History Of The Thriller Genre.

In 1926, Alfred Hitchcock created ‘The Lodger’, a Jack The Ripper type story. This was his first thriller film, but third silent movie. He then created his next thriller, ‘Blackmail’, in 1929. This was also Britain’s first sound movie. From 1935, Hitchcock’s then created mainly thriller films.

In the 1940’s, films such as The Spiritual Staircase, The Lady In Shanghai, Sorry Wrong Number and The Third Man were released. Hancock still continued to direct thriller films throughout the 40’s. Throughout the 1950’s, Hancock continued to create thriller films, but this time adding ‘technicolor’ to his collection. In the 1950’s, thriller films not by Hancock were made. Some of these were Niagara, Kiss Me Deadly, The Night Of The Hunter and Touch Of Evil.

In the 1960’s, the director Michael Powell created his film ‘Peeping Tom’, which was released prior to Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’. Cape Fear was also created during this time by J Lee. Other directors such as Stanley Donens, Roman Polanski and Terrence Young also created thriller films throughout the 1960’s.

Steven Spielberg created a low budget film ‘Duet’ in 1971. Clint Eastwood also brought out the film ‘Play Misty For Me’ in 1971. In 1972, Hitchcock created a British thriller for the first time in almost two decades. This was given an ‘R’ rating shortly after being released because of the explicit contents. John Boormans ‘Deliverance’ was also released later this year. Other films such as ‘Dont Look Now’, ‘The Conversation’, ‘The Eyes Of Laura Mars’, ‘Sisters, ‘Blow Out’ and ‘Body Double’ were also released throughout the 1970’s.

Throughout the 1990’s and 2000’s, there were many thriller films such as ‘Sleeping With The Enemy’, ‘The Hand That Rocks The Craddle’, ‘The Silence Of The Lambs’, ‘Se7en’, ‘Captivity’ and ‘The Last House On The Left’ released. Some of these went on to be the best thriller films to date.