HAS FILMS CHANGED OVER THE PAST?

• Yes, I think it has and I believe it is still changing as time goes on. Genre can

change due to a number of things, for example, audience and technology have

changed, as well as narrative. Horror films have definitely changed over time. For

example, older horror films would be based around people’s actual fears, the things

happening in the movies would be things that could actually happen to a normal

citizen, a good example of this would be ‘Psycho’ (Hitchcock, 1960), it shows a

woman wanting to escape from her regular life, and running away to meet a partner,

stopping in a motel on the way, which is obviously where the trouble begins. This was

something that could just happen to anyone, there were no fictional monsters and

everything was legitimate, meaning that it would’ve scared people by making them

think it could possibly happen to them at some point during their lives. It is still named

one of the most terrifying horror movies of all time; however it does have a

‘psychological thriller’ sub-genre, possibly adding more scariness to it.

‘PSYCHO’ TRAILER

Most horrors nowadays have a mixed

genre; torture films e.g. Saw, (director

Wan, 2004) and horror parodies e.g. Scary

Movie (director Wayans, 2000).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG3-GlvKPcg

• Horror parodies, links to the comedy genre, another genre that has changed

drastically over time. For example, in comparison to horror movies, comedies seem

to be changing in the way that the genre is becoming very diluted, there is no modern

romance films around that are just purely romance, it has to have some sort of funny

part it in. For instance, a majority of romantic films released recently will be rom-

coms, a very popular genre. E.g. The Holiday, (director Meyers, 2006). Comedy can

also be mixed with other genres, for example even with the horror genre, resulting in

spoof horrors such as ‘Scary Movie’ (director Wayans, 2000) or ‘Dr. Pyckle and Mr.

Pryde’ (director Pembroke & Rock, 1925)

• I think there are a number of reasons for the change in film genres. The first

being a change in the audience and their expectation, i.e. as time has gone on, the

older generation is dying out and the new, younger generation is dominating. This

means that the expectations of the new generation will be different of that from the

old generation.

• The modern audience who prefer comedies are going to find different things funny from an audience of 50 years ago. For example, modern humour revolves around sex, swearing, violence, whereas before it would have just been like, little human errors that made people laugh, such as tripping over something really obvious, or being forgetful, an example being old silent movies such as ‘Double Whoopee’ (director Foster, 1929), in which Laurel and Hardy play the roles of a footman and doorman at an upper class hotel. One of the funnier scenes is one with an automatic elevator. A proud prince who tries to get on the elevator from the first floor. Instantaneously Oliver summons the elevator.

• For some reason the outer doors don't close and when the prince tries to step in, he falls into the elevator well. Oliver rides down in the elevator and disappears. The prince is pulled out of the well, all dishevelled and dirty. He tries it again. This time Stan summons the elevator and the whole thing repeats.

• The audience attracted to horror films now expect more gore, and more fictional,

jumpy storylines, two popular examples being The Mist (director Darabont, 2007) and

Jeepers Creepers (director Salva, 2001.) Both films include fictional monsters, which

we know do not exist in the real world, however both films are placed under the

horror genre, because the modern audience find things like this scarier, more like a

‘fear of the unknown’ type. This leads on to a change in technology helping to make

films more real, again using The Mist (director Darabont, 2007) as an example, the

creatures would have been created on a computer, using very high tech pieces of

equipment to make it look incredibly realistic.

• This wouldn’t have been the case back in the early 1900s, the filmmakers would have

relied on genuine fear, rather than knowing they could just shock the audience with

amazing CGI. Another example of a film where CGI works as a massive advantage is

Saw (director Wan, 2004) because without it, the torture would never look real

enough to gross the modern audience out. The technology available now just moves

the genre along so much because it helps to bring the horror genre to a whole new

level, making them look more torturous or monster-filled, depending on what the

director is aiming for.

Narrative also affects genre, and contributes to the way it changes, because storyline

will change over time, due to both audience and technology changing. Storylines

don’t necessarily need to become more complex, because of the technological

effects available.

Also, a modern audience know the codes and conventions of movies, for example the

basic storyline of a horror and the basic storyline of a romance. They know what will

happen and they know what to expect, yet they still watch it because this is what

pleases them. Such as, in a horror movie, the audience know exactly when a scary

moment is coming but they love it goes for the conventional way, the audience may

not like it as much as a typical or boring storyline.

Overall, I believe genre has definitely changed over time, due to a change in three

major factors; audience, technology and narrative. I think genre will continue to

change as time goes on because as newer generations take over, their new and

different interests will influence media productions.