History of thriller films - Miss Georgiou

Thriller films are those which have elements of pure suspense, excitement and tension. Most are psychological, mystery and crime thrillers. (Reference - http://www.imdb.com/list/mnhgBoNsDf8/ )

When researching different thriller films, I noticed that they have changed and developed a lot over the years. Looking back on earlier thriller films, they seem somewhat unrealistic compared with what we see now, but this is due to the development in technology. 

1940's - 
In 1940, Alfred Hitchcock produced what would become an Oscar winning suspense filled thriller film called 'Rebecca'. It is about a self-conscious bride who is tormented by the memory of her husband's dead first wife Rebecca. 

The above clip is about the bride coming into what used to be Rebecca's room before she died. She knows she shouldn't be in here and uses the excuse that a window was open when the maid asks why she is up there. We then watch as the creepy Danvers (maid) shows the clearly uncomfortable new Mrs De Winters (bride) around the room. 

Although this clip doesn't necessarily scare the audience, we do connect with the characters and feel the awkwardness and eerie feeling. I think this is mainly created through the use of the non-diegetic sound of the eerie music. This music builds the tension and allows us to see how uncomfortable the bride seems to be. The audience are left wondering whether this scene will escalate to something even bigger and this makes them feel nervous as to what is to come next. 

In the 1940's, they didn't have the use of technology that we use today, and so this is why the film is in black and white. They therefore couldn't use specific colours to represent the villain or the victim, and so did their best with the different shades.  Looking at the frame opposite, we can tell that the supposed villain is Mrs Danvers as she is wearing dark clothing, which makes us think that the victim must be Mrs De Winters due to her wearing lighter clothing.
This assumption is proved to be correct due to the positioning of the characters within the frame, and their body language & facial expressions. Mrs Danvers has a strong relaxed posture and her face is calm which tells the audience that she is not scared or uncomfortable in the slightest. However, if we compare this to Mrs De Winters posture, we see she is hunching her shoulders and using her hands as a protective barrier, which tells the audience she is the victim and so we feel sorry for her. She is also looking up at Mrs Danvers, which gives us the impression that Mrs Danvers is dominant in the scene, portraying her to be even more villain-like.

1960's - 
In 1960, Hitchcock released a disturbing thriller film called 'Psycho' which left the audience at the edge of their seats. It is about a phoenix secretary who steals $40,000 from her employer's client, who then goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.

 

The above clip is about Arbogast's death; he is a private investigator who has some questions for Mrs Bates who is waiting for him in her room at the top of the stairs. The style of this film is similar to 'Rebecca' due to it having the same producer. However, over the 20 year gap, some more conventions of the thriller genre were introduced. 

For example, the above clip is set in a detached house, as you can see from the frame opposite. This is conventional to the thriller genre as it makes the audience aware that if there was an attack, the victim would have nowhere to go or no one to call for help. This makes the audience feel worried for the victim and builds suspense as they suspect something will happen but are not entirely sure.

Cinematography is used in this clip, when the investigator is walking up the stairs. A high angled shot is used to look down on him, portraying him to be the victim. This  makes the audience sympathise with him as they fear something is going to happen to him, as this is common to happen to victims portrayed in thriller films. 

During 1.38-1.44 of the above clip, we see Arbogast fall down the stairs after being attacked. However all we see is a shot of his body from the waist up, with his arms waving about madly. This is one aspect of the clip of which we can see that the film is dated due to the lack of technology. If this was filmed using todays technology, jump cuts would have been used to show the same thing, but creating a bigger and better effect. However, at the time when jump cuts were non existent, this would have created a similar effect for the audience. 

The change in technology in these 20 years has made thrillers even better, by allowing producers to make aspects clearer to the audience, such as using a high angled shot to portray the victim, in a lot less time. However, in the 1960's there was still minimal technology available, which can be seen through the non-use of jumps cuts when the victim falls down the stairs.

1970's - 

In 1972, Hitchcock released an English film called 'Frenzy'. It was a brilliant start to the thriller genre of the 1970's and the film was so shocking and violent that it had a high certificate rating everywhere it was shown. It is about a serial killer who is murdering London women with a necktie.

The first major difference between this film and Hitchcock's other two films i have discussed, is that this one is filmed in colour. This film is 12 years older than Psycho and so bad language was now beginning to be introduced in films. In this film, during the strangling of one of the killers victims, the word 'b****' is used. In todays world, this language seems normal, but in the 1970's, any type of swear word was seen as inappropriate. This piece of language was therefore used to shock the audience when they watched the scene, and this is one of the reasons why the film got such a high certificate rating.

Cinematography continued to improve as the years went by, and one of the examples of this is the extreme close-up of the victims eyes during the strangulation scene, which can be seen opposite. This shot immediately draws the audience in and focuses our attention on her eyes. By deciding to do this instead of a normal close-up of her face, it exaggerates her fear in her eyes to the audience. This on its own is not particularly scary, but when put alongside the other elements making up the scene, it helps to make the effect bigger. 

As the technology developed, producers could use bigger and better sound effects in their films. In 'Frenzy', Hitchcock used the parallel sound of the victim screaming as this worked well with what was going on in the scene. This added to the scene and made it more realistic to the audience.

Alfred Hitchcock was born on August 13th, 1899 and died on April 28th, 1980. He first started his filming career in 1919 illustrating title cards for silent films at Paramount's famous players-lasky studio in London, which is where he learned scripting, editing and art direction. From here he went onto make 53 films during his entire career. Some of his most famous thrillers include The 39 Steps, Psycho and Frenzy.

Hitchcock had a natural talent for making thriller films and was able to 'visualise his subconscious fear and desires and turn them into waking nightmares on the silver screen'. He was known as the 'Master of suspense'. Having researched into his work, i have learned that his most common thriller narrative was based on a story of obsession. For example, in Rebecca, Mrs De winters is obsessed with her husbands previous wife. Where as in Frenzy, the narrative is about a serial killer who obsessed with killing London women with his tie. The common narrative here is obsession.

The work of Alfred Hitchcock was different to the work of Jonathon Demme (The Silence of the lambs) and Andres Muschietti (Mama), due to the development of technology in Hitchcock's lifetime compared to Demme's and Muschietti's lifetime.

1990's -

In 1991, Jonathon Demme released his film called 'the silence of the lambs'. It is about a young F.B.I cadet who must confide in an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help on catching another serial killer who skins his victims. Immediately we can see that this narrative of obsession is the same as Hitchcock's.

(From 2.20 in this clip)

This clip uses the Contrapuntal sound of the up-beat music playing whilst he is planning and killing the two guards. This is when the sound does not match the actions of the character on the screen; we would expect an eerie piece of music to be played here. This shows that the directors and producers of the 90's were becoming braver as to what they added to their thriller films. They decided to take a risk by not using conventions that were 'dark' and 'creepy', but to try something different in an attempt to make the same effect.

In Hitchcock's period, he would have never taken this risk as it was not his style. Also, he didn't have the technology available to help make the contrapuntal sound work within his scene, and even if he had tried, it would not have created the same effect.

Demme used cinematography to help portray his villain to the audience quickly and clearly, just like Hitchcock did. He used a high angled shot looking down on his killer near the end of the above clip, and this frame can be seen opposite. Usually, a high angle would be used to portray a victim looking small, but Demme decided to change this, again taking another risk and used it to portray the villain instead. The high angle helps us to focus on his body language and shows the audience how psychotic he is. He is simply standing there, listening to music, having just killed 2 officers. He still has blood on his face but simply does not care, which shows his maniac side to the character.

I think Demme, along with other directors of the 90s, decided to stop following how previous directors were making thrillers, and make their own decisions to not be normal. They had to do this in order to appeal to their target audience and stand out from the other films. Although they wanted to take risks, they still kept the narratives fairly similar to previous narratives as they believed this worked.



2010's -

In 2013, Andres Muschietti released his thriller called 'Mama'. It is about 2 people named Annabel and Lucas, who are faced with the challenge of raising Lucas' young nieces that were left alone in the forest for 5 years. However they begin to question how alone they actually were. 

In his film, the technology available was at its peak as it was very current. Aspects of his film were better than the other films i have discussed because of this. For example, the make-up used was more realistic compared to the blood used on the serial killers face from 'Silence in the lambs'. I think he focused more on making his film more realistic, such as the make-up, and the setting of the bedroom, to allow his audience to relate to the film and connect with the characters. As he had full use of the technology available, there was no need to take risks such as using contrapuntal sound, as he could build suspense in other ways.

One of the ways he built suspense is through the use of sound effects, such as the noises the creature under the bed made and the non-diegetic sound of the music in the background. The background music built up to its climax before cutting out leaving the scene in complete silence. This makes the audience wonder what is to happen next as the music has stopped. It builds suspense and helps to emphasise the shock when the audience jump at the attack from the creature.

The slight eye glances towards underneath the bed, we see from looking at the actress' facial expression, allows the audience to guess what they think is under the bed. It creates a nervous atmosphere and  builds tension because the audience have no way of knowing what will happen and so they feel vulnerable.

  

In conclusion, I would say that certain aspects of thriller films have changed, where as others have stayed the same. When Hitchcock began making thrillers, not many people knew what to expect and he potentially guessed. The process of trial and error accrued from here, and alongside the help of the fastly developing technology, directors and producers began to see what worked well and what didn't work well.

One convention that has been kept since the beginning of thriller films is the use of sound to help build suspense. In the 1940's, Hitchcock used the non-diegetic sound of the eerie music played in the background, alongside the dialogue from the two actresses. As thrillers developed, directors began to see that this sound created a better effect without the use of dialogue. In Mama, although dialogue is used, it is a lot less. Muschietti used periods of silence to help build tension and allow the audience to think; in the early 1900's, this period of silence would have been filled with dialogue.

Also, over the years, thriller films have become more realistic, with scenarios and settings that are more relatable to the audience, such as the bedroom set used in Mama. The idea was that if the audience could relate to the scenario, they would believe it could happen to them, which would make them feel vulnerable towards the scene. Although they were made more realistic, the idea of the supernatural was added in to make the audience think about all the possibilities a scenario could follow.

The common narrative in thrillers during Hitchcock's career was obsession. This has not changed; In 'Silence of the lambs', Demme creates the obsession through the serial killer character who is obsessed to escape, and in Muschietti film 'Mama', the obsession can be seen through the persistence of mama herself, or from the aunt and uncle who are obsessed to make the children sane again. This narrative works well, and directors used it and a lot of Hitchcock's other ideas because of this.

Having researched into the history of thriller films, I have learnt a lot about what has worked well over the years and what has not which will help me in creating my own  thriller clip. For example, the most successful narrative of obsession has been used since the 1940's and so i am going to base my narrative on something similar, as this has clearly worked for several years. Also, the use of sound has been used since the 1940's, and with more current thrillers, i have realised that one of the best ways to create and build suspense is through using sound, but without the dialogue. This is something i will be using to help me when creating my thriller clip.

Task 2

When researching into the thriller genre, I looked into the box office audience figures for the top 10-15 thriller films. (See Below).

When looking at the above table, I noticed there were a few sequels, especially of the film 'Saw'. The first Saw film came out on 29/10/2004, and roughly each year after that, the next sequel was released. Without having carried out any research I would have assumed that a sequel to a film of any genre would not be as successful as the original film. My findings here tell me that Saw II, Saw III and Saw IV all made more money overall (Lifetime gross/theatres), compared to the original Saw film, meaning the original was lower down in the ranking. However, although you could say that the sequels are therefore better, I don't think they would have made as much money as they have done if it wasn't for the huge success of the original film.

Another point I noticed was how the modernness of the film, compared to the Lifetime amount of money the film made. I would expect, like the film Sea Of Love, released in 1989, to be fairly low down on the list, due to the lack of technology available in that time. The film is in fact number 12 in the above list, having made $58,571,513 overall. However, the film Silence of the lambs, released in 1991,  is in fact 2nd in the list, which is surprising as it is a fairly old film. The film made $130,742,922 overall from its narrative, which is about a young F.B.I cadet who must confide in an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help on catching another serial killer who skins his victims, where as Sea of Love is about a detective investigating a series of murders becoming involved with a woman who may be the culprit. The Silence of the lambs made more money in my opinion because it is more conventional due to the stereotypical theme of obsession in thriller films. Sea of love, whilst it is a thriller, it focuses more on the crime and drama aspects of the film, rather than the tense effective moments. 

When comparing the success rates of Silence of the Lambs to Saw, you could say they were both equally successful as Silence of the lambs made $130,742,922 overall, compared to Saw's $55,185,045. However, Saw made more money when it first opened in cinemas at $18,276,468 and Silence of the lambs only made $13,766,814. This could be down to the different times the films were released, as there were more cinemas easily available when Saw was released in 2004, but not when Silence of the lambs was released in 1991.

To conclude, if the narrative of the thriller film is unique and strong then the film is likely to make lots of money. The editing and sound etc, added after the initial filming, can only add to the effects of the film as it all comes down to the narrative. The box office research has shown me that although sequels to films are less likely to be as popular as the first film, if the narrative of the original film is so strong and interesting, it can lead to many more successful films. A good example of this would be the Saw films. Researching into the box office will help me with my thriller opening sequence as it has reminded me to ensure that the narrative of our opening is strong and interesting, whilst not giving too much away. The idea of an opening is to engage viewers and make them want to continue to watch the film, and this research has taught me this.