Historical Context of Psychological Thrillers

History/background of psychological thriller

Historical context

Historical context

Psychological thriller films, have had a very long a diverse history. The genre Thriller alone, is used in literature, film and television programming, in thrillers they tend to use suspense, tension to create fear as well as excitement. These techniques and effects are the main elements used in order to form a thriller movie. In thrillers they generally have surprises that cause anxiety or terror to make the audience react. However, by the film genre also being psychological, it tends to include plot twists to create disorientation and confusion for the audience.

Thrillers were also created from the influence of horror films, as these are closely related, similarities they have include both building suspense and tension. However thrillers tend to create a storyline full of mysteries and tension building, where as horror films have always attempted to create horrible and fearful acts straightaway.

There are common devices and techniques used in psychological thrillers used. Some of these include plot twists, which is when the psychological side comes in. Plot twists have almost always been used, plot twists tend to build suspense to something and then reveals mind confusion information.

For many years, the MacGuffin is frequently used in thrillers to build suspense. McGuffin is a goal or item that helps move the plot and build it. However, The McGuffin tends to be a person or place, as they are likely to be more capable of building suspense. Alfred Hitchcock which is the director of the film 39 steps, released in 1935, made the term “McGuffin “popular after releasing this film. He also explained the term in a lecture at Colombia University in New York 1939.

Iconography can also help give information about the plot as well as the McGuffin aspect. Alfred also directed the silent movie names “The lodger” in 1926 which was the first psychological thriller, meaning that suspension, tension and death was included. However, due to the lack of development in technology the film was not that realistic. After Alfred had produced this film he begun to gain skills and ideas for psychological thrillers, as he always had an interest in this.

In our contemporary society psychological thrillers have increased in popularity, this is due to the improvements in technology and cinematography also being improved, For example, better camera angles, quality and shots is now taken into more consideration and investment than in the past.