Case studies of iconic directors of the genre.

Christopher Nolan is a very famous director from directing The Dark Knight to the psycho-thriller film Mememto. Over a decade Christopher Nolan has gone from producing low budget films to Hollywood blockbusters!

The second film the he directed was Mememto in 2000 which was produced from a short screenplay written by his brother. Mememto starred Guy Pearce and the film brought loads of honors from Academy awards to Golden Globes. Leading on from Nolans Mememto he then went on to direct Insomnia in 2002 which starred Al Pacino and Robin williams

Christopher Nolan has a lot of trade marks, he likes to have his protagonists to resort to tacctics of physical or psychological torture to gain information. For example in 'Insomnia', Dormer drives into oncoming traffic to scare the victims best friend and hopefully get him talking.
His films usually revolve around characters that are afflicted withsome kind of psycholofigal disorder, in Mememto, Guy Pearces character had short term memory. In Insomnia, Al Pacinos character has a sleeping disorder.

He usually starts or ends his films with flashbacks. Mememto follows this trade mark.

Alfred Hitchcock is another famous actor in the psycho-thriller genre, he pioneered many techniques in suspense and psychological thriller genres. He had a really successful career in the British Cinema and decided to go on to Hollywood and continue a bigger career over there.

He directed 'The Birds' in 1963 which was named the 'scariest movie of all time'.
Hitchcock has been given the nickname 'The Master of Suspense' His interest in films began around 1915 and escalated from then.


It was after Sabotuer in 1942 that Hitchcocks fame as a director grew and people began to refer to his films as 'Alfred Hitchcocks Physco' and 'Alfred Hitchcocks Family Plot'.

Alfred Hitchcock also directed the very famous 'Psycho' in 1960 which still scares people to this day. He uses suspense in the film 'Psycho' by alternating between different shot types to create a longer cinematic time. He used this technique in the shower scene in 'Psycho'.