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Example of a thriller title sequence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzekwWEW0eo&feature=related

Treatment 2

The films begins when Harry Jenkins is informed that the case of his missing sister has been closed due to lack of evidence. He is very upset to hear this news as he was hoping for the case to be solved, but he believes that he still will solve it, even without the help of the police. It seems that the news the police have brought him has made him even more determined to get to the bottom of it. He lifts his phone up to his face, still strongly gripping it, and begins dialing a number; but who's number? it's a mystery to the audience at this moment in time. He speaks about how he needs their help, that 'the feds' have 'fucked it' and the rest is up to them.

Treatment 1

The film begins with out company logo. It then cuts to a pan to reveal Harry and His girlfriend in bed. We see a close up of Harry restless in his sleep before cutting to a flashback of his missing sister in a dark room screaming. The scream then veers off and overlapped by a telephone ring which startles Harry from his slumber. Sitting up to answer the telephone he is greeted by an Officer Shades informing him the case on his missing sister is closed. Harry angrilly slams down the phone which wakes his girlfriend. She sits up to comfort him but they decide to leave so get dressed quicky and leave the house. Through a fade we see the couple arriving at a grave yard. They look at a stone on the ground and notice something stuck to it. Harry leans down to pick it up and unfold the piece of paper to reveal the words 'quit whilst you're ahead'which is the title of the film

Classic Psychological Thrillers; Gaslight (1944)

Director George Cukor's classic psychological thriller Gaslight (1944) (first made in Britain in 1939 with Anton Walbrook and Diana Wynward) is a superb, definitive psychological suspense thriller from 'woman's director' George Cukor. [Previous Cukor films that were similar as period dramas included Little Women (1933), David Copperfield (1935), and Camille (1936. The lavish and glossy MGM film, with authentic Victorian-era production design, was a remake of a taut and subtle film made four or five years earlier in Great Britain. This earlier version, starring a very sinister Anton Walbrook and Diana Wynyard, was directed by Thorold Dickinson and released in the US as both Gaslight and Angel Street (1940). When MGM decided to remake the film, it bought the rights to Dickinson's version and withdrew it from circulation (and reportedly - and unsuccessfully attempted to destroy prints of the film) - causing resentment among British film-makers. The film was advertised as "the strange story of an international criminal's love for a great beauty," and "the strange drama of a captive sweetheart." The film's plot, faithfully adapted by its screenwriters, was about a diabolical, Victorian criminal husband (Charles Boyer playing against type) who systematically and methodically attempts to torment, menace, and drive his bedeviled, fragile wife (Ingrid Bergman) mad. Its title was derived from the frequent dimming and flickering of the gaslights. The phrase "to gaslight" someone (to deliberately drive someone insane by psychologically manipulating their environment and tricking someone into believing that they are insane),was derived from the  film.

Early Thrillers;

One of the earliest 'thrillers' was Harold Lloyd's comic Safety Last (1923), with the all-American boy performing a daredevil stunt on the side of a skyscraper. The haunting and chilling German film M (1931) directed by the great Fritz Lang, starred Peter Lorre (in his first film role) as a criminal deviant - a child killer. The film's story was based on the life of serial killer Peter Kurten (known as the 'Vampire of Dusseldorf'). Edward Sutherland's crime/horror thriller Murders in the Zoo (1933) from Paramount starred Lionel Atwill as a murderous and jealous zoologist. And various horror films of the period, The Cat and the Canary (1927), director Rouben Mamoulian's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) with Fredric March, and The Bat Whispers (1930), provided some thrills.

Alien (1979)

Thrillers are often hybrids - there are lots of varieties of suspense-thrillers such as Alien, directed by Ridley Scott (1979) which is a Sci-fi hybrid introducing speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic elements such as spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstellar space travel or other technologies into the thriller genre.

Genre research; Thriller.

Thriller and Suspense Films: These are types of films known to promote intense excitement, suspense, a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety, and nerve-wracking tension. Thriller and suspense films are virtually synonymous and interchangeable categorizations, with similar characteristics and features. If the genre is to be defined strictly, a genuine thriller is a film that rentlessly pursues a single-minded goal - to provide thrills and keep the audience cliff hanging at the 'edge of their seats' as the plot builds towards a climax. The tension usually arises when the main character(s) is placed in a menacing situation or mystery, or an escape or dangerous mission from which escape seems impossible. Life itself is threatened, usually because the principal character is unsuspecting or unknowingly involved in a dangerous or potentially deadly situation. Plots of thrillers involve characters, which come into conflict with each other, or with outside forces - the menace is sometimes abstract or shadowy. (All information retrieved from filmsite.org)

A quick look into some of the best psychological thrillers of all time

The History of the Thriller Genre

Brendan Mcinerney

ALL INFORMATION RETRIEVED FROM (http://jallen5894.blogspot.com/2011/02/history-of-thriller-genre.html)

The History of the Thriller Genre

The History of the Thriller Genre

Thriller is a genre which is used in literature, film and television to create suspense, excitement and tension. The most common use of this subgenre to thriller are mystery, crime and psychological thrillers, however there are also many other subgenres. Thriller is also very closely coincided with the horror genre, To which both use suspense and atmosphere to cause feelings of dread in their audiences. The genre of thriller film developed from well known novels. Then later these novels were studied and adapted and later reproduced into a thriller film.

A film is portrayed as a thriller when the storyline gives the audience thrills, and keeps them on the ’edge of their seats’ as the plot builds up towards the climax. The tension is usually built up by a character being placed in a menacing situation, a mystery, or a trap which seems impossible to escape. There is also use of life threatened during a thriller film, as the main character is usually unsuspectingly or unknowingly involved in an extremely dangerous situation.

The common plots in crime thrillers are ransoms, revenge and kidnappings, which are elaborated on for the effect on the audience. In mystery thrillers, the common methods are investigations and the ‘whodunit’ technique. This is technique when there is a complex plot of a detective story where the audience is provided with clues of the identity of the criminal. The elements which are usually shown in a psychological thriller are mind games, stalking, death traps, obsession. These elements are generally combined to a certain extent, where it creates a complex plot which creates thrills the audience.

The atmosphere in a thriller film is also enhanced through the lighting and use of music. An example of this is from the opening of the film ‘Alien’ by Ridley Scott in 1979. In the opening of this film, the lighting is minimal and dull, this creates the atmosphere of suspense and mystery which links into the thriller genre.

One of the most well known and popular thriller films is ‘Psycho’ which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and was produced during 1960. This film is a psychological thriller based on the American 1960‘s time period. The film was adapted from the1959 novel which was written by Robert Bloch also called ‘psycho‘. Both the film and novel are based on the cases on convicted serial killer Ed Gein, this therefore allowed the directors of the film to associate the film with other genres such as horror, drama and mystery, as well as the thriller.

Overall, the genre of thriller is used in various ways to create an atmosphere which excites, thrills and entices the audience to carry on watching a film. This is done in several ways, such as through the use of lighting, mise-en-scene and also with the added use of non digetic and digetic music. The thriller genre was a popular genre during the past fifty years and is still increasingly popular within the industry today.