Genre Notes

Genre Revision Notes
· Genre is an important concept throughout film and it is now becoming familiar in everyday use.
· ‘Genre is collectively what we want it to be’.
· Genres are dynamic.
· Genres have repetition and differences – Some have identifiable but some also have new elements or similar elements used in new ways.
· Genres are never fixed. They always change over time:

Changes in technology.

Changes in audience expectations.

The audience who actually consumes a text may be different form the audience intended
Different texts from the same genre may appeal to different audiences. Target audiences for films have become younger over the years. This is known as ‘Juvenilisation’. This could be a reason why horror films are usually aimed at mainly a teenage audience.
These changes are made as a result of the zeitgeist.
Changes are also made as audiences demand change and they need to be kept interested however they need similarities throughout genre as they need to be aware of the type of features they are expecting otherwise they would be unsatisfied.

Compare the similarities and differences of texts from the same genre made in different time periods. Look at repertoire of elements sheet to see how genres change.
“The audience demand for predictability meshes harmoniously with the economic advantages to the industry that come with the standardisation of production”

Steve Neale (1990)

“If each text within a genre were, literally, the same, there would simply not be enough difference to generate either meaning of pleasure. Hence there would be no audience. Difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre”.

Steve Neale (1980)

“Increasingly we are all going to see the same ten movies”

James Monaco (1979)


· Genres can be divided into sub genres for example the slasher genre can be divided into a sub genre such as supernatural.
· Intertexuailty- In scary movie killer rings and asks “do you like scary movie?” and quizzes her about other horror films such as Friday 13th, referring to other films is this.
· Some critics have argued that ‘art cinema’ itself is like a genre – audiences have expectations of the pleasures a new art film will offer just as they have expectations of a romantic comedy or a horror film.
· 1970’s Genre theory- An explanation of the role played by genre in differentiating media text and aligning audiences
· 1950’s Auteur Theory - On of the first ideas within film was that people identified with film directors as the auteurs within the commercial film industry and noted that many of these auteurs work within one or two specific films. Therefore when going to watch a film a person would look at the director however it is now changed as by the 1970’s genre study had replaced authorship as the critical tool of choice of film

Slasher Films
· Psycho (1960, Alfred Hitchcock)
· The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974, Tobe Hooper)
· Halloween (1978, John Carpenter)
· Friday the 13th (Sean S. Cunningham)
· A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven)
· Scream (Wes Craven, 1996)
· Scary Movie (Keenen Ivory Wayans, 2000)
· The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003, Marcus Nispel)
· Switchblade Romance(aka Haute Tension) (Alexandre Aja, 2003)

Psycho (1960, Alfred Hitchcock)
“Granddaddy” of the Slasher genre.
Film is about a psycho killer on the lose in an isolated area at motel.
Film is in black and white.
The final girl could have perhaps been the mother, which is most significant at the end of the film.
Famous scene of the film was the shower murder, with the violin soundtrack.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974, Tobe Hooper)
First film to feature the final girl. The representation of the final was a typical “bimbo” which reflected women in society in that time period.
The villain was leather face.
The chainsaw was the phallic symbols of the killer were he used it to castrate himself at the final scene. The film was based on true events which took place in Texas.

Halloween (1978, John Carpenter)
Halloween broke away from the isolated setting and set the film in the suburbs so it would have a greater impact on the audience.
The killer in Halloween was Michael Myers who was always covered by his white maskHis phallic symbol was a knife which he used to penetrate his victims.
Michael Myers was mentally disturbed at birth as he killed his sister when he was the age of 7.

Friday the 13th (Sean S. Cunningham)

Friday the 13th stars the killer of Jason.
Friday the 13th has a franchise of Jason films whereby they change the narrative as they go along to appeal to a wider audience. In a certain situation such as Jason X they have mixed the slasher genre with Sci-Fi to create a hybrid genre.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven)

Nightmare on Elm Street is a super natural slasher film.
The killer in Nightmare on Elm Street was Freddy Kruger.
The killer was advertised so much that it lost his characters impact on the audience as people were not as scared forcing Wes craven to produce his own nightmare where he explained this.

Scream (Wes Craven, 1996)
Scream was the film which revitalised the slasher genre as it was becoming dead because the audience expectations were correct.
Scream holds intertextual references which show that the film is post modern.
Scream was set in the suburbs areas.
Scream is a parody of genre.
Knowing audience.

Scary Movie (Keenen Ivory Wayans, 2000)

Scary Movie is a spoof.
Mocks other films with humour.
Hold intertextual references from Scream, Matrix and I know what you did last summer.
It allows the audience to see that it’s just a movie and takes the scary elements out of it.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003, Marcus Nispel)

This was the re make of the original to make a younger generation watch it.
The final girl in this version was represented as a strong, independent woman.
Technology was used in this film to make the killings more realistic.
The sex scene was made more explicit as society has become more accepting of it.

Switchblade Romance (aka Haute Tension) (Alexandre Aja, 2003)

The film was set in France and was in French with English subtitles.
Explicit scenes when female were masturbating her.
Audience’s expectations of the film were twisted at the end because they were led to believe that it was the man that was killing everyone but really it was the girl.
Really explicit killings, murder weapon a knife and once it was a cupboard which it was push against a guy.



-The slasher genre follows conventions such as:
-Sex = Death , the girl who looses her virginity always dies first
-Drugs and Alcohol = Death, the teenagers that smoke and drink always get killed.
-Never say ‘ill be right back’
-Virgin always stays alive such as the final girl however this has changed due to the zeitgeist as promiscuity is more accepted in society.
-Slasher films desensitizes the audience by the cultivation theory