Genre is the term used for a type of movie, film or play being it a horror -Alien ( ), a western - Unforgiven (1992) , a thriller - Scream 3 (2001), etc. These movies play off the obvious things around them, like in westerns, these are always set in the wild west of America. Also there are some genre's that cross over to form new genres, i. e. parodies - Not another teen movie (2002) or Gangster/ Horror/ Road - Vampire Hunter D - Bloodlust.
Horror as a Genre is the presents of something abnormal or that intends to frighten, this can be depicted as a vampire, werewolf, zombie, tin man, etc.Also in many horror films the scenery is also abnormal, like in the film Sleepy Hollow (1999), the trees in the woods are distinctively shaped as if they were a person in agony or pain, or perhaps clawing at the actors. This is to give a sense of edge and also to unnerve the person/s watching the film. This also may add to the story. The very first horror film Das Cabinet des Caligari (1920), was the first ever film to wrap the scenery in such a way. This film's scenery added to the actor's performance because there was no spoken narrative, as sound had not been invented, i.
. when the somnambulist is hunting the girl he creeps along the wall as if he is part of the shadows.This added tension to the scene, as if it was saying he is a creature of the night and if he dare step into the light he may perish but later on we see this not so. I will now be performing a film study of the film The Others (2001).
The storyline is as follows, a family are living in a house, their help suddenly disappears and the children have a allergic reaction to light.Only one thing's wrong the house is haunted. There some key points in the stylistics that make this film an obvious horror film, in the beginning when the new house staff arrive the mother (grace Nicole Kidman) welcome them and explain about the mysterious vanishing of the other house staff, she then says "I better introduce you to the children". As they grow near to the room with the children in it, she requests that all the curtains and shutters be shut.
This makes the audience think what are these children?Vampires? But in fact they are photosensitive and cannot enter into strong and sunlight. Also in the up stairs junk room when Grace goes up to look for the intruder, there are white sheets covering everything, earlier on in the film Anne (Alakina Mann) says to Nicholas (James Bentley),"ghosts go around in white sheets and chains. " This makes you think that the footsteps are coming from the white sheets. The Narrative in the film gives a like with the light and the dark.The light represents life and dark represents death and suffering. This makes it clear that there is an essence of death here, also the idealism of heaven and limbo, if there are such things why are there "intruders" this questions the characters spiritualism and belief.
The effectiveness of this film as a horror movie is much it has all the points of a good horror movie, the twist, the dark haunted house. In my opinion the only way this film could have been better was if there were better actors in it.
