History Of Thrillers

The earliest thriller, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, is thought to be The Lodger (1926), a silent black and white film based upon a Jack the Ripper type character.

However it is also based upon a book written by Marie Belloc Lowndes, the plot line is basically of how a serial killer goes round London killing young, blonde women.

This was followed by Hitchcock’s next thriller, Blackmail (1929), another black and white film. Two versions of this film were released, a silent one, and a non silent one, a “talkie.” It follows the story of Alice, a young woman who kills an artist after he attempts to flirt with her, she has to cover up her murder.

The next notable thriller film M (1931) directed by Fritz Lang, starred Peter Lorre as a child killer. The film's story was based on the life of serial killer Peter Kurten. Already we can see a pattern of most notable thrillers being based or loosely based upon true stories.

Another notable director, George Cukor's psychological thriller Gaslight (1944) featured a scheming husband plotting to make his innocent young wife go insane, in order to acquire her inheritance.

A common theme surrounding Hitchcock’s thrillers, typically involved an innocent victim, thrown into a usually life threatening situation or a wrongful accusation.  Innocent, average people can be seen today in today’s typical thrillers. Such as The Spiral Staircase (1946) directed by Robert Siodmak. A serial murderer terrorizes innocent, disabled women.

Strangers on a Train (1951) marked Hitchcock’s move into Technicolor. Bigger Hollywood stars were cast as well. Two men on a train meet and stage a battle of wits and murders. Other Hitchcock films of the 50’s include: Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, To Catch a Thief and Vertigo. 1960 saw Alfred Hitchcock’s perhaps most notable thriller film, Psycho. Based on a lone mother, and motel owner who goes insane.

1970’s – 1980’s saw Hitchcock’s first British thriller film Frenzy (1972) given an R rating (18) for it’s vicious and bloody scenes. Like other Hitchcock thrillers, it’s based on a serial killer in London who rapes and kills women. Brian De Palma directed several films, all with common themes of paranoia and guilt. His work includes the 1973 thriller, Sisters which focuses on a pair of murderous Siamese twins, the music for this film was by Hitchcock’s favourite composer and most of Brian’s work is inspired and pays homage to Hitchcock’s work. Another example is Obsession (1976) which was inspired by Vertigo. A man loses his wife and daughter to kidnappers and must save them. The last film from this era of thrillers, stars Nicole Kidman in the 1989 Dead Calm. This thriller introduced the theme of being trapped and must escape from the villain. In this case, Nicole’s character Rae, must escape the villain whilst trapped on a yacht in the ocean. Phillip Noyce’s work would inspire modern day thrillers which introduced this new technique of characters being trapped.

Modern day thrillers seem to have introduced another new common theme, people with mental disorders. A prime example of this is Misery (1990), directed by Rob Reiner, and based on the Stephen King novel, a crazed fan traps an author, not allowing him to leave her house. Preharps the most well known thriller of the 90’s, Silence of the Lambs, directed by Johnathon Demme (1991) it focuses on FBI type detectives hunting down a cannibal killer. Se7en focuses on the hunt for a serial killer who renacts the seven deadly sins. These films have introduced the sub genre Crime Thriller. Directed by David Fincher, it was released in 1995.