1. Genre
A genre is a set group used to classify and order something into distinguishable groups e.g. Horror
and Romance for films or Trousers and shorts for clothing.
Genre regularly affects popular culture; classic examples are of Punk being strongly associated
with the 80’s whilst Disco with the 70’s. The mass media uses genre to classify forms of art such
as music, film, television, books, etc. Favoritism plays an important part of distinguishing one genre
from another; fans of Horror look differently upon comedy than fans of romance do. Genre has also
been used to shape differences in cultural aspects of these popular subjects. American comedies
are rather different from English ones, as country music is noticeably different from Irish folk music
for example. Genres sort media efficiently, especially when following trends set by society. From
walking in to the nearest movie rental store to searching for music oniTunes, genres are applicable
in everyday life as a classification system. Even in places such as a supermarket or clothing store,
genres are utilized to form an ordered flow to determine the differences between smaller parts of
something within one particular area, pointing out the differences between fruit and dairy, and Ska
to Reggae. In modern culture, sub-genres often arise to prevent a feeling of homogenization and
loss of identity. As the rate of global communication continues to increase, the creation of new pop-
culture sub-genres per year increases.
Genre in film
Fictional films are usually categorized according to their setting, theme topic, mood, andformat. For
example, a film with a lot of gore and dark themes would be classified as a horror whilst a film with
a love story would be a Romance. Genre when used with Media generally have age ratings linked
so a horror film will almost always have a higher age rating than say a musical (this is dependent
on each film though of course.
Thriller genre
Thrillers are films which stimulate the viewer’s mood giving them a high level of anticipation anxiety
and/or terror. Thrillers tend to be fast paced and gritty. Literary devices such as Cliffhangers, Red
Herrings and on the flip side McGuffin’s are commonplace in Thrillers.
Plots of thrillers involve characters which come into conflict with each other or with outside forces
as the threat is sometimes abstract or unseen. An atmosphere of creepy menace and sudden
violence, such as crime and murder, characterize thrillers. Thrillers often present the world and
society as dark, corrupt and dangerous. But in Hollywood they usually feature upbeat endings in
which evil is overcome.
Psychological thrillers are a sub-genre of Thriller which encompass the thoughts and actions of
someone with a drastically lop sided mental state (which are usually not seen at surface value). An
example would be the film Red Dragon, in which Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a seemingly intelligent and
straight line man, is discovered to have been serving up people he has murdered at dinner parties
to the guests.
According to Ken Follett, the first Thriller film was The Riddle of the Sands, which was an open-air
adventure Thriller about two young men who stumble upon a German armada preparing to invade
England.