Horror Mood Board

The crow - used for horror films all the time, most notabley in 'The Omen' (1976)

Classic scene from the original Dawn Of The Dead (1978) Zombies being the scariest of movie monsters.

King Kong, while tame by todays standards this monster scared a generation.

Leatherface is an icon in the horror world. One of the best known movie antagonists ever. Stalking the backwoods of USA since 1974.

Psycho set the benchmark for slashers. A timeless classic.

The wolfman is an iconic movie monster. And below, Ghostface from the popular Scream trilogy, a well known serial killer.

Thriller Mood Board

John Mclane from the classic Die Hard. An iconic thriller film and character.

Often viewed as a horror but it is actually a thriller.

Psychological thrilliers are more and more popular nowadays.

Ideal setting for a terrorism based thriller.

Iconic clip from an iconic thriller.

Robert DeNiro playing the psycho brilliantly.

A classic thriller, The Third Man. And below, again perfect for a terror based thriller.

Rom-Com Mood Board

often used in a rom-com, the romantic dinner for two.

typical aspect in a rom-com, lovey dovey gesture.

 

typical aspect in a rom-com, lovey dovey gesture.

 

 

Wedding's are the opytomy of love.

romantic beach getaway

popular 'toff' in rom-coms.

Christian Metz Model of Genre Development

Christian Metz, in his book Language And Cinema (1974) explored the development of genre film and suggested that each genre passes through four phases of existence. The four phases being;

Christian Metz

Experimental

This term refers to the phase of early films which explored and experimented with the different genres. For example, and Experimental Thriller film would be the film M (1931) as it is one of the first Thriller films. An example of an Experimental Horror film would be Nosferatu (1922).

Classic

This refers to the phase of films which established the narrative conventions within a certain genre of films in its most successful and defining period. For example, a Classic Horror film would be Dracula (1931) and a Classic Rom-Com would be Annie Hall (1977).

Parody

This refers to the films that have mimicked and mocked the genres in some sort of comical way. For example, Scary Movie (2000) is a Parody of a lot of popular Horror Films and Date Movie (2006) is a Parody of popular Rom-Coms.

Deconstruction

This refers to films that have taken the generic elements of the genre and amalgamated them into varying sub-genres. For example, Seven (1995), Saw (2004) and Scream (1996) all could be considered Horror films due to certain elements. Seven and Saw however both incorporate traits of a psychological thriller, Scream on the other hand incorporates some elements of a Parody film and also elements of a slasher film - which is a sub genre of Horror. An example of a Deconstruction Rom-Com would be a Shaun of the Dead (2004) as this film incorporates the Horror film trait of Zombies.