A Compare and Contrast of Horror and Science Fiction/Fantasy Genres

King, Stephen. "Stephen King -- Why We Crave Horror Movies." Scribd. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov.

Within these two texts, the topic discussed is ‘how do these separate types of text forms explore horror and suspense within their plot?’ Because one is a 92 minute film and the other a book over 1000 pages, they would have their own ways of adding suspense to the plot and keeping the audience entertained at the same time. Movies contain lighting, music and camera shots to show the grittiness to the scene. A book would have other forms of horror and suspense, and would house paragraphs describing the scene in unnecessary detail, painting a clean image of the scene within the reader’s mind.

Popular Culture Pop culture plays an important role in today’s society; from the TV shows we follow to the sport teams we support, or from the books that we’ve been reading over and over again to the favorite celebrities that we follow every day. Though it doesn’t seem like these aspects of our life matter, but each can have an impact on the way we think and act. Pop culture has played both a role in shaping our country’s history and influencing the thoughts and actions of teenagers today. One of interesting aspects of popular culture is the focus in horror movies which is a very visceral genre that some people are so curious and find it very interesting. In Stephen King’s essay “Why We Cave Horror Movies”, he talked about the ideas

Terror in Horror Genres: by Nicole birch-bayley is about how society influence different aspects in horror genres like zombies. Looking back zombies weren’t that popular. Zombies were not that aggressive also. But when the terrorist attack happen in September 11th, 2011 everything changes. The violence that happened was unforgettable. Since then, Zombie movies had gain its popularity. Zombies were also much more aggressive.

Horror is a film Genre created to scare the audiences, it was originated in 1920s by the German Expressionist. The horror genre changed through time, the range from Gothic literature in 1930s, Giant mutant creatures in 1950s, humanization of the monster in 1960s, age of ‘Slasher’ films in 1970s, video nasty in 1980s to the era of Torture Porn and Post Modern horror. However throughout the changes two aspects remained the same. ‘The Monster’ and ‘The

Almost every genre of film to date has been designed and developed to make an audience feel satisfied or sexed up and in love or delighted or inspired or rushed with adrenaline. Horror, on the other hand, was the first genre that preyed on the audience’s deepest fears and utilized them to provide cinema with nightmare flair. And everybody loved it.

We also went over how horror involves the realization that evil exists in the world, but is largely not something that can be seen in the world, only in one’s own mind, and that while terror and horror coexist, horror can never come before an interrelated experience of terror, but terror can inspire later horror, though not simultaneously as there must be some separation in time (Wynter 8 March; Wells 11-13). We learned that horror requires thought, memory, and imagination and that it must be separated by time from whatever experience or event inspired it, even if that event was terror, in our lecture on March 8th, and in a lecture on April 5th we connected the immediate fear of terror and the more prolonged and building experience of horror to common themes and tropes used in many, if not almost all horror films today, which involves the overall change in, and usually tightening, of space in order to elicit horror, and the growing distance in time that builds the experience of horror (Wynter 8 March, 5 April; Wells

From dark, eerie locations to monstrous tragic films, the production of horror took a different turn when the American film obtained the ability to become more explicit (Geraghty). Around the 1970’s the new Hollywood horror era had developed, ultimately shifting the old horror monstrous theme to more of a disturbing and unnatural theme, which became popular in America. These new themes varied in terms of topics such as disease, possession, and mental illnesses (Geraghty), each in which portrayed graphic and detailed visualizations of disturbances in horrific context. Some of these themes were influenced by using literature as the basis for a plot and an interest in foreign horror used by film directors (Geraghty). As technology became more advanced in film, directors were able to use visual and special effects to create cinema that will indeed provide a suspenseful experience through narratives on screen for the audience. The new Hollywood era contained many elements to create a terrifying movie for their audience. For example, in a recent film called The Blair Witch Project (1999), the main character is documenting and recording supernatural events in video diaries, allowing the audience to have the perspective of the character (Geraghty). Not only does the perspective of the main character have a great effect the audience, but also the quick movements of the camera occurring in the movie does as well because it creates a terrifying effect for viewers. Due to the horror films providing a social escapism for its viewers, the people of America started to favor the horror

Hollywood, more than any other film industry, deserves to be attributed with the creation of the horror genre. Even though it is not responsible for the first attempts at horror movies, it certainly shaped the genre into what it is today and made it accessible to global audiences. The appearance of horror movies happens in cycles with a distinct pattern that repeats itself – a movie appears, delivers thrills to the audience, and suddenly, due to low production costs, sequels and remakes are made, or original films based on the same formula. This way, different subgenres are produced. Eventually, the market becomes saturated and the subgenre dies. “As the 1980s came to a close, the American horror film seemed locked into an endless loop of formulaic

Given the multiplicity and ambiguity of the horror genre, this essay will isolate the generic conventions of two specific varieties of horror; the post-modern and body horror genres. Pinedo establishes that all horror films involve the “violent disruption of the normative order by a monster” (1997, 15), however the nature of the ‘monster’ varies greatly. In an exhaustive analysis of the conventions of the horror genre, Tudor notes that in classic horror films the ‘monster’ or “destabilising force” is external (1989, 28). Tudor goes on to note that an external destabilising force ensures that “within the genre world there is considerable security about the final safety of our minds and bodies” (1989, 28) and that in every classic horror film under analysis, the threat was “successfully averted” (Tudor 1989, 28) The resolution of classic horror films inevitably involves the restoration of the normative order by masculine might or scientific knowledge (Pinedo 1997, 15). The clear coding of threats as external and the distinct boundary between normality and abnormality can be considered an important generic convention of the classical horror film. However, body horror and postmodern horror genres contain a different set of conventions in which the blurred boundary between the self and the monstrous other is the source of the horror present.

I have chosen this media text as horror genre in my opinion is worth to look at and I am familiar with it. Horror movies are being produced for decades and its already has its own conventions and codes that I will describe in this essay. ‘The Cabin in The Woods’ is showing those conventions and in fact, highlights them in order ‘to draw attention to the fact that media and their product are not natural, or ‘just there’’ (Long, P and Wall, T 2009).

Atmosphere may paint the mind fantastical scenes of dripping maws and sharpened teeth, but there are more notable conventions yet that have survived the tests of time rather than just the characteristically dismal and haunting horrored scenes of Gothic tension. Developed in a time for the turn of enlightenment in science, the Gothic novel twisted itself within these ideas and sculpted ideas considered otherwise otherworldly and brought them into a staple of reality where they were then scrutinized and objectified for their obvious distaste. In this we see the development of the true nature of humanity, the characters written across the pages, their minds feeding some sort of heavily cultivated obsession, a thirst for knowledge unsuited. Not only is such evident in Frankenstein as well as its many adaptations to film and paper, but in films such as Zodiac - where the main protagonist is drawn into a situation that feeds upon their minds until such thoughts snap with the tellings of obsession and only succeed in leading them to the brink of self-ruin, the destroyers of their own happiness.

A discussion about the strong interest in thrilling movies is both tantalizing and more academic than one may think. In a story, “Why We Crave Horror Movies,” by Stephen King the interest lies in the psychology behind horror movies. However, the article, “The Quiet Screams of the: Horror Blockbuster,” in SCREEN EDUCATION relates to how the filmmakers incorporate specific elements to create an experience. There are many noticeable similarities and differences between a story and a related article about why humanity desires to watch horror movies.

While watching a movie, we often refer to the movie’s genre’s category when we browse the cinema titles. We pick and choose according to our likings, purchase a ticket and enjoy the movie. Simple. However, what comes to mind in this industry and the art of film making is the evolution of the existing film genres in today’s wide market of movies. The movie genres that we have seen over the years have constantly altered itself and improved - from the horror genre for example - Nosferatu (Murnau.F.W , 1922) to Insidious: Chapter 3 (Whannel. L, 2015) and then a blend of genres as seen in Zombieland (Fleischer. R, 2009). As Hayward. S (2006, p. 185) puts it “Clearly, genres are not static, they evolve with the times, even disappear.” In this essay, we shall discuss on the proper way to observe genres and the effects of

Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” is largely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential films ever made, especially when it comes to the science-fiction genre. It is Kubrick’s intriguing and unique take on the human life when it comes into conflict with many things like human behavior, social orders, and technology. Even though many films revolve around the idea of humanity, Kubrick takes it to a completely other level, by exploring the outer limits in which human beings reside in to tell his story. Kubrick brings some extremely interesting questions to the table in this film when it comes to humanity and how it has evolved over the years, and how will it continue to potentially evolve. In this critique I’ll talk about all of the film’s ambitious ideals and what it all means, as well as deciphering how the film changed the science-fiction genre when it comes to special effects and cinematography.