History of Thriller Films - Miss Georgiou

History of Thriller Films

1940's

Gaslight (1944)
Gaslight is an American 1944 American mystery-thriller film adapted from Patrick Hamilton's 1938 play. This was a fairly known thriller work of the time earning $4,613,000 at the box office. Fundamentally, it is about a girl, Alice, who is found by her niece, Paula murdered in her home. Years later Paula moves back into the house with her new husband however, he has a secret and will do anything to keep it from getting out. Audiences seemed to love the psychological side to the narrative with a husband keeping secrets and driving his wife insane. This specific character of the husband (Gregory) was very popular, for his interesting and mysterious character was very unique and different to what audiences had seen before - especially at this time of era. The way he managed to manipulate his wife and protect what he was hiding seems to appeal to the viewers - especially as they got to see how he was doing it too. George Cukor (director of Gaslight) wasn't actually famous for mystery-thrillers or thrillers of any sort particularly - he was known for directing mainly comedies. Although, he was also recognised for his directing of many adaptations, for example, Dinner at Eight (1933) and Romeo and Juliet (1936). A  high value of money was spent on making this film (over 2 million dollars) so although it was still popular, the income return was not exceptional. 


1960's


Psycho (1960)
Psycho was an extremely popular American horror-thriller film, directed and produced by Wilfred Hitchcock and is still watched to the present day. It smashed the box office earning 60 million dollars with only a budget of $800,000. Psycho is entirely filmed in black and white, due to such a low budget, however, this didn't stop the amount of recognition it received. It managed to earn four Academy Award nominations, including Best Supporting Actress for Janet Leigh and Best Director for Hitchcock. It's also considered one of the best films of all time by critics across the industry. It's about a Phoenix secretary (Marion), who is fed up with having to sneak out for lunch breaks to meet her lover (Sam) who is unable to get married due to the majority of his money going to alimony. One working Friday, Marion's employer asks her to take $40,000 (in cash) to the bank for deposit. Marion sees the opportunity to take the money and does so, as well as leaving the area in hope to make a new life in California with lover, Sam. After spending a night in her car, she cannot manage to make the whole way so spends her second night at the Bates Motel. She meets the owner of the motel who is highly dominated by his mother and eventually decides to give back the money to her employer but still stay at the motel. A week later, Marion is found to be missing and so a private detective gets involved to try and find her when eventually they come across the Bates Motel, where all is revealed. There is a very famous scene in Psycho where Marion is getting murdered in the shower and this is a vital piece of the films success. Because this scene was directed so well in the fact that you couldn't see the murderer, the music complimented the tenseness of the scene and great suspicion was built up - this is partly what made it so popular. Audiences of this time clearly regarded it as a forerunner of things to come so it was different to most horror-thrillers seen before it.


1980's

Fatal Attraction (1987)
Fatal Attraction is an American psychological thriller directed by Adrian Lyne and was very popular making a staggering $320,145,693 at the box office. However, the budget for the film was 14 million dollars so was expected to have a high income return. The film became the second highest-grossing film of 1987 in the United States and also the highest-grossing film of the year worldwide and also received six Academy Award nominations. In a very vague summary, False Attraction is mainly about a married man (Dan) who has an affair with a one night stand (Alex). Unlucky for him, Alex doesn't want to accept that a 'one night stand' was all it was. This results in emotional blackmail, stalking and obsession over him and his family. Alex springs on many violent and obsessional scenes with a finale of her death right at the very end. The psychological theme is a trend that seems to show as popular within an audience. I believe this is because it allows the audience to explore the characters a lot more with their complex and maybe deluded ways of thinking portrayed clearly on screen. Again, this is a unique narrative, making it even more appealing to an audience. At this time in the 80's psychological thrillers were progressing to be more gripping and edgy, Fatal Attraction setting a high standard for the genre.

2000's - Present

The Call (2013)
The Call is an American crime thriller that is about a 911 operator who takes a call from an abducted young girl who is at risk of tortured murder. To be vague, she realises that the best way to save her is try and find and confront the killer herself. When she does so, she finds the man to be a psycho, murdering girls for their hair, she just manages to escape her death. This film earned $68,572,378 at the box office and managed to get Halle Berry two award nominations. The fact that Halle Berry is a famous actress known for her realistic performances, could be part of the reason for this film's success. If the audience know an actor or actress in a film and know them for the good of their acting, this will make them want to go and see the film. There isn't many other films that I could find centered around an individual 911 operator, so the writer, Richard D'Ovidio, was clever in thinking up of such an original idea. The character of Turner (the 911 operator) is very emotionally sensitive, which audiences could relate to when feeling empathetic towards her in the situations she becomes to be in. When an audience is able to be empathetic towards a character it makes them feel more apart of the film and so they connect with the narrative especially, a lot more. Again, this psychological theme occurs in this film, clearly illustrating a trend right back from the 1940's to the present day that this type of thriller tends to be very popular.

All of these thrillers happen to be American, so this could demonstrate a strong audience liking to the style of American thrillers. Whether this be because of the larger budgets available as opposed to the British film industry or just the different elements that American thriller may include such as effects like CGI. 

Hannibal is the top grossing thriller film earning over 165 million dollars at the box office. Its narrative is very unique and is based on a mentally disturbing idea of murdering people and then digesting them. Furthermore, giving them to others to eat too. This twist of narrative is very different to most films of his kind. Therefore, this is shown to be extremely popular with audiences as this is number one in the chart . The weirdness and mental aspect of this kind of narrative obviously appeals to viewers and intrigues them as it is so unlike any realistic situation in everyday life. It may shock viewers in some scenes but that is what makes it so good - audiences feel to stop watching but also feel obliged to carry on. I feel that this is part of what makes it so popular - it's unfamiliarity to the thinking of a normal being and its power to make the audience want to watch more. 
The Cell is number ten in the chart shown and earned $61,334,059 and was released a year before Hannibal. It is based on a child psychologist (Catherine) who is an expert in an experimental treatment for coma patients, allowing her to be able to enter the minds of her patients. A serial killer (Carl) falls into a coma before the FBI can locate his final victim. This leaves Catherine the job of solving this mystery through the advantages that she has. Once again, this is another psychological thriller that proves to be supporting the favour in this type of thriller. However, Catherine is played by Jennifer Lopez, a famous actress and singer and so may attract more of a mass audience. 

Comfortably at number twenty in the chart is Taking Lives, still earning a successful value at the box office. It is another psychological thriller starring Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke - two famous actors. The narrative consists of a wanted serial killer who takes the identity of each new victim he has. The FBI profiler missioned to search for this man is made to travel across North America in seek of him. Though, she is forced to work with a new police force in a peculiar city of which she necessarily doesn't fit into. The way the audience are able to follow the profiler on her journey to discover this killer makes them feel empathetic towards the character. Angelina Jolie plays the role of the profiler and so makes the character more appealing to the audience for her known talent in acting. Therefore, audiences connect with her a lot more than say, an unknown actress as they may not be aware of her as much. This gains viewers for the film and makes it become more successful, so clearly the people who star in films can make an impact on the money the film makes.