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An analysis of The Psycho - Thriller Genre with particular reference to Basic Instinct (1992), Fatal Attraction (1987) and Single White Female (1992). Genre goes back to the earliest forms of cinema and was seen as a way of organising films according to type. It wasn't until the 1960's that Genre was introduced into the use of main stream theory. The French critic André Bazin was actually already using the term in the 1950's when making reference to …

…the films final scenes. Most thrillers are more fantasy based than they are reality but what thrillers do have is the 'aura' of the possibility of what you've just watched actually happening. Directors of thrillers use settings that are ordinary and familiar environments to the audience. The audience is led in by the hand gently to begin with and then led on a roller coaster of twists and turns until the eventual outcome is revealed.