the shark during it's attacks, again adding susepnse and leaving the audience clueless. 3. This film is famous for being spine chillingly terrifing and is also known to have been banned in many countries worldwide. It's shocking scenes are what rank this film so high. 4. Another classic from Alfred Hitchcock, this approaches the less scary/horror route, but is still a thriller filled with great suspenseful scenes and this film is just one of Hitchock's many proving why he is one of the greatest movie directors ever to live. 5. A chilling classic with suspense, horror and shock throughout with also a nerve-racking and cliffhanger of an ending. 6. One of Ridley Scott's best, who is also famous for directing American Gangster and Gladiator, alien arguably being his best film and is most memorable by the frightning extra terrestrial villain in this movie. 7. Another Hitchcock film appears on this list, further emphasising his great work and power as a director, this film shocked many and some where even scared to step outside their house as they feared what happened in this film could happen to them anywhere! 8. A crime thriller which features one of the most gripping and entertaining car chases ever filmed. The scene speaks for itself and give the french connection its number 8 spot here. 9. A psychotic mystery thriller, this film is great because it always seems the audience does not have much an idea of what is going on throughout. 10. One of many in the indiana jones trilogy directed by the legendary steven speilberg, speilberg shows his great craft in this film, creating action-packed suspense throughout, the first film of this trilogy set a founding stone for a legendary series of indiana jones films and a huge fan base. |
This post does not demonstrate any understanding of the thriller genre and how films have developed over the years. This is because you have copied and pasted the narratives of the films from the internet and have not focused on the conventions or scenes in any way.
ReplyDeleteTherefore you need to watch scenes from the films that you have selected and include your own analysis, rather than using the internet and just focusing on the narratives. Within your analysis you also need to focus on the codes and conventions of a thriller and the audience.