Popular thrillers and how they've changed over the years

Over the past 60 years the thriller genre has changed and adapted to new generations.

In the past thriller genres were more about the psychological effect they would leave on the audience. Gore and violence wasnt as popular back then as it has become in recent years. Looking back at old thrillers, for example Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho', the violence and gore is of poor quality and there is little of it.

However, compare that to a more recent thriller, for example 'Taken', and you see how much gore and violence has become relied on to make an effective thriller. Nowadays, thrillers rely on a mixture of violence and psychological suspense to create a thriller which will entice the audience and keep them on the edge of their seats.

The most popular thrillers in the past were those of Alfred Hitchcock's creation. The most popular and historic thriller is his work on 'Psycho'. In its time it was one of the scariest thrillers out, creating a whole new opening to a genre of thriller. 'Psycho' features one of the most well known scenes in all cinematic history, 'The Shower Scene'. In this single scene there were 77 different camera angles used and 50 cuts, this was due to the lack of  editing technology at the time. It required all of this to allow it to seem more realistic and threatening.









However, as years went on, thriller films developed along with the technology to allow them to progress. Better technology allowed films to involve more realistic gory and violent scenes. Wes Craven's popular 1990's film series 'Scream' is the perfect example. It became a big hit all over the US and UK, mainly due to the fact that the graphics and horror suspense of the thriller film was increased than any seen before.