History of Thrillers

The thriller genre can be dated back many years ago early in the 20th century where filming was first invented. The First thriller film ever to make it big was in 1923 as Harold Lloyd’s “Safety last” was to be a huge influence to the modern day thriller film. This film was about an American boy performing stunts on the skyscraper. Edward Sutherland’s crime/horror thriller of “murders in the zoo” set in 1933 by Paramount productions which starred Lionel Atwill and a dangerous Zoologist. And perhaps one of the most famous horror/thrillers of the 20th century was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) staring Fredric March.

In the contemporary film world, there have been major changes in the production of thrillers from the “Hitchcock era” to the modern day use of thrillers. There are many elements in the modern day thriller that share many similarities and differences towards the classical thriller, when the thriller genre was invented. Some classical thrillers are more influential than others which some elements from that film may exist in the contemporary thriller genre.  For example the dolly zoom, seen “vertigo” is often seen in thriller film’s today, which disorientates the audience, which is typical for a thriller. However, some elements of a classical thriller may not be used in modern day as it may be dated and old fashioned, or perhaps weren’t able to be produced in the 20th century when camera’s or camera movement weren’t as advanced. For example, the extreme blood and goriness in some modern day thrillers was less common in early films in part due to regulatory guidelines. Such as “scream”, the bloodiness used in special effects weren’t used in the early ages of thriller, seen in films like “psycho” where the stabbing scene was hard to film compared to today.  

Hitchcock, (a British-American) was one of the many directors/producers that took the thriller genre up to another level, pioneering the many techniques in suspense in films, having influencing many modern day filmmakers. His first film was “the lodger” (1926) a silent-thriller film followed by Blackmail (1929). Innocent victims were usually placed in strange life threatening situations, a unique technique used by Hitchcock, this is evident in (e.g in The 39 Steps (1935), The Wrong Man (1956). Hitchcock was also notorious for his unique stylistic traits within the film industry. He used various cinematic techniques where in Notorious, the extreme zoom shot of the key, proved to be an influence on modern day camera movement in 1946, and Vertigo, he mastered the dolly shot and this has been essential in modern day films.