In his book language and cinema (1974) Christian Metz explored the development of genre film and suggested that genre films pass through four photos of existence.
1) The Experimental - The Cabinet of dr. Cagliari (1919) and Nosferatu (1922
They helped formualise the narrative conventions of the horror film. They were the first type of horror films and set the basis for what was going to come in the future.
2) The Classic - Dracula and Frankenstein (1931) were the classical horrors that are still known about today and are stereotypical characters for events like halloween. Universal studios became the biggest makers for these types of films, their first successful film was 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' (1923) and set them of to make many more. The classic horrors tended to be very gothic and dark.
3) The Parody - Abott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), Carry On Screaming (1968), Scary Movie (1999). When horrors are merged with comedies so they are based on a horror scenario but with jokes and humorous things happen so its a lot lighter than a horror.
4) The Deconstruction - Se7en (1995), Sixth Sense (1999), Blair Witch Project (1998), Scream (1996).
Horrors mixed with another genre such as a thriller, 'Se7en' was one of the first films to do it and alot have followed since and they are currently very popular.
No comments:
Post a Comment