Paranoid thrillers are constant in cinema's history, but at any given moment they reflect our specific anxieties back to us and reveal how we feel about our institutions.
Here, I explore how paranoid thrillers crystalized as a genre in American cinema and examine the possibility of a contemporary renaissance in conspiracy fiction. Referenced Films: All the President’s Men, Captain America; Winter Soldier, Chiantown, Cinema Paradiso, Citizenfour, Cutter’s Way, Double Indemnity, Get Out, Inherent Vice, Minority Report, Mr. Robot S1 E01, S1 E06, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Night Moves, Rosemary’s Baby, Seconds, Taxi Driver, The Conversation, The Manchurian Candidate, The Nice Guys, The Parallax View, Three Days of the Condor, Total Recall, V for Vendetta, X Files S4 E10