3) The history of thrillers - Ms Georgiou ------------------

A thriller is a novel, play or movie with an exciting plot. They usually include crime or espionage. Thrillers also usually include a great deal of suspense and tension which can be created in many ways. Throughout the years thrillers have found new and different ways of creating the suspense and tension and I will be looking at how they have changed and why.

Alfred Hitchcock is one of the most recognisable thriller film makers. At the time of his movies in the 50's and 60's there was not aloud to be as much violence and blood shed as we can see in modern thriller films like scream and sinister. Because of this films were much more reliant on using a quick timing of shots and different camera angles to create suspense or show violence. However now there is a greater use of effects used to create these things so there is less reliance on things like camera angles and timing of shots.

The most famous of Hitchcock's movies was the 1960 film Psycho. This is an example of how film makers used timing of shots to create things like violence and murder. The scene includes 77 different camera angles and 50 different cuts in order to show the woman being massacred in the shower. This meant Hitchcock did not have to show the actual killing and instead by using the quick timing of shots left a great deal of the scene to the audiences imagination.

In the 1990s there was an increase in the number of psychological films like hannibal. There was a change from the violence and gore from the films like psycho and others and the film makers aimed to mentally scare the audience rather than doing it through violence alone.

In modern thrillers directors are not nearly as reliant on cuts and camera angles as they now have the ability to use effect to create the scene and it is now more acceptable to show the blood and gore in scenes like these. Films like saw have multiple scenes with murders and torture aimed to scare and spook the audience through the use of gore.

However although the thriller films have changed a lot there is still the similarities. The story lines have not changed a great deal. There are usually the typical features of thrillers including empty houses, female victims, dark lighting. These have not changed throughout the years and in films like Halloween , which was made in 1978, the female victim is still present. Just like it is in modern films like scream. This shows the main conventional elements of thriller films have not changed and the same things are still used to create the suspense and tension that we see in films today.

Lifetime Gross /Theaters		Opening /Theaters		Date
1	Hannibal	MGM	$165,092,268	3,292	$58,003,121	3,230	2/9/01
2	The Silence of the Lambs	Orion	$130,742,922	1,642	$13,766,814	1,497	2/14/91
3	Basic Instinct	TriS	$117,727,224	1,884	$15,129,385	1,567	3/20/92
4	Seven	NL	$100,125,643	2,528	$13,949,807	2,441	9/22/95
5	Red Dragon	Uni.	$93,149,898	3,363	$36,540,945	3,357	10/4/02
6	Saw II	Lions	$87,039,965	2,949	$31,725,652	2,949	10/28/05
7	Saw III	LGF	$80,238,724	3,167	$33,610,391	3,167	10/27/06
8	The Bone Collector	Uni.	$66,518,655	2,623	$16,712,020	2,587	11/5/99
9	Saw IV	LGF	$63,300,095	3,183	$31,756,764	3,183	10/26/07
10	The Cell	NL	$61,334,059	2,476	$17,515,050	2,411	8/18/00

Hannibal made the most amount of money in the opening weekend after its release in 2001. I believe this is because at the time there was a large demand for psychological thrillers as these had been popular throughout the 1990's in films like silence of the lambs. It also may have done so well in the opening weekend as it was the sequel to silence of the lambs which was extremely popular, so people would have been keen to see the sequel. 

Another film on the list is SAW 2 along with 3 and 5. The fact that these films are on the list shows that peoples tastes in films have changed. The conventions of gore and blood have become more popular in recent years which shows people are more inclined to watch films with these conventions rather than psychological thrillers which may have been more popular in the 1990's. 

I believe se7en is on the lost because it caters for both the psychological audience and the audience who are more interested in the blood and gore side of thrillers. Se7en includes conventions from both as Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman follow a set of clues to track down a murderer. However, there is also the bloody murder scenes and gore which caters for a wider audience which is why it may have been so popular in the opening weeks.