History of Thrillers

History of Thrillers

The first thriller film was made in 1926 called "The Lodger" which was a Jack the Ripper type story and was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and it was a silent film. The next thriller made by Hitchcock was in 1929 and was called "Blackmail" it was also Britain's first film with sound, from 1935 on wards most of Hitchcock's films were thrillers, Hitchcock essentially made the Thriller genre so relevant and famous as one of the biggest Genre's as he was one of the best directors for the Genre. A lot of the directors who made Thrillers were British, for example Walter Forde, Victor Saville, George A Cooper, Michael Powell etc. In the 1940's Hitchcock continued his theme of thriller films and made films such as "Foreign Correspondent" and "Rebecca". which were Oscar winners.

George Cukor also brought out a psychological thriller called "Gaslight" in 1944, Overall the old thriller seemed very unrealistic as technology has improved a lot now, but back then to the people it would have looked more realistic. Thrillers now borrow themes and elements from the past but to avoid repetition they add horror aspects and is why people mistake thrillers for horrors. I think Thrillers have evolved a lot as the old thrillers were very interesting to watch and very classic, whilst now thriller have evolved a lot and there are hidden messages in what happens in scenes to connote certain aspects