History of the Genre:

Background:This was another split from the genre crime and murder. The genre murder mysteries was created in the time when crime films where out. Murder mystery films were based on the books/novels made by writers, which were in turn turned to films; at the time gangster crime was being viewed in public.There’s two story types for murder mystery films:

Open : shows the perpetrator at the beginning of the film, showing a ‘perfect crime’ where a protagonist is set to unravel the story and highlight unveiling scenes in a closed style.

Closed : where identity of the perpetrator is unknown a ‘whodunit’ movie where the perpetrator is unknown and the unraveling of the story is to find him. This type of film has a importance of suspense as the audience doesn't know the criminal.

1900s-1930sThe first murder mystery genre dates back to the silent era films, where the most successful novels where converted to the films e.g. Sherlock Holmes Baffled, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle made in 1900s and published in 1903.The most famous director for murder mystery genre is Alfred Hitchcock who released the most famous for the Blackmail (1929) and The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927). The total amount of murder mystery films Hitchcock released in his lifetime was However the earliest true mystery films include The Gold Bug (1910), from France, and The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1914). Both are Edgar Allen Poe stories, who created detective fiction (first private detective character).

1930s-1950sBy 1030s the murder mystery films began to adapted the genre of horror with the element of murder mystery this lead to a lot of films being made with the release of Murder in the right Morgue in 1932 by Universal Pictures (being a horror-mystery film)Universal pictures also released a hybrid of supernatural and whodunit genre in 1942 Night Monster.With this the first psychological mystery thriller film was produced in 1945 Spellbound directed by Alfred Hitchcock; with this in 1947 the film Fear in the Night was released.

1950s-1990sIn the 1950s the genre murder was explored a lot in this era with lots this genre combined with other genre settling in society as a very good genre, being sold very well.There was a wide range of televisual series released such as: Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955) Columbo (1971) Charlie's Angels (1976) Murder, She Wrote (1984) Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989) Law & Order (1990)

1990s-2000s1991- Films with female detectives have not fared well in this year. Kathleen Turner as a private eye V.I. Warshawski, this was meant to be the start of a new franchise based on a book series, but the film was a Box Office failure. (Due to the use of the Detective being a women in the 1991)

1994- Witch Hunt was released being set in the 1953 it was a mock fantasy/mystery. Where the detective uncovers witchcraft and murder in Hollywood.

1995- Lord Of Illusion, was a supernatural horror story with a New York Private Inspector.

1995- In the same year the Devil in the blue dress was released

1996- Made-for-television films was Dead man’s Island

1998: According to variety, 14 out of the top 50 grossing movies of 1998 were mysteries. These include Rush hour, Lethal weapon, Enemy of the state, The x-files, A perfect murder and Snake eyes.

1999- Sleepy Hollow set in 1799, featuring a constable who applies (Sherlock Holmes techniques) scientific methods and forensic science to solve a series of murders in the horror-fantasy film from Tim Burton.

21st century murder mysteries:

The Harry Potter films (2001-2011) are fantasy stories that contain many mysteries concerning the main characters especially the first 3 movies.

In 2003 The Reckoning was released a murder mystery set in the medieval England.

In 2008 Yesterday Was a Lie was released, a Neo-Noir black and white detective mystery combines science fantasy and film noir.

More recently, in 2012 The Raven was released, where the author pursues a mysterious serial killer whose murders are directly inspired by Allen Edgar Poe's life.(a fictionalized account of his last days)

Since the 1990s the genre murder mystery has developed from just being translated from novels to movies. However now the genre has been adapted by many writes and producers in various movies to create suspense and it shows the psychological processes within people who is the perpetrator.