Overview of films and directors that influenced us;

We watched many thrillers in order to influence us, and get inspriation and ideas;
- Sev7en
- Taking Lives
- No Country for Old Men
- Phonebooth
- One Hour Photo
- Pyscho
and we also watched the opening to many others, to see how famous professional directors such as Hitchcock and the director of Taking lives, D.J Caruso, create tension and suspense in order to make the audience want to watch the rest of the film.

We also watched past student thrillers, who had the same brief as we do. This was really helpful as we could see how other students dealt with the brief and what they acheived.


Directors:

Alfred Hitchcock is the undisputed King of Suspense Thrillers and several of his movies appear in Couples Company’s Top 25 Suspense Films of All Time.
A new Hitchcock is on the horizon and he’s made his talent and presence known through The Sixth Sense and Signs.
M. Night Shyamalan shows Hitchcock’s uncanny ability to combine psychology, spirituality and intrigue into hair-raising, spine-chilling stories that tap into our deepest fears while peppering the plot with humor and common sense humanity.



Alfred Hitchcock


Total Movies: 58
Career Span (Number of movies by decade):
1920s - 11
1930s - 15
1940s - 14
1950s - 11
1960s - 5
1970s - 2
Top Movies:
1. Rear Window (1954)
2. Psycho (1960)
3. Vertigo (1958)
4. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

Steven Spielberg


Number of Movies: 32
Career Span (Number of movies by decade):
1950s - 1
1960s - 3
1970s - 3
1980s - 7
1990s - 7
2000s - 9
Top Movies:
1. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
2. Jaws (1975)
3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
4. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

James Cameron


Number of Movies: 13
Career Span (Number of movies by decade)
1970s - 1
1980s - 4
1990s - 4
2000s - 4
Top Movies:
1. Aliens (1986)
2. Terminator, The (1984)
3. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
4. Abyss, The (1989)

Quentin Tarantino


Number of Movies: 9
Career Span (Number of movies by decade)
1990s - 3
2000s - 4
Top Movies:
1. Pulp Fiction (1994)
2. Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)
3. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
4. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

Martin Scorsese


Number of Movies: 32
Career Span (Number of movies by decade):
1950s - 1
1960s - 1
1970s - 8
1980s - 5
1990s - 8
2000s - 8
Top Movies:
1. Taxi Driver (1976)
2. Departed, The (2006)
3. After Hours (1985)
4. Bringing Out the Dead (1999)

Christopher Nolan


Number of Movies: 7
Career Span (Number of movies by decade):
1990s - 2
2000s - 5
Top Movies:
1. Dark Knight, The (2008)
2. Memento (2000)
3. Insomnia (2002)
4. Prestige, The (2006)

Roman Polanski


Number of Movies: 25
Career Span (Number of movies by decade):
1950s - 7
1960s - 6
1970s - 5
1980s - 2
1990s - 2
2000s - 2
Top Movies:
1. Chinatown (1974)
2. Repulsion (1965)
3. Ghost Writer, The (2010)
4. Cul-de-sac (1966)

David Fincher


Number of Movies: 6
Career Span (Number of movies by decade):
1990s - 3
2000s - 3
Top Movies:
1. Fight Club (1999)
2. Zodiac (2007)
3. Se7en (1995)
4. Game, The (1997)

John Carpenter


Number of Movies: 23
Career Span (Number of movies by decade):
1960s - 5
1970s - 3
1980s - 8
1990s - 5
2000s - 2
Top Movies:
1. Halloween (1978)
2. Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
3. Dark Star (1974)
4. Escape from New York (1981)

David Cronenberg


Number Of Movies: 23
Career Span (Number of movies by decade):
1960s - 3
1970s - 5
1980s - 5
1990s - 4
2000s - 6
Top Movies:
1. Dead Zone, The (1983)
2. Fly, The (1986)
3. History of Violence, A (2005)
4. Eastern Promises (2007)