Over time it has been noticed that the typical themes and content has changed in thrillers. Also it is clear that the technology is now more advanced than what it used to be. When looking at thrillers the content seems to reflect the society, this has been the case from when they began making films.
The 1950’s until present day shows major differences in the way the society operates, after analysing the films; stranger and vertigo I noticed that the police dealt with situations differently and the focuses of the films were exaggerated to create an effect. Also codes and conventions were challenged; they played on the fears of the existing society.
In Vertigo from 1958 the psychological idea of perception and deception really comes into play. The idea of someone one have mental health issues were becoming more well-known. Over time this has been advanced and everything seems more horrific, this could be because everyone has more knowledge about everything.
The theme of gore in thriller movies was definitely not used as much as it is today, with the progression of media now makes it easier for different views to be acceptable and to be shown to an audience, this is because of a few films changing the perception of a thriller adding different aspects.
As time has passed it is evident that the whole idea of fear has played a major role in thriller films. The problem with the more recent horror movies is that there doesn’t seem to be as many barriers in terms of gore, crime or death. To shock the society is more of a challenge for those creating thrillers; the audience seem to have become desensitised so what used to seem extreme is now not enough to shock people today. This could be because the society today feel safer than what they used, there are now more medicines for health issues ,there is more help when dealing with psychological problems and there are more forces available to ring; the police are always available to help when something could be wrong.
One thing that hasn’t changed is the fact that men usually seem to play a bigger role in thrillers, this can be seen as sexist as women seem to be more helpless and they always need to be rescued. I believe this is an ideology of society though, men have always been seen as protectors even in the ancient times, they are the ones to solve problems or crimes, again for a long period of time the name of the services to help were ending with ‘men’ e.g. Policemen. This was only recently debated for this to be fairer to women. Therefore, it is clear that in thrillers the men are usually the main focus.
Men can also be seen as more dangerous than females, their strong characters and physique makes it easier to believe they are more able to do harm than what women are.
It is also clear the technology has improved as now most horror chooses to be in colour, compared to the older thrillers that were black and white, but as time has passed there are now Blueray and HD TV which means the colour is even sharper than what it used to be.
When it comes to editing the seems to be more fast paced, whether this is because the ideas of creating different atmospheres has advanced by using editing in different ways or by the fact they have realised that if everything is at a faster pace it forces the audience to pay more attention and could cause them to feel confused or whatever emotion the director intended.
This is a very good overview. You should also consider the following points:
ReplyDeleteHow does the representation of society seem different in Vertigo and Stranger?
Rather than the development of black and white to colour, does there seem to be commonalities across your films in terms of the ways that camera work is used as well as mise-en-scene?