The Horror Cycle

In todays lesson we were introduced to how the impact of social and psychological forces in films affect society and the audiences feelings. The idea that the Horror genre is in a cycle suggests that the horror genre is now repetitive and continuous, however it has not always been this way:

In the 1930's horror genre in films was initially formed through films such as 'Nosferatu' and 'Frankenstein'. Most horrors in the 1930's through to the 1940's included a Monster and a very similar narrative, which would eventually become repetitive and boring to an audience; desensitising the audience. . Therefore in the 1950's films introduced aliens to horror films; creating the irrational fear that monsters could come from outer space as well as just the outside world.

Eventually this genre became repetitive again forcing a new change in the genre of horror films, and this film came with the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film: Psycho. Hitchcock redefined the whole horror genre in multiple ways through his revolutionary directing style. One of the most effective changes he made to the genre was setting the film in a simple house with a murderer who seemed harmless to most people. I can see how this change greatly impacted the industry as the irrational fear of being unsafe from certain things was now exaggerated dramatically; nowhere and nobody is safe. Audiences were left in fear and running out of the theatres when the movie was first released as before 'Psycho' no movie had ever been as horrifying. In addition the changes to characters and setting, Hitchcock played with desensitisation further by making subtle changes to things audiences were used to seeing in the real world. For example he sped up the fps of the clouds moving and filmed water moving anti-clockwise down the plug-hole; toying with the audiences comfort. As a result of these minor and major changes to the genre being so effective in cinemas, some devices used and the film as a whole is extremely iconic.

Moving onto the 1970's horror films began to feature gore a lot more, films like this were labelled as 'slashers'. Films such as 'Driller Killer' and 'Hitcher' were two of the original slashers. Further on in the 80's the 'Film Nightmare on Elms St.' took the idea of insecurity and danger into our dreams. This again had a huge impact on society as audiences were left in fear of going to sleep.

Finally this cycle was coming to an end through into the 90's as most areas that horror movies could venture had been explored already. Horror films made since the 90's until present are often recreated genres that have already been established, for example the 'Saw' series is a throwback to the slasher genre. The most significant evolution in the past 20 years of horror films is that 'teen-horrors' are much more popular. However these 'teen-horrors' often recycle a phase of horror films from the past, but appeal to a younger audience and aim to entertain the audience as oppose to put them in fear. By doing this I feel horrors made in the present are slightly mocking classic horrors.

Introduction to genre

Throughout the first week of media lessons I was introduced to the subject and what we would be studying. I learnt multiple ways media is used and what is used to achieve, mostly in film but also in other areas such as in TV & education in schools. One of the main areas of media we focused on during the week, and will continue to study over the course.

The first big ambiguous question our class was faced with was “What is genre?” Which at first I believed to be quite simple. Previous to this lesson I had always assumed ‘genre’ was simply the main groups pieces of media ,such as films, are categorised into e.g. Horror and action. However I have now learned that the term ‘genre’ is much broader and how many pieces of media can be grouped in to multiple genres.

To further my understanding of genres we looked at the similarities within different genres. Part of this was looking back on how films have used genre over the years. Back when Hollywood films were first being made in the early-mid 1900’s each film fell into a very specific genre such as romance, and most romances would have many similarities including cast, narrative and Mise en scène to allow the audience to familiarise with the film. In affect when someone wanted to watch a romance they often saw exactly what they expected to see, this resulted in having satisfied customers; making the movie more successful.

However as more and more films were produced audiences would eventually get bored of seeing such similar films, therefore when a genre was becoming less popular more successful genre’s would be produced. This system still continues in todays film-making, however genres are not as definite now and most audiences are more satisfied after seeing a unique and entertaining film, often with a twist on what they were expecting.

In addition to this we studied not only how movie genres determine how they are successful commercially, but how they affect the audience through re-presenting real life lessons and laws. For example if the villain in a film commits a crime they are often punished before the end and the hero is rewarded; this re-presents how in real life if a person is to commit a crime there will be consequences. One pout that was brought up through this discussion was that there may be a correlation between peoples actions and what is shown in films; some crimes have been though to be influenced through violence in films/video-games. Personally, I believe there is some relation because some of my opinions and thoughts have been influenced through what I’ve seen in the media e.g. the clothes I wear, the music I listen to etc…

So far what I have learned in media is far more interesting than I was previously expecting after only the first week. I am mostly keen to look deeper into the whole concept of media plays a part on the publics daily lives and views, including my own, and I hope there is much more to learn throughout the course.