Research and Planning: Genre Theory

Neale says that 'genres are instances of repetition and difference'. He also says 'difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre'.

Genre films use conventions. This is typical of narrative, technical features, sound, cinematography, editing and mise en scene. And iconography. But uses various combinations with different genres and unusual characters.

For a horror film i looked at Thirteen ghosts which is basically a violent haunting story. In this film everything is typical of a horror film. There is blood, creepy music, scary images, screaming, death. Although the only thing that is different are the conventions for female victim dies first - in almost every horror there is a female victim that dies first, this is what has always occurred in this particular genre. But the first victim is male and throughout the film there is male victims, and only one female dies which normally doesn't occur in horror films.