This document discusses the thriller/suspense genre. It notes that thrillers involve excitement, intense scenes, anticipation and anxiety. A common narrative involves a crime being committed, detectives trying to solve it amid complications, and ultimately solving the case. Key directors who helped shape the genre include Alfred Hitchcock, who made films in the 1920s-1960s that featured themes of abuse, murder, paranoia and used techniques like tension-building music. Hitchcock never won an Academy Award despite five nominations as best director.

1. Genre Analysis
Thriller/suspense

2. My chosen genre is Thriller/suspense; in this sort of genre I
would expect a film with lots of excitement, intense scenes,
anticipation and anxiety. An example of a stereotypical
narrative for this genre is; a crime is committed, a group of
detective try to solve the crime but complications occur then
in the end the crime is solved. The role of the hero in this
genre is to save the next victim or to solve the case. This
genre includes a character(s) that is on the run or hiding from
a situation whilst not knowing what is going to happen next,
creating tension. The audience is meant to feel the plot build
towards a climax and they are not meant to know what could
happen next which then creates the anxiety for the audience.
There is a close-related genre to suspense-thrillers this is
horror but, my two minutes film is all about the run of the
wife so this takes it into the categories of suspense and
thriller.

3. With this genre the theorist Todorov links in
with suspense- thriller because there is
equilibrium – disequilibrium – resolution (new
equilibrium). The way that the wife and husband
are equal at the beginning, makes it equilibrium
but, then she takes the power and murders him
which makes disequilibrium and finally when
they resolve the mystery there is a resolution.

4. Thrillers are a genre that has been
around for a long time, one of the
earliest thrillers was Harold Lloyd’s
comic ‘Safety Last’ (1923).

5. Another early film is the haunting and
chilling German film ‘M’ (1931)
directed by Fritz Lang.

6. Another thriller-suspense film director is English film-maker and
director Alfred Hitchcock; he helped to mould the Thriller genre
that we know today. He began with his early silent film the
‘lodger’ (1927), followed by ‘Blackmail’ (1929) which was his first
sound film but it was also released in a silent version.

7. Hitchcock was nominated five times for the best director from
1940-1960 however, he never won an Academy Award. He
casted leading actors such as, Gregory Peck, James Stewart
and Cary Grant. As well as, Madeline Carroll, Joan Fontaine,
Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Kim Novak, Janet Leigh and Tippi
Hedren in his films. He looked mainly into story lines that
include: Abuse, murder, paranoia and obsession and guilt and
punishment. Hitchcock’s films are still very popular and they
have and still have a varied audience. In a Thriller-suspense
genre there are key features that include; tension building
music, long camera shots, extreme close-ups of facial
expressions and tracking shots. I am going to use some of
these key features to help portray the genre of my film.

8. Other films that Hitchcock produced include;
‘Stranger on a train(1951)’, ‘Dial M for
Murder(1954)’, ‘Rear Window(1954)’, ‘To catch a
thief(1955)’ and ‘vertigo(1958)’.