During this stage the genre is unclear and less certain in its values. Genre conventions are also switched up to question popular belief. Essentially, filmmakers try to switch up the genre by adding elements of psychological thrillers or even making the supposed “good guy” an actual “bad guy” or just not as saint-like usual “good guys” are. A fantastic example of this is Mikael Håfström’s The Rite. With this film, the main character is going to school to become a priest, but it is oddly twisted because he is in fact a skeptic of his own faith. This puts a twist to your average exorcism-horror film, since usually the priests are always 100-percent believers performing the exorcism. In addition, towards the end of the film the head priest that performs the exorcism winds up becoming possessed himself. This is so shocking, because he stated that the demons go into the weakest souls it can find. Therefore, the main priest becomes a hypocrite because throughout the whole film he was telling the younger priest to trust in God more and have a stronger faith, when in reality he had holes in his faith as well. This tarnishes what most horror films are based on; the simple fact that the good characters are pure and
During this stage the genre is unclear and less certain in its values. Genre conventions are also switched up to question popular belief. Essentially, filmmakers try to switch up the genre by adding elements of psychological thrillers or even making the supposed “good guy” an actual “bad guy” or just not as saint-like usual “good guys” are. A fantastic example of this is Mikael Håfström’s The Rite. With this film, the main character is going to school to become a priest, but it is oddly twisted because he is in fact a skeptic of his own faith. This puts a twist to your average exorcism-horror film, since usually the priests are always 100-percent believers performing the exorcism. In addition, towards the end of the film the head priest that performs the exorcism winds up becoming possessed himself. This is so shocking, because he stated that the demons go into the weakest souls it can find. Therefore, the main priest becomes a hypocrite because throughout the whole film he was telling the younger priest to trust in God more and have a stronger faith, when in reality he had holes in his faith as well. This tarnishes what most horror films are based on; the simple fact that the good characters are pure and