Genre

1. Genre Research
Psychological thrillersare asub-genre of thrillerwhichplacesanemphasisonthe psychological state
on a particularcharacter or group of characters. Itcan ofteninclude elementsof othergenres,like
crime,legal,action,mystery, sometimesevenlegal. Althoughtechnicallyexistingsincethe late-
1920s withBlackmail,an earlyHitchcockfilm, itwas notuntil muchlater,aroundthe 1950s
onwards,thatHitchcock himself,aswellasHenri GeorgesClouzot,startedtointroduce the genre as
a fully-fledgedone,with DialM ForMurderand Vertigo, andLes Diaboliques,respectively.Hitchcock
made arguablyhisgreatestcontributiontothe genre with Psycho in1960, whichat the time wasone
of the scariestfilmsseenbyaudiences ever.Itwasalsonotable forbeingasscary as it waswithout
includinganysupernatural monsters,demonsoraliens,simplyraw emotional fear.
Surroundingthe Watergate scandal inAmericawasa large amountof mistrustplacedinthe minds
of Americans,aswell as inthe wake of the Cuban missile crisis,the ColdWarand JFK’sassassination.
Numerouspsychological thrillers,sometimespolitical,came directlyfromthisandare oftenreferred
to as ‘70s paranoia’movies.Suchexamplesinclude NicholasRoeg’s Don’tLookNow,FrancisFord
Coppola’s TheConversation,WilliamFriedkin’s TheExorcistandAlanJ. Pakula’s‘ParanoiaTrilogy’of
The Parallax View,Klute andAll The President’sMen,the latterof whichdealtwiththe aftermathof
the Watergate scandal.Horror became a frequentinfluence and, sometimes,keyfeature of
psychological thrillersafterHitchcock’s final films,particularlysuchas The Exorcistand The Amityville
Horror.
Body-horrorand80s surrealisthorrorisoftenconsideredtogohandin handwithpsychological
thrillers,particularlyinthe case of DavidsCronenbergandLynch.Cronenberg’s TheFly, Videodrome
and Naked Lunch are seenas beingparticularlychallenging,whilstLynch’s Eraserhead, BlueVelvet
and The ElephantMan are also seenaspsychological thrillerthathasbeenhybridisedwith body-
horror, crime andhistorical drama,respectively.Lynchisalsoresponsible forintroducing
psychological thrillertotelevisionaswell,withgroundbreakingseries Twin Peaks.Fromthis
spawnednumerousTV showsinthe genre,suchas Dexter, Homeland andHannibal.
Psychological thrillerscontinuetobe made,invaryingdegreesof focusonthatgenre particularly.
Numeroushorrormoviesandcrime filmshave made use of psychological thrillerelements, some
evengoingonto spawnsome of today’smostfamousdirectors,suchas Se7en didwithDavid
Fincheror Memento withChristopherNolan
A large part of the DNA of psychological thrillersis the themesitpresents:althoughitisnot
exclusivelythese,oftentheywillincludethemesof reality,sanity,identityandmental state.There is
usuallyastylisedqualitytoa lotof psychological thrillers,particularlythose thatidentifyexclusively
to the genre.Itwill alsonormallyhave afocuson one person,ora small groupof people and
examine themclosely. Several plotdeviceshave ahandinthis:possible insanity,amnesiaordrugs.
The genre’sattitudestowardsidentityare oftenthatof grapplingwithrealityandself-acceptance,
oftenportrayedthroughdebaucherousactivitysuchasdrugs,sex,alcohol orviolence.Itcan often
linktoa sense of hopelessnessorfutility,andsometimesleadstoeitheranunresolvedordepressing
ending.