History of Thriller

The early forms of the thriller genre started out around the mid 1920's - 1930's with many films by Alfred Hitchcock, such as 'The lodger' which followed a Jack the ripper-esque plot in a silent format that allowed for a build up of tension and climaxing events, thus birthing and giving way to the thriller genre. These are said to have been the most key thrillers, as they provided the many elements including build ups of events and moments of shock that is the thriller genre.

In the 1940's thriller was all about suspense and a large build up drawing in the audience as they have many tension building moments and enigmas making them want to know what happens next. This development lead to the films: Foreign Correspondent (1940), Rebecca (1940), saboteur (1942), shadow of a doubt (1943) and the psychological thriller Gaslight (1944).
The 50's were a large plot for change especially with Alfred Hitchcock's change to Technicolor and addition of 'icy blondes' as leading actresses, almost acting as a femme fatale role. This lead to the Hitchcock films of: Strangers on a train (1951) and Dial M for Murder (1954). The genre remained almost unchanged for a few decades with the repetition if conventions setting the thriller genre in stone for future generations.

The 1970's were a point in which change was noticed with the thriller genre, this is where they tread closer to the horror genre adding elements of violence and horrific events, whilst still managing to keep a separation between the two. This includes: Frenzy (1972) , Duel (1971) and Deliverance (1972). The 90's furthered this edge into the horror aspects of thriller due to the increase of teenagers and youths indulging more in the 'horror for entertainment' trend that was around in the late 90's, this was furthered into the 21st Century with the addition of action and the extra blood, gore and deaths from the horror genre. Many of these plots were not conventional and were instead modernised by adding plots such as government conspiracies, terrorism and larger world wide issues. Notable films include: Eden Lake (2008), Unknown (2011) and Hostage (2005).

There were a few key people in the creation of the thriller genre, one of which was Alfred Hitchcock. through his films such as 'The lodger' created many codes and conventions that are used to day are a part of the standardised thriller genre, these key concepts include emotion and suspense building to create tension and anticipation finally leading to a shock twist at the end.
This developed to many key changes through the decades including the key point of modernisation of the stories. For example the inclusion of government and terrorist based plots. Eventually lightning and colour also became available allowing for film directors to use shadow to emphasise characters ulterior motives and darker sides.
As this progressed so did the music and sound effects to further build on the development of emotions and tension building elements of the story creating a further suspense.