Thriller film
Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience.[1] The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. Tension is created by delaying what the audience sees as inevitable, and is built through situations that are menacing or where escape seems impossible.[2]
The cover-up of important information from the viewer, and fight and chase scenes are common methods. Life is typically threatened in a thriller film, such as when the protagonist does not realize that they are entering a dangerous situation. Thriller films' characters conflict with each other or with an outside force, which can sometimes be abstract. The protagonist is usually set against a problem, such as an escape, a mission, or a mystery.[3]
Screenwriter and scholar
In 2001, the American Film Institute (AFI) made its selection of the top 100 greatest American "heart-pounding" and "adrenaline-inducing" films of all time. The 400 nominated films had to be American-made films whose thrills have "enlivened and enriched America's film heritage". AFI also asked jurors to consider "the total adrenaline-inducing impact of a film's artistry and craft".[5][3]
Characteristics
In his book on the genre, Martin Rubin stated that the label "Thriller" was "highly problematic" declaring that "the very breadth and vagueness of the thriller category understandably discourage efforts to define it precisely.".
In his book The Suspense Thriller (1988), the genre-studies specialist Charles Derry found the "suspense thriller" to be
Rubin declared that thrillers attached itself to other genres such as the
History
Precursors
Pre-film
Due to the what Rubin describe as a "wide, imprecise scope", it is unwieldy to attempt a comprehensive history of individual genres, including the thriller, and suggests it better to view the style in terms of cycles.[22]
Prior to the development of films, the genre has its connections to broadly-based fiction of the 18th century.
The roots of the thriller also generally associated with the rise of the urban-industrial society in the 19th century which created new and expanded mass audience, along with new forms of entertainment. This included stage play melodramas such as
Silent era
At these same fair grounds, is where the earliest venues for film exhibitions with peep-show arcades which film historian Tom Gunning described as "the cinema of attractions".
The period between 1907 and 1913 solidified the film industry's domination of narrative filmmaking, predominantly with
1930s
The early 1930s saw the rise of two film genre movements: the gothic styled horror film and the gangster film.[47] Universal Pictures was the leader of the horror genre in the early 1930s with its expressionist-derived atmosphere that started with two big hits film: Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931).[48] Rubin noted that both films lacked the thriller's fundamental tension between the familiar and exotic or adventurous.[49] Also in the early 1930s, the gangster film arrived with early major films including Mervyn LeRoy's Little Caesar (1930), William A. Wellman's The Public Enemy (1932) and Howard Hawks Scarface (1932).[49] These films centered on the rise of and fall of the criminal with Rubin noting that suspense in these films was "relatively slight", with both genres leaving an imprint on subsequent forms of the thriller with mid-1930s G-Man films, the early detective films of the 1940s, and the gangster films of the 1950s.[50] The gangster film itself, entrusted the modern urban environment with larger-than-life overtones.[51]
Rubin described the mid-1930s as when the thriller entered its "classical period" with the emergence of key genres that were previously either non-existent or minor. These included the spy film, detective film, the film noir, the police film and the science fiction thriller.[52] The horror films of the early 1930s with their Europeanized settings and villains led to what Rubin described as a "growing uneasiness towards Europe" Such anxieties were directly registered with spy thriller films, that were previously marginalised but grew as the tensions of the 1930s and the outbreak of World War II.[52] The genre grew into popularity in Great Britain in the mid-1930s with the output of the countries leading filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. Between 1934 and 1938, Hitchcock directed five spy thrillers: The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935), Secret Agent (1936), Sabotage (1936), and The Lady Vanishes (1938). Along with Lang's output of the period, Rubin stated that Hitchcock became a "top rank" filmmaker specialising in the classical film thrillers, opposed to his prior output, which only sporadically included films that could be considered thrillers.[53] Compared to Lang, Hitchcock approach to the spy thriller was described by Rubin as "less abstract, less epic" with "a greater emphasis on individual psychology and subjective points of view" while Lang's primary focus was on "the structure of the trap", Hitchcock's was on the "mental state of the entrapped."[53] The first major American spy thriller of the World War II era was Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939).[54] After relocating to the United States, Hitchcock continued his attachment to spy films with films like Foreign Correspondent (1940) and Saboteur (1942).[53] Despite having these films exist beyond the cityscapes of the thriller genre, they do not deploy the adventure nature of The Adventures of Kathlyn or The Spiders usually lacking in exaggerated methods of transport, such as parachute drops, safaris, submarines, or even high-speed chases.[54]
1940s
Like the spy film, another genre that grew popular due to the war-generated phenomena in the early to mid-1940s saw the rise of thrillers centered around various phases of crime films such as the rise in popularity of detective films.
During the 1940s, the influence of other foreign movements such as
Further spy films were made, including The House on 92nd Street began encompassing anti-communist themes. This was inaugurated with films like The Iron Curtain (1948).[62] These titles drew on 1930s gangster film conventions, with the American branch of the communist parties being depicted like a gangster organization. This cycle continued into the 1950s with I Was a Communist for the FBI (1951), The Red Menace (1949), and Samuel Fuller's Pickup on South Street (1953).[63]
1950s
Crime was the significant focus of thrillers in the 1950s.[64] The more realistic crime films of the 1940s and film noir merged into films about police detectives thrillers. Unlike the more clean-cut police officers of the 1940s realistic films, these films often had the police officer following darker paths. These included The Man Who Cheated Himself (1951), The Prowler (1951), Pushover (1954).[64] A smaller wave of similar police thrillers had the police detective having moral weakness, but excessiveness.[65] These included Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), On Dangerous Ground (1952), The Big Heat (1953).[66] Rubin declared Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (1958) as another major film of this flawed-cop style. Rubin found that these late noirs collectively represent a peak of character development and moral complexity in the film thriller that was closer to the psychology films of Alfred Hitchcock than the action or mystery-oriented forms of the police thriller.[67] Syndicate gangster films of the era had similarities to the anti-communist spy films and alien-invasion science fiction films of the era with films like The Enforcer (1951) while The Phenix City Story (1955) and The Brothers Rico which contained borderline breakdowns of the criminal world and the lawful world.[68] The gangsters of these films do not resemble conventional criminals of the past, they dressed casually while being non-confrontational with muted violence.[69]
The 1950s also saw the movement of the science fiction thriller, which previously was a relatively minor genre.[70] The most prevalent was a hybrid of science fiction and horror in films like Them! (1954) and Tarantula (1955) while the films more attuned to the thriller occasionally saw an alien invasion theme, such as in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) which Rubin described as being between "science-fiction mundaneness and film-noir moodiness".[71] The science fiction thrillers of the era are not set on far off planets or but featured in present-day locales such as in It Came from Outer Space and The Incredible Shrinking Man.[72]
The 1950s also launched what Rubin called "a run of Hitchcock masterpieces", following an uneven part of experimentation in the late 1940s.
1960s
Around 1960, Rubin described that key thriller categories went through major overhauls. This led to closing what he described as "subversive debunking" that nearly closed the doors on genres like the detective film, re-contextualizing genres like the neo-noir, and enhancing the popularity of some genres such as the spy film briefly and other genres like the police film for longer periods.[77]
The expansion of foreign-film exhibition in the United States of highly regarded thrillers was an influence on the American thriller film.[77] Among the earliest of these was Henri-Georges Clouzot's The Wages of Fear (1953) and Les Diaboliques (1955) and Jules Dassin's Rififi (1955) which influenced the 1960s thrillers with their sordid atmosphere.[78] Another cross-fertilization between American and European thrillers was the French New Wave, a movement which arose in the late 1950s. The style of these films were generally more self-conscious and intrusive than that of Hollywood films.[79] When these films had thriller aspects, these aspects of their story had a throwaway quality.[80] The influence of the French New Wave was seen on American thrillers such as Mickey One (1965), Point Blank (1967) and Bonnie and Clyde (1967) as well as later films (Sisters (1972), Blue Velvet (1986), Reservoir Dogs (1992)).[81]
The spy film had been what Rubin described as "stagnating" for several years due to the limitations of post-war anti-communist films. The genre was dramatically revitalized by the surprised hit Dr. No (1962), which led to increasingly expensive and lucrative sequels as well as spearheading a 1960s spy craze in cinema and mass media.[81] Dr. No was conceived as a series of action set pieces (called "bumps" by the series co-producer Albert R. Broccoli) which mixed the film's action and violence with generous doses of humor and Bond's post-bloodshed quips and sexual banter.[82] The Bond films generally distanced themselves with apolitical villains, that toned down the cold war elements of the original novels and spy films of the past, locating their films in Jamaica, Istanbul and Miami over Cuba, Berlin or Israel.[83] Rubin found that the Bond films important to the development of the thriller, but their own thriller dimensions was limited due to the Bond stories gravitating towards adventures, suspense sequences being moderate, and tensions kept simple compared to the films of Hitchcock or Lang.[84] Following the success of the Bond films, the character became the standard which all other spy films of the era were defined by within their similarities or dissimilarities.[85] These included having the spy being suave hero, colorful locations, attractive women and flamboyant decors. Many pre-1970s spy films were predominantly comedies with spy film elements, such as Our Man Flint (1966) and The Silencers (1966) and their sequels.[86] Another style of spy films attempted to differentiate themselves from the Bond films, while still differentiating themselves from the patriotic and Anti-Nazi and anti-communist spy films of the past. These films deglamorized the nature of the Bond films while still remaining thrillers, such as The Ipcress File (1965), Funeral in Berlin (1966), The Defector (1966) and The Quiller Memorandum (1966).[87] These films featured spies who seemed less invincible than James Bond and other super spies, and often featured a more paranoid edge to their plots.[88]
Police thrillers returned to popularity around the period of law-and-order issues between 1968 and 1972 presidential campaigns through a general swing towards the right in the United States due to the Vietnam War. The police-centered were much less critical in their treatment of their justice obsessed lawmen and were showcased fighting to protect society where official institutions have failed them.[89] The police thriller returned in 1967 with the multiple-Oscar winning film In the Heat of the Night (1967), which was more about social issues than being a straight thriller, the films' use of racial epithets and strong-arm methods paved the way for films featuring characters like Dirty Harry and Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle for the upcoming police cycle.[89] Early films in the cycle included Madigan (1968), The Detective (1968), Coogan's Bluff (1968) and Bullitt (1968), the latter being more successful financially than any the previously mentioned thrillers.[90] Like Bond, Bullitt featured much of the mystique as the James Bond series, with his stylish lifestyle and being an elite specialist working with a larger organization and is granted considerable autonomy on the course of his assignments. Bullitt's producer Philip D'Antoni featured even more elaborate variations in his later productions such as The French Connection (1971) and The Seven-Ups (1973) as car chases became staple to modern police thrillers. These police thrillers also featured a harsher more conflict-riddled world closer to those of the anti-Bond spy films.[91] These films were also harsher and more violent, mostly due to the demise of the Hays Code.[92] The influence of the police thriller was long lasting, leading into the popular Die Hard and Lethal Weapon film series and attaching itself to other genres such as science fiction (Mad Max, Blade Runner, RoboCop), and comedy (48 Hrs. and Beverly Hills Cop).[93]
1970s
Offshoots of the police thriller is the
During the 1970s, contemporary situations such as the Watergate scandal and disillusionment about the Vietnam War led to conspiracy thrillers.[96] A cycle of these films included Executive Action (1973) about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, The Parallax View (1974) about a sinister corporation linked to a series of political murders, and others like The Conversation (1974) and Winter Kills (1979).[97] Unlike other films of the past, the paranoia of these films often focused on American institutions opposed to gangsterism or communists.[97]
A thriller-related movement in the 1970s was the disaster film, which came with the great financial success of Airport (1970), about an airplane crippled by a bomb that struggles to land in a snowstorm.[97] Similar films about a group of survivors escape several locations, such as The Poseidon Adventure (1972), The Towering Inferno (1974) and Earthquake (1974) about a group of troubled people in Los Angeles.[97] The films often featured all-star casts and often had the disaster happening early or mid-way into the story rather than at the climax with the narrative focusing on the group of survivors.[98] The genre ended following overt sequels, television films and parodies.[97] The genre had a brief revival in the late 1990s through the science-fiction and disaster hybrid Independence Day (1996), which was followed by Dante's Peak (1997), Volcano (1997) and Titanic (1997).[99]
1990s to present
In the early 1990s, thrillers had recurring elements of obsession and trapped protagonists who must find a way to escape the clutches of the villain—these devices influenced a number of thrillers in the following years. Rob Reiner's Misery (1990), based on a book by Stephen King, featured Kathy Bates as an unbalanced fan who terrorizes an incapacitated author (James Caan) who is in her care. Other films include Curtis Hanson's The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992) and Unlawful Entry (1992), starring Ray Liotta.[100]
Detectives/FBI agents hunting down a serial killer was another popular motif in the 1990s. A famous example is
Another notable example is Martin Scorsese's neo-noir psychological thriller Shutter Island (2010), in which a U.S. Marshal must investigate a psychiatric facility after one of the patients inexplicably disappears.
In recent years, thrillers have often overlapped with the horror genre, having more gore/sadistic violence, brutality, terror and frightening scenes. The recent films in which this has occurred include (2004) have crossed over into the action genre.
Sub-genres
The thriller film genre includes the following sub-genres:[101]
Action thriller
Comedy thriller
Conspiracy thriller
Conspiracy thriller a genre in which the hero/heroine confronts a large, powerful group of enemies whose true extent only she/he recognizes. The Chancellor Manuscript and The Aquitaine Progression by Robert Ludlum fall into this category, as do films such as Awake, Snake Eyes, The Da Vinci Code, Edge of Darkness,[107] Absolute Power, Marathon Man, In the Line of Fire, Capricorn One, and JFK.[108]
Crime thriller
Erotic thriller
Giallo
Giallo is an Italian thriller film that contains elements of mystery, crime fiction, slasher, psychological thriller, and psychological horror. It deals with an unknown killer murdering people, with the protagonist having to find out who the killer is. The genre was popular during the late 1960s-late 1970s and is still being produced today, albeit less commonly. Examples include The Girl Who Knew Too Much, Blood and Black Lace, Deep Red, The Red Queen Kills Seven Times, Don't Torture a Duckling, Tenebrae, Opera , and Sleepless.
Horror thriller
A subgenre involving horror.[115]
Legal thriller
Legal thriller is a suspense film in which the major characters are lawyers and their employees. The system of justice itself is always a major part of these works, at times almost functioning as one of the characters. Examples include The Pelican Brief, Presumed Innocent, A Time to Kill, The Client, The Lincoln Lawyer, The Firm.
Political thriller
Political thriller is a type of film in which the protagonist must ensure the stability of the government. The success of Seven Days in May (1962) by Fletcher Knebel, The Day of the Jackal (1971) by Frederick Forsyth, and The Manchurian Candidate (1959) by Richard Condon established this subgenre. Other examples include Topaz, Notorious, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Interpreter,[116] Proof of Life,[117] State of Play, and The Ghost Writer.
Psychological thriller
Social thriller
Spy film
Supernatural thriller
Supernatural thriller films include an otherworldly element (such as fantasy or the supernatural) mixed with tension, suspense, or plot twists. Sometimes the protagonist or villain has some psychic ability and superpowers. Examples include Fallen,[128] Frequency, In Dreams,[129] Flatliners, Jacob's Ladder, The Skeleton Key,[130] What Lies Beneath, Unbreakable, The Sixth Sense,[131] The Gift,[132] The Dead Zone, and Horns.[133]
Techno-thriller
See also
Notes
- ^ Konigsberg 1997, p. 421
- ^ Konigsberg 1997, p. 404
- ^ Filmsite.org. Retrieved July 25, 2010.
- OCLC 993983488.
- ^ "AFI's 100 YEARS...100 THRILLS". American Film Institute. 2001. Archived from the original on January 1, 2017.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 3–4.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 13.
- ^ Derry 1988, p. 7.
- ^ a b c Rubin 1999, p. 5.
- ^ Derry 1988, p. 8.
- ^ Castrillo & Echart 2015, p. 110.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 9.
- ^ a b Rubin 1999, p. 10.
- ^ a b c Rubin 1999, p. 11.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 12.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 12–13.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 14–15.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 16.
- ^ Mayer 2012, p. 2.
- ^ a b Rubin 1999, p. 4.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 3-4.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 39.
- ^ a b Rubin 1999, p. 40.
- ^ a b Rubin 1999, p. 41.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 41–42.
- ^ a b Rubin 1999, p. 42.
- ^ a b Rubin 1999, p. 43.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 44.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 44–45.
- ^ a b Rubin 1999, p. 45.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 46.
- ^ a b Rubin 1999, p. 47.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 47–48.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 50.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 51.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 52.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 53.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 54.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 57.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 58.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 59.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 60.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 62.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 64.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 64-65.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 65.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 70.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 71.
- ^ a b Rubin 1999, p. 72.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 73.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 73-74.
- ^ a b Rubin 1999, p. 79.
- ^ a b c Rubin 1999, p. 80.
- ^ a b Rubin 1999, p. 85.
- ^ a b Rubin 1999, p. 86-87.
- ^ a b c Rubin 1999, p. 88.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 89-90.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 90.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 91.
- ^ a b Rubin 1999, p. 97.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 98.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 100-101.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 101.
- ^ a b Rubin 1999, p. 102.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 102-103.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 103-104.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 105.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 107.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 108.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 109.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 110-111.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 111-112.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 113.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 113-114.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 116-117.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 117.
- ^ a b Rubin 1999, p. 119.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 120-121.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 124.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 125.
- ^ a b Rubin 1999, p. 127.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 128.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 130.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 130-131.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 132.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 133.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 133-134.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 135-136.
- ^ a b Rubin 1999, p. 137.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 137-138.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 138.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 139-140.
- ^ a b c Rubin 1999, p. 144.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 145.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 146.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 148-149.
- ^ a b c d e Rubin 1999, p. 149.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 149-150.
- ^ Rubin 1999, p. 150.
- ^ "Thriller and Suspense Films". Filmsite.org. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ "Thriller/Suspense Subgenre Definitions". Cuebon.com. Retrieved June 24, 2010.
- ^ "Action Thriller". AllRovi. Retrieved November 6, 2015.
- ^ "Taken – Cast, Reviews, Summary, and Awards – AllRovi". Allmovie.com. Retrieved November 6, 2015.
- ^ The Fugitive (1993) AllMovie
- ^ "The Hurt Locker – Cast, Reviews, Summary, and Awards – AllRovi". Allmovie.com. Retrieved November 6, 2015.
- ^ "Hollywood readying new wave action thrillers". ew.com. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
- ^ "Edge of Darkness – Cast, Reviews, Summary, and Awards – AllRovi". Allmovie.com. January 29, 2010. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ "JFK – Cast, Reviews, Summary, and Awards – AllRovi". Allmovie.com. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ "Seven – Cast, Reviews, Summary, and Awards – AllRovi". Allmovie.com. October 24, 2011. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ "Copycat – Cast, Reviews, Summary, and Awards – AllRovi". Allmovie.com. October 24, 2011. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ "The Asphalt Jungle – Cast, Reviews, Summary, and Awards – AllRovi". Allmovie.com. June 8, 1950. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ "The Score – Cast, Reviews, Summary, and Awards – AllRovi". Allmovie.com. July 13, 2001. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ "Entrapment – Cast, Reviews, Summary, and Awards – AllRovi". Allmovie.com. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ "Basic Instinct – Cast, Reviews, Summary, and Awards – AllRovi". Allmovie.com. March 20, 1992. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ISBN 9781118883495.
- ^ "The Interpreter – Cast, Reviews, Summary, and Awards – AllRovi". Allmovie.com. April 22, 2005. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ "Proof of Life – Cast, Reviews, Summary, and Awards – AllRovi". Allmovie.com. December 8, 2000. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ "Psychological Thriller Movies and Films – Find Psychological Thriller Movie Recommendations, Casts, Reviews, and Summaries". AllRovi. October 24, 2011. Archived from the original on November 2, 2011. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ Oksenhorn, Stewart (December 7, 2004). "'The Machinist': a haunting psychological thriller". The Aspen Times. Archived from the original on September 18, 2016. Retrieved September 10, 2016.
- ^ "Red Eye – Cast, Reviews, Summary, and Awards". AllRovi. August 19, 2005. Archived from the original on December 25, 2011. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ "The River Wild – Cast, Reviews, Summary, and Awards". AllRovi. October 24, 2011. Archived from the original on July 28, 2011. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ "Panic Room – Cast, Reviews, Summary, and Awards". AllRovi. March 29, 2002. Archived from the original on January 20, 2012. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ "Funny Games – Cast, Reviews, Summary, and Awards – AllRovi". Allmovie.com. March 14, 2008. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ Ebiri, Bilge (February 14, 2017). "Get Out's Jordan Peele Brings the 'Social Thriller' to BAM | Village Voice". Village Voice. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
- ^ "The Spying Game: British Cinema and the Secret State", 2009 Cambridge Film Festival, pp.54-57 of the festival brochure. Archived July 20, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Geoffrey Macnab, "Spy movies – The guys who came in from the cold", The Independent, October 2, 2009.
- ^ Filmsite.org
- ^ "Fallen – Cast, Reviews, Summary, and Awards – AllRovi". Allmovie.com. October 24, 2011. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ "In Dreams – Cast, Reviews, Summary, and Awards – AllRovi". Allmovie.com. January 15, 1999. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ "The Skeleton Key – Cast, Reviews, Summary, and Awards – AllRovi". Allmovie.com. August 12, 2005. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ Shoard, Catherine (July 26, 2010). "Spoiler alert: The Sixth Sense voted film with best twist". The Guardian. Retrieved September 10, 2016.
- ^ Billy Bob Thornton. "The Gift – Cast, Reviews, Summary, and Awards – AllRovi". Allmovie.com. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ^ "Daniel Radcliffe to Grow 'Horns' for Supernatural Thriller". Screen Rant. March 9, 2014. Retrieved October 11, 2014.
References
- Castrillo, Pablo; Echart, Pablo (2015). "Towards a narrative definition of the American political thriller film". Communication & Society. 28 (4): 109–121. ISSN 2386-7876.
- Derry, Charles (1988). The Suspense Thriller: Films in the Shadow of Alfred Hitchcock. McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-1208-9.
- Konigsberg, Ira (1997). The Complete Film Dictionary (Second ed.). Penguin Group. ISBN 978-0-8108-6769-7.
- Mesce, Bill (2007). Overkill: The Rise And Fall of Thriller Cinema. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-2751-2.
- Rubin, Martin (1999). Thrillers. ISBN 0-521-58183-4.
Further reading
- Frank, Alan (1997). Frank's 500: The Thriller Film Guide. Batsford. ISBN 978-0-7134-2728-8.
- Hanich, Julian (2010). Cinematic Emotion in Horror Films and Thrillers: The Aesthetic Paradox of Pleasurable Fear. Routledge Advances in Film Studies. ISBN 978-0-415-87139-6.
- Hicks, Neil D. (2002). Writing the Thriller Film: The Terror Within. Michael Wiese Productions. ISBN 978-0-941188-46-3.
- Indick, William (2006). Psycho Thrillers: Cinematic Explorations of the Mysteries of the Mind. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-2371-2.