The conventions of spoof/horror movies

2. What is a parody?
A parody is a work that mimics in an absurd or ridiculous way. It makes
fund of the clichés and typical mistakes of another work in order to
derive ridicule, ironic comment or affectionate fun.
Example of a parody
The original image
(on the left) was
taken and made into
a parody.

3. Parody in the Movie
Industry
Most of the parodies now are in movies. These are
known as spoof movies. Spoof movies pick a specific
genre to target and start taking some of the most
popular movies within that genre to mimic and make fun
of.
Spoof movies first build our habitual expectations of
their genre and then mock them.

4. Genres That Come Under
Spoof/Parody Movies
Every spoof movie is undoubtedly going be in the comedy
movie genre however they usually have other genres to
cross with the comedy to create the movie.
Here are some genres and examples from them:
 Crime fiction – Austin Powers
 Horror – Scary Movie
 Fantasy – This is the End
 Adventure – Space balls
 Action – Hot Fuzz

5. Conventions of
Spoof/Horror Movies
These specific types of comedy are usually a humorous or anarchic
take-off that ridicules, impersonates, punctures, scoffs at, and/or
imitates (mimics) the style, conventions, formulas, characters (by
caricature), or motifs of a serious work, film, performer, or genre,
http://www.filmsite.org/comedyfilms.html

6. Impersonates
An impersonate is to pretend to be another person for
entertainment (or fraud). Majority of the spoof/horror
movies always have impersonates of other celebrities or
characters from the horror genre.
In Scary Movie 4, there is an
impersonate of Michael
Jackson.

7. Ignoring The Obvious
Ignoring the obvious, also known as “Elephant in the
Room”, is an English metaphorical idiom for an obvious
truth that is either being ignored or going unaddressed.
Spoof/horror movies do this a lot to poke fun at the
original horror movies story line and how ‘stupid’ they
are.

8. Clumsy Villain
Spoof/horror movies always have villains from other
horror movies. These characters are made fun of by
having them be clumsy and useless when it comes to
being ‘scary’.
In ‘Scary Movie’, the villain is
‘Scream’. He is meant to be a
ruthless murderer however
he is very clumsy and stupid
to parody his real
characteristics in the original
movie.
This is a example of him
trying to hide in the house.

9. Turning ‘Scary’ into
‘Funny’
Spoof/horror movies always turn scary concepts into
funny jokes. They usually build up your expectation of a
horror movie and then mock them.