This weeks class was dedicated to exploring the notion of genre within Hollywood film. I found this class particularly interesting as genre is fascinating to me – it is similar to exploring sub-cultures within society. During the class we were asked to list genres of film and outline certain identifiers that allow the audience to recognize the genre.

For this example we utilised the film that we had watched during the week, Frankentstein (1931). We were able to relate this film to the horror genre as it had many elements that occur and reoccur within the genre such as the character of a mad scientist, a creepy lab and an eerie castle.

This exercise led to a discussion about the horror genre, and in particular, why particular generations find particular horror genres ‘scary’. We discussed many different ‘cycles’ of horror films such as supernatural horror, slasher films and torture porn to name a few. We uncovered that the reason why these different cycles of films are considered ‘scary’ – this is due to the social, political and economic context from within the film was produced.

For example, Frankenstein (1931) was produced in the 1930’s during the time of the great depression and in a time where religious culture was certainly much more prominent and relevant when compared to current times. The reason why people found this film frightening was because it was all about a man ‘playing god’ and attempting to obtain the status of a modern day Prometheus.

The discussion then followed to us being able to identify different character types within films and the horror genre in particular. For example the ‘Final Girl’ character type in slasher horror films, which was coined by Carol J Clover and refers to the final girl left standing in horror films, the one to tell the story. This girl is usually the only girl within the film that is not sexualised and, at the climax of the film, transcends the sexist notions of femininity and usually resorts to violence in order to achieve salvation.