History of the Thriller Film

  • Hitchcock releases first thriller

    Hitchcock releases first thriller
    A story on Jack the Ripper, it was a silent movie.
  • Hitchcock's first sound thriller

    Hitchcock's first sound thriller
    Blackmail, was the first thriller film with sound, and the first with sound from the UK
  • M: Based on real life events

    A German film, it was based on the life of a serial killer
  • Hitchcock Refinements

    Hitchcock Refinements
    Hitchcock was developing a recognisable brand of suspense thriller.
  • War Inspired

    Cloack and Dagger, by Fritz Lang, was about a developer of the Atomic bomb
  • A mini 3D Craze

    Dial M for Murder was shot in Technicolour and 3D
  • Pyscho

    Pyscho
    One of the most famous thriller films of all time, by Hitchcock of course...
  • Spy Films

    The Spy Who Came In From the Cold was one of many spy thriller films released in the 1960s.
  • Increasing Violence in Thrillers

    Increasing Violence in Thrillers
    Hitchcock's Frenzy was an R rated film. It had a strangling scene. Many thrillers were becoming more violent.
  • Obsession and Trapped Protagonists

    Obsession and Trapped Protagonists
    Dead Calm, starring Nicole Kidman, had elements of obsession and trapped protagonists who needed to escape. This inspired many thrillers of the early 1990s
  • The other major 1990s theme...

    Involved an FBI agent/detective hunting down a serial killer. The most famous example of this is The Silence of the Lambs, with Anthony Hopkins
  • Borrowing from the past

    Today, thriller film borrow elements and themes from thriller films of old. Among these is Unknown (2011)