The film genre I have chosen is horror, this is because personally I enjoy horror films as they give me a thrill and a bit of an adrenaline rush when it gets to the scary climaxes. This genre came about in the late 1890's by the film pioneer Georges Méliès, the film was titled as Le Manoir Du Diable (French for: The House of the Devil). It was released in 1896, on Christmas Eve, in Paris. It was a two minute long film and contained many traditional pantomime elements and the film depicts a haunted castle and manor of the devil. Horror films were first made in the 1890's and were said to be reborn in the 1930's by a number of producers such as; Tod Browning who made Dracula in 1930 and Freaks in 1932, James Whale who made Frankenstein in 1930 and The Bride of Frankenstein in 1935.
Key texts in this genre: A family, somesort of disruption to their normal everyday lives, a ghost/demon that ruins/kills everything. Young children that get possessed or taken in by the evil, police that never get to a scene on time so the evil ends up destroying something.
Themes and ideas often explored in this genre: A family that has to cope with the changes around them that is caused by evil, or young people have to overcome the terrors of what's happening to them.
How has the genre been changed/adapted in the past? Used to be silent and in black and white, death scenes never used to look real, but now it's a lot more gory and graphic for the viewer which gives them a real insight to the genre and the effects it can have on people.
Examples of opening sequences from this genre:
Saw movie: A guy is on a table with his arms locked in vices, his legs tied down and a huge saw thing hanging from the ceiling, something happens and the saw starts to swing down from the ceiling and finally ends up cutting him in half.
Orphan: Woman giving birth in hospital, sitting in her own blood, baby dies and she screams and get sectioned.
These films all grip the audience with their shocking opening sequences which keeps the audience engaged with the action making them want to watch the rest of the movie, they all have dialogue that is interesting in the way that it doesn't reveal much about the storyline which will have the audience wanting more. The films all introduce some characters that will either be in the film or get killed at the beginning to shock the viewer and keep them engaged in the action.
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