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rhysg
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By Rhys Groves
So, what is genre?
Genre is the word used in the film industry to describe various categories that films, and TV shows, can be put into. Examples of genres include Horror, Comedy and Action. Each genre has its own unique characteristics which allow it to be recognized as a particular genre.
Benefits of Genre
A major benefit of genre's is that it offers the audience an expectation. In other words the audience will know what to expect from a film in a particular genre. For example i know that when i go to watch an action film, there are going to be big fight scenes, chases across cities and unrealistic hollywood drama. An example of this is the Fast and Furious franchise. The Fast and Furious franchise centres around a number of characters that are involved in illegal street racing and more recently bank heists. This series of films is a big hit with audiences across the world, this could be attributed to the big stars that have joined the cast, as well as the big stars that the franchise has made. Across the current 7 films, just under $3.9 Million has been made from the box office, from a total of around $759 million production budget.
Also you could use a genre, like horror, to disguise a films real meaning. For example in the 1920's it was illegal to be a homosexual so you obviously couldn't display homosexuality in films. But if you disguised the plot of the story into the horror genre then the film could be shown. This is known as 'queer horror' and can be seen in the 1932 film The Old Dark House(James Whale). In the film there is a 'scene that conveys a campy style with both men behaving as if they were effeminate caricatures'. This is when 'Both men wear more make-up than Mary Shelley, they dress fancily, and they talk and act dramatically and hyper-sensitively, in an “unmanly” manner'.
Horror first originated from the adaptation of gothic horror literature. The most famous gothic writers include Edgar Allen Poe, Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker.
The first depiction of horror in films was in some silent shorts created by the film pioneer Georges Méliès in 1896, the most popular and best known being Le Manoir du Diable. Which is sometimes credited as being the first ever horror film. Around 1910, Edison Studios created a film version of Frankenstein, following the film adaptation of the novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in 1908.
During the first world war there was an influx of German film makers that hugely influenced films in the horror genre. Mainly a film called The Man Who Laughs(Robert Wiene) was a hugely influential film at the time.
Then Hollywood came in and took over the industry, namely Universal, With there first hit film Dracula(Tod Browning). Quickly followed by Frankenstein (James Whale)and The Old Dark House(James Whale) This is when the word Horror became more commonplace.
In the 1950's there was a huge advance in technology, this then changed the tone of horror films away from Gothic towards more contemporary concerns. This is when the UK became a huge producer of horror films. The Hammer Company was the first to solely focus on Horror films.
Later in the 1950's and 1960's the slasher genre was created and then was sealed with Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.