A Brief History of the Crime/Thriller Genre

It is difficult to show the changing of crime/thriller films as they came about in the 1900s from the beginning of romanticising the act of crime e.g. heroic detectives such as Sherlock Holmes as early as 1900 and 1903. Over the years crime thrillers have evolved and mutated, changing in direction, focus and tone to create the variety we have today ranging from films with comedic undertones such as 'Ocean's 11' to very serious formulas like 'The Girl on the Train.'

Early crime films were often about detectives e.g. 'Sherlock Holmes' and 'Mr Wrong Detective' in 1938 and the stories used were often based on novels. The films were not made for literary prestige or appeal until the rise of 'Film Noir', a term created by French critiques in 1946 to describe films with dark stories. At the time, this was a contemporary emergence of maturity in American Films and it left the heroes often doomed by passion, giving the traditional crime films more depth and bringing us a step closer to the severely sub-plotted crime thrillers we watch today.

After World War Two crime thrillers in America were shaped by the fear of nuclear bombs (e.g 'Kiss me Deadly' made in 1955).
In the UK 'A Touch of Evil' was the last film before the decline of 'Film Noir'. This strand of crime thrillers was replaced with more comedic crime films such as 'The Lavender Hill Mob' in 1951. This time period also saw the emergence of psychological thrillers such as 'Stranger on a Train' made in 1951 and 'Psycho' in 1960 which, along with others, were directed by the emerging director Alfred Hitchcock.

Crime films were reinvented for a younger audience in the 1970s by films such as 'The Godfather' (1972) and 'Chinatown' (1974).

At the end of the century the rise in public fear of crime created a great target audience for crime thrillers across the globe and allowed the creation of films such as 'Pulp Fiction' in 1994. Another strain of crime thriller blossomed in this era with 'Basic Instinct' leading the way for more 'romantic', steamy crime thrillers.

Finally, a very distinctive take on this genre has come to light - deadpan crime comedy - with directors such as the Coen brothers creating successful films such as 'Blood Simple' in 1985 and 'Fargo'  in 1996 which won two academy awards.

I'm hoping to take the darker strain of crime thriller in my opening such as 'Gone Girl' - I want to create a very tense, unpleasant feel for the audience to make the film very uncomfortable to watch, kind of like the French practitioner Artaud who worked in 'Theatre of Cruelty' and even had audiences at his plays seated in cages. I want to reach out to them and make the film uncomfortable for them to watch by using harsh contrasts to shock them and make them feel under threat, just like the characters of 'Dreamtown' who don't know who's going to be the next to die.