The thriller genre dates back to the Ancient epic poems such as the Epic of Gilamesh and Homer’s Odyssy. These poems contain similar narrative techniques as modern day thrillers. "Homer's Odyssey is one of the oldest stories in the Western world and is regarded as an early prototype of the thriller." Novels such as Bram Stocker’s ‘Dracular’ (1897) and Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ (1818) include mythical creatures like those shown in modern thriller films, like: vampires, monsters, bats and wolves.
One of the earliest known thriller films was the german film ‘M’ directed by Fritz Lang in 1931; where Peter Lorre played a child killer which was based on real serial killer known as the ‘Vampire of dusseldorf’. However the auteur Alfred Hickcock is consided to be the ‘master of the thriller genre’ by the way he creates films which represent reality, making the audience relate to the film and therefore become more terrified. His first film was The Lodger (1926) which was a silent Jack-the-ripper story, this was followed by ‘Blackmail’ (1929) which was produced in both sound and silence.
Since then the thriller genre has expanded and split off into many sub-genres, some where influenced by current affairs like the assassination of President Kennedy which brought a sudden popularity to political and paranoid thrillers.
In recent years, thrillers have been slightly influenced by the horror genre; they have more gore/sadistic violence, brutality, terror, and body counts.[7] Recent thrillers which took this route include films like Eden Lake.
Social norms have also changed the way in which some thrillers are produced, traditionally strong men have been the hero’s and the women being portrayed as the damsel in distress but since political movements have been made such as ‘feminism’ and equal rights between genders this has started to chance and you tend to see women as the heroine more frequently.
Today Thriller films have one main sub-genre known as ‘Psychological thrillers‘ characters no longer rely on physical strength to overcome their enemies but with mental resources. This includes things like mind games and the disruption of ones mental state.
The thriller genre also includes the following sub-genres ; Conspiracy thriller (Awake), Crime thriller (Silence of the Lambs), Disaster thriller (Twister), Erotic thriller (Dressed to kill), Legal thriller (Presumed innocent), Medial thriller (Memento), Political thriller (Seven Days in May by Fletcher Knebel in1962), Religious thriller (The Da Vinci Code), Supernatural thriller (Jacob’s Ladder) and lastly Techno thrillers such as ‘Eagle Eye’.
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