Essay on No Hope Exists For Genre Study

“Genre Type A with just the right mix of Genre Type B, and the twists of Genre Type C.” Cabin in the Woods (2012) is just this type of genre melting pot, ranging multiple horror subtypes (teen, monster, zombie, slasher,) while even still spanning other genres (thriller, mystery, comedy, fantasy.) Staiger argues that film genre cannot be “pure,” and never has been, as, the organization of genre study is excessively subjective, and that there is too much variety present in Hollywood (Staiger 185). Moreover, what the studio sees is vastly different than what the audience sees, and that until “everyone—from the authors to the distributors and exhibitors to the audiences and critics—agrees on how to categorize films, no hope exists for genre study” (188). Although Staiger is correct in saying that film cannot be purely categorized into perfect boxed-up genre types, broader categorizations certainly do exist. When an audience is told it is about to watch a horror film, the audience will come to expect certain plots, tropes, themes, such as the ignorant, often immoral victims (Cwik), along with a merciless killer. “Genre is one of the most readily identifiable means of classifying films because it is so readily used by… the Hollywood film industry, for marketing purposes” (Stokes 82). Furthermore, these broad, established genre types allow creators to subvert from them, creating fantastic, new, and often “meta,” approaches that bring films full-circle to the very “birth” of the…