Psycho

Psycho is a classic film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and is very famous thriller. Psycho is a very famous thriller because for the story and no one had ever seen a psychological thriller. this film focused on a man who runs a hotel and at the end of the film there was a huge twist that shocked everyone in the cinemas as they never expected Norman Bates the hotel manager to be the killer as everyone suspected that his mother was the killer, and this shocked the audience because it hadn't been done before. At the beginning of the film Marion Crane steals money from a rich man and goes on the run where and on her run she meets Norman Bates a hotel manger and as she needs a place to stay she decides to stay at the hotel and while she there she starts to talk to Norman and they have a conversation which makes Marion realise what she has done and decides to take the money back but gets killed in the shower before she gets the chance.

The shower scene is one of the most popular scenes of all time because Hitchcock had made the scene with over 70 shots and each shot lasted up to 2-3 seconds also using Bernard Herrmann's Screeching music in the background. Hitchcock gave the sense of gore and violence without showing any of it. This shower scene is still a very popular scene now because it is a classic scene and has influenced on how many other horror films are shot because it was done so well and worked by scaring the audience and give the sense of horror without the gore and violence.

 

The Birds

No Country For Old Men

No Country For Old Men is a film that is based on a ordinary man who was in the place at the wrong time. this film was directed, written and edited by Joel and Ethan Cohen and was based on the novel No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. The cast include Tommy Lee Jones who plays the sheriff, Josh Brolin who plays Llewelyn Moss the main character, and Javier Bardem who plays Anton Chigurh a hitman who has been hired to recover the money. The story is that Moss is out hunting and comes across a group of cars and a bunch of dead bodies, in the back of one of the trucks there are drugs Moss finds someone alive in one of the vehicles but leaves him and follows a trail and finds a man underneath a tree holding a case. Moss takes the case and heads home but decides to go back and help the injured person he found. When he gets back he finds that he is dead and then is chased away by more men there looking to get the money and drugs leaving the vehicle Moss and to get away on foot. The rest of the film is Moss trying to get away from Chigurh; but Chigurh catches up with Moss and a battle takes place with both of them getting injured. Moss decides to get rid if the money but that won't stop Chigurh from taking his revenge on him for wasting his time, Moss decides to meet his wife in a motel room to give her the money so she can get away and be safe but his wife decides to get help from the sheriff.


This trailer shows the audience Anton Chirugh who is a ruthless killer who is looking for someone with the money. This trailer shows the audience the tension that is built up in this film like in the first part of the trailer you have Anton Chirugh who asks the person behind the counter whats the most you lost on a coin throw and tells the person that if he wins he stands to win everything which impiles his life, this scene in the film starts of with Anton going into a gas shop for a snack and has a conversation with the guy behind the counter and there is tension in this as the audience know Anton is likely going to kill him. The trailer also shows that Anton is a ruthless killer and will do anything to get the money and kills anyone who gets in his way.    

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock was a very famous director who was born on 13th August 1899 and died on 29th April 1980. Hitchcock is renowned as England's best director as he created many of the techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller. Many of Hitchcock's films had twist ending which really shocked the viewer because no one really did this before Hitchcock, in his film psycho the end shocked everyone in the cinemas. Many of  Hitchcock films has one of the main characters on the run from the law, also in most of his films he has blonde female character and one of the main characters. Hitchcock has directed more than 50 films in his time which include North by northwest, Psycho, The Birds and many other of films. In 2007 Hitchcock came first in the Daily Telegraph in the greatest filmmaker to emerge from these islands. Without Hitchcock cinema would not be what it is today as Hitchcock had so much influence on the film industry, Hitchcock also influenced thriller films as he has created different camera techniques like lighting effects and camera angles that make thriller films look different and more interesting. Hicthcock started making films in british cinema in both silent and early talking films after a sucessful career in the british cinema he moved to hollywood in 1939. Hitchcock has also improved the film industry becuase the different camera techniques has improved how many films have been filmed and edited. Hitchcocks film Psycho is one of the films Hitchcock is known for because of the the twist in the film but also becuase of the shower scene where Hitchcock had around 70 2-3 second shots to make the scene and this had never been done before in film industry and it also gave the audience the sense of gore and violence without actually showing any of it and this had changed the way many films are edited.                             

The Manchurian Candidate

The original Manchurian candidate was a book written by Richard Condon in 1959 and was adapted to a feature film in 1962 and again in 2004. The book is about the son of a US political family and is brainwashed into to assassinate anyone who is a threat to the communist party. The main characters in this film are Major Bennett Marco and Sergeant Raymond Shaw, during the Korean war their platoon was kidnapped and all the whole squad can remember is that Sergeant Shaw saved all their lives. This thriller is different to most other thrillers as it is a political thriller but it is also seen as a paranoid thriller or a psychological thriller. The 1962 version of the film is consider a classic political thriller, the 1962 version was directed by John Frankenheimer and starred Laurence Harvey who played Sergeant Shaw, Frank Sinatra as Major Marco, and Angela Lansbury as Eleanor. Johnny Iselin who is married to Shaws mother Eleanor both attempt to overthrow the US government by saying there are spies in the US government. ( youtube clip of 1962 version).

  

This trailer leaves the viewer wanting to find out more about the film and what it is about as Hitchcock tells the viewers in the trailer that they wont understand the trailer until they watch all of it and also he states that they haven't seen any film like this one. This leaves the viewer wanting to see the film because it leaves people wondering what the film is about and how good is it going to be. Also the trailer shows that Frank Sinatra who was one of the greatest actors at that time was playing one of the main characters in the film. This would grab the attention of more viewers, as Frank Sinatra was a very popular actor at that time so more viewers would want to watch the film. The film has a great cast that includes Frank Sinatra and Laurence Harvey with other great actors.                  

 

The Manchurian Candidate was remade in 2004 with Denzel Washington playing Major Bennett Marco who is one of the main characters; the other main character is Sergeant Raymond Shaw who was played by Liev. The 2004 version of The Manchurian Candidate is similar to the 1962 version but parts of the film were changed to make it more modernized such as; in the original film they were fighting in the cold war but in the new film they were fighting in the golf war. Also the way both films presented what happened to Raymond Shaw as in the original the film all the soldiers who survive keep having a recurring nightmare where Raymond Shaw is Hypnotized into killing 2 of soldiers in Manchuria in communist China and it doesn't show the squad getting captured; whereas in the new version the film starts off showing the battle. Also in the original it doesn't show you how Raymond Shaw fits into the squad. Whereas in the new version the film shows that Raymond Shaw is disliked in the squad. Furthermore in the new version when one of the characters are remembering the events of what actually happened you can hear a heart beating in the background and it gets faster the more they remember also when they remember the screen turns red.