History and Development

History and Development

The media text I have chosen to do is to create a film trailer on the horror/thriller genre. Looking at pass media text (films) within the thriller genre I can see how they have changed and developed.

Early thrillers: according to filmsite.org, one of the earliest thrillers made was Harold Lloyd’s comic Safety Last (1923) which was about an American boy performing daredevil stunt on the side of a skyscraper. Not typically your 21^st century thriller and would probably be classed as an Action genre. The earliest film which has thriller conventions and would still be recognised as a thriller film today is Fritz Lang’s “M” (1931) - Which is about criminal deviants – children killer. A film talking about topics such as manslaughter and the killing of children is still today a touchy topic, but for 1931 audiences would have been a lot to digest.

With the development of films through the years, and the advance of technology has enabled films to become more advance and more visually entertaining with special effects, main stars and a wider variety of genre hybrids. Today’s thrillers can’t be classified as a “thriller” without being a thriller-horror or thriller-action etc because the regulations and convention are much broader. Thrillers and more so of the 1970 are where when they were at an all-time high, with the release of VHS players and purchasable copies of films, audiences where able to watch these films from their homes. One of the most famous films which were available on video, even though banned in the cinema because of its incapableness for audiences of that era, plus its effect to create an atmosphere of madness was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. This lead to the next era of videos available for home entertainment.

Toward the end of the 70’s and leading into the 80’s, the epidemic of ‘video nasties’ were introduced, creating the horror/thriller genre a must see for the majority of audiences. However this caused some controversy. Prior to 1984, videos had no control over them which cinema did, controlled by the BBFC and this meant any distributors could release pretty much anything on video. A wide variety of people were against the release of ‘video nasties’, especially the conservative party who at the 1983 election believed the UK needed re-shaping. Under the control of Margret Thatcher, in 1984 a video recording act was passed and were able to prosecute distributors of72 titles including Driller killer, I spit on your grave and cannibal Holocaust. Also police could raid stores and take these video titles.

Entering the 21^st century made the films of the 1970’s appeal almost comic and are now available with suitable certifications on DVD. 21^st century films have advances rapidly since the 1980’s with the use of high-tech digital technology, special effects etc. But also the change in society has allowed these new grotesque films to be release. Audiences today can accept that the stories in films don’t necessary influence peoples actions (small scale) and the world has been introduced to more graphic scene in everyday lives such as 9/11 bombings or conditions in 3^rd world countries.