Unit 13: Genre: Horror Flashcards
The Shining
Film genre is grounded in…
audience expectations about characters, narrative and visual style.
A film genre is
a set of conventions and formulas, repeated and developed through film history.
Generic conventions
are isolated properties or figures that identify a genre through such features as character types,
settings, props, or events that are repeated from film to film.
Generic iconography
images or image patterns with specific connotations or meanings
Generic Formula
the patterns for developing stories for a particular genre.
Generic expectations
describe the experience and knowledge that a viewer activates while watching a film, so that he or
she anticipates the meaning of particular conventions or the direction of certain narrative formulas
Three functions of Genre:
- to provide models for producing other works
- to direct audience expectations
- to create categories for judging or evaluating work
Subgenres
are those genres that define a specific version of the genre by refining it with an adjective, such as
spaghetti western slapstick comedy.
Hybrid genres
are those film genres produced by the interaction of different genres to produce fusions, such as
romantic comedies or musical horror films.
Six Principle Genres
- Comedies
- Westerns
- Melodramas
- Musicals
- Horror
- Crime
Comedies
-central characters are often defined by distinctive physical features such as the size of their bodies
or their manner of speaking
-narratives that emphasize individual episodes more than plot continuity or progression and that
usually conclude happily
-theatrical acting styles in which characters physically and playfully interact with the mise-en-scene
that surrounds them
Three subgenres of comedy
Slapstick comedies
Screwball Comedy
Romantic comedy
Slapstick comedies
emphasizes the physical stunt and gags. Three Stooges
Screwball Comedy
emphasizes fast talking verbal gymnastics that displace sexual energy of the drama with
barbed verbal exchanges between men and women. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Romantic comedy
humour takes a second place to happiness When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Westerns
-characters whose physical and mental toughness separate them from the crowds of modern
civilization
-narratives that follow some version of a quest into the natural world
-a stylistic emphasis on open, natural spaces and settings, such as the western frontier regions in the
US.
Hybrid or subgenres of the Western
Existential Western
Western Epic
Political Western
Existential Western
-the traditional western hero is troubled by his changing social status and his self-doubts.
Unforgiven (1992)
Western Epic
concentrates on action and movement, developing a heroic character whose quests and battles
serve to define nation and its origins. Dances With Wolves (1990
Political Western
-a critical western in which the ideology and politics that have defined the genre are fore-grounded.
The Wild Bunch (1969)
Musicals
-characters who act out and express their emotions through dance and song
-plots interrupted or moved forward by musical numbers
-spectacular sets and setting such as Broadway theatres, fairs, and dramatic social or grand natural
backgrounds or animated environments.
Types of Musicals
Theatrical
Integrated
Animated
Theatrical
Situate the musical convention onstage or “backstage”.
Chicago (2002)
Integrated
-Integrate the musical numbers into more common situations and realistic actions.
Dancer in the Dark (20000
Animated
-Use cartoon figures and stories to present songs and music.
-These films embrace the fantastic and utopian possibilities of music to make animals human,
nature magical, or human life, seemingly perfect. Fantasia
Melodramas
- characters who struggle, often desperately to express their feelings or emotions
- narrative that build toward emotional or physical climaxes
- a visual style drawn to interior scenes and close-ups
Melodrama subgenres
Physical Melodrama
Family Melodrama
Social Melodrama
Physical Melodrama
-focuses on the physical plight and material conditions that repress or control the protagonist’s
desires and emotions.Boys Don’t Cry (1999)
Family Melodrama
-elaborates on the confines and restrictions of the protagonist by investigating the psychological and
gendered forces of the family.The Namesake (2006)
Social Melodrama
-extend the melodramatic crisis of the family to the include the larger historical, community, and
economic issues. A Time to Kill (1996)
Crime Films
-characters who live on the edge of a mysterious or violent society (the underworld) either criminals
or individuals dedicated to crime detection.
-plots of crime, increasing mystery, and often ambiguous resolution
-urban, often dark and shadowy, settings.
Crime Subgenres
Gangster Films (Public Enemy)
- Hard-boiled Detective Films (Maltese Falcon)
- Film Noir (Touch of Evil)
Horror Films
characters with physical, psychological, or spiritual deformities, sometimes existing together in
one character
-narratives are built around suspense, surprise and shock
-visual compositions that move between the dread of not seeing and the horror of seeing
Horror Subgenres
Supernatural Horror film
Psychological Horror
Physical Horror
Supernatural Horror film
-a spiritual evil erupts in the human realm The Excorist (1973)
Psychological Horror
- locate dangers and distortions that threaten normal life in the minds of deranged and bizarre
individuals. Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Physical Horror
depiction of graphic violence takes primary Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Action-Adventure
a propensity for spectacular physical action
• narrative structure involving fights, chases and explosions
• an emphasis on state-of-the-art special effects
• emphasis on athletic feats and stunts
Subgenres of the Action-Adventure
Superhero films
Biopic
depicts the life of a historical person, past or present
• often hybrid or multi-generic
Biopic hybrids
biographies of entertainers such as Ray Charles, Buddy Holly (musical)
• biopics of law makers or outlaws such as Jesse James, Wyatt Earp
(Western)
• biopic of a gangster like Al Capone in Untouchables (Gangster)
Sci Fi
- involves extrapolated or fictitious science
- or fictitious use of scientific possibilities
- introduces some radical assumption about the present or the past
War Film
film about waging war
• scenes of combat are a requisite ingredient
• combat scenes are dramatically central
Teen Pic
- marketed to teenagers
- draws on aspects of teen culture
- caters to teenage interests, tastes and concerns
