Suspense film

Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a film genre that falls under the general thriller genre. The thriller film's key characteristics are excitement and suspense. The suspense element, found in most films' plots, is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. Tension is created by delaying what the audience sees as inevitable.

A strict definition of the thriller film is that the film's overarching goal is to build tension in audiences as the film approaches its climax. Tension is built through situations that are menacing or where escape seems impossible. Life is typically threatened in thriller film, such as when the protagonist does not realize entering a dangerous situation. Thriller films' characters conflict with each other or with an outside force, which can sometimes be abstract.

Thriller films are typically hybridized with other genres; there exist adventure thrillers, science fiction thrillers, Western thrillers, and film noir thrillers. Thriller films also share a close relationship with horror films, both eliciting tension. In plots about crime, thriller films focus less on the criminal or the detective and more on generating suspense. Common themes include "terrorism, political conspiracy, pursuit, or romantic triangles leading to murder".

Alfred Hitchcock's first thriller was his third silent film, The Lodger (1926), a suspenseful Jack the Ripper story. His next thriller was Blackmail (1929), his and Britain's first sound film. His notable thrillers in the 1930s include The Man Who Knew Too Much and The 39 Steps.

One of the earliest spy films was Fritz Lang's Spies (1928), the director's first independent production, with an anarchist international conspirator and criminal spy character named Haghi (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), who is pursued by good-guy Agent No. 326 (Willy Fritsch)—this film would be an inspiration for the future James Bond films. The German film M (1931), directed by Fritz Lang, starred Peter Lorre (in his first film role) as a criminal deviant who preys on children.

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