Evie Calaby AS Media: The genre of thriller & Alfred Hitchcock

As thriller movies become ever more popular and new director are constantly thinking ‘outside the box’ and defying convention, it’s not surprising to see lots of sub-genres emerge from the original thriller genre. With today’s array of film, we see:

Alien from the movie 'Alien'

-Action/ adventure thrillers (like the four Die Hard movies)
-Science-fiction thrillers (like Alien and Predator)
-Crime-caper thrillers (like Lock, stock and two smoking barrels)
-Western-thrillers (like High Noon)
-Film-noir thrillers (like Double Indemnity)

-Romantic comedy-thrillers (like Mr & Mrs Smith)

It just goes to show how varied genre can be. I don’t doubt that more sub-genres will be invented by new and upcoming directors. However, thrillers always tend to follow a stereotype in one way or another. Usually it is with the characters. You find that in thrillers, there will always be dark characters like convicts, stalkers, assassins and other psychopaths, trying to hurt an innocent victim. However, thrillers are different from crime purely for the fact that crime focuses more on the gangster, crime or detective, while thrillers are much more consistent in focusing on the suspense and danger of it all.

Alfred Hitchcock

One of the most famous thriller directors is Alfred Hitchcock, a British director, considered the ‘auteur’ of the thriller genre. He was nominated for five awards but never won. In his movies, he usually paired a leading actor with a pretty blonde female, one of which he made play an innocent victim in a strange situation of which they would have to overcome. Hitchcock would also capitalize on a ‘red herring’ element to catch the viewers’ attention and move the film on throughout its course. It’s been said that Hitchcock is also very good at manipulating his audience’s fears, which is perhaps why he had become renowned as a brilliant thriller director.