I believe that Psychological Thriller/Drama began with Alfred Hitchcock in the 1950s with the film Rear Window. This was a quintessential starting point within the genre of psychological thrillers as the film features key parts that we associate with the genre. The film stars strong themes of mystery and ambiguity that is now a staple part of the type of films.
Another notable early psychological thriller is again from Alfred Hitchcock is Psycho, this film shows the murder of a young woman in a hotel by Norman Bates. This film is possibly one of the most iconic of all time with Norman Bates being a very tormented character who is dominated by his mother. For example he dresses as his mother when he murders the woman, showing his mothers influence and psychological abuse to Norman. The film's shower scene with Norman dressed as his mother is something that is burned into the minds of all that have seen it. The use of the haunting music that is matched with the stabbing is an extremely memorable scene.
Throughout his time as a director Alfred Hitchcock created some of the most memorable and influential films within the psychological thriller genre and has gone down in history as progressing this genre and helping create it to what it is today.
From my own research what I can tell is that psychological thrillers weren't very popular after Alfred Htichcock and that there was a draught in the market until the 1990s. There were a few exception of psychological thrillers after Hitchcock such as Taxi Driver which immensely influenced the genre and is widely recognised as one of the greatest psychological thrillers ever due to Robert DeNiro's amazing character and performance.
This is why I personally believe that psychological thrillers didn't fully take off until more recently than when Hitchcock was making them as now there is much larger influx in the amount of psychological thrillers we see and the success that they gain. Films such as Fight Club, Seven and Memento which were all released in the 1990s and early 2000s. To me this was the golden age of psychological thrillers and was what truly helped them gain commercial success and love from audiences across the world, I think it helped change them from being more than just cult films and more into the mainstream. I believe at this time the psychological thrillers that were being released also delved deeper into the emotional turmoil of it's characters and the battle that goes on within them, arguably the genre's most interesting prospect. Films such as Donnie Darko that focused more on the character's internal thoughts and mind and how these events affected them. As Jake Gyllenhall's character has a lot of psychological problems due to the rabbit that he constantly sees. This character is a perfect example of a psychological thriller protagonist.
More recently there has also been a lot more psychological thrillers which have had immense success and helped bring them even more to the mainstream than they already were. Some prime examples of this are Black Swan and Shutter Island which were renowned for their thrilling storylines which shocked audiences alike and unpredictable nature which is definitely something I want to take for our own film and use to make a suspensful film which is true to the genre.
Overall this is what I think the history of psychological thrillers is and I think this is what has led us to the modern day climate of this genre and how it has adapted into the highly beloved type of film that it is. All the films that I have talked about have all individually changed the genre and influenced it in unique ways with Donnie Darko making it more likely to have characters with severe mental problems and torment and Psycho helping plot twists become more common.
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