Christian Metz- Model Of Genre Development

The Christian Metz model (1974) presents the exploration of the development of genre and suggested that genres pass through four phases:

1. The Experimental

 The Experimental phase is where early films are exploring and experimenting with the horror genre and other genres in the film's narratives. Examples of this phase consists of The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1919) The film soon developed into what is now known as Jekyll and Hyde, the film experiments with the horror genre in its narrative. The narrative of Jekyll and Hyde is that Dr. Jekyll has a split personality and the bad side of this is Hyde who when not controlled he torments innocent citizens. Another example of this is Nosferatu (1922) which creates some of the similarities between Nosferatu and Dracula. Dracula now being the most widely recognisable horror character and still is with its fundamental stereotypical features that are displayed in horror films still to this day. The experimental phases made films help formalise the conventions of the horror film in its earliest phase.



2.The Classic

 The Classic is the phase of films which established the narrative conventions of the horror genre in its most successful and defining period. Hollywood films such as Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931) made by Universal in colour it was a a huge success with the development of $12,000,000 in box office. The defining reason for this movie becoming a success is that it was in colour, which was a huge development at the time. The movie contained extreme horror conventions at the time such as the development of a man using different people's body parts, it creates the uncomfortable environment that the studio want to create for the audience.The studio then became know for horror with their publishing of Frankenstein and Dracula the most popular horror with that contained the most fundamental conventions for horror. Throughout media the development of classic phase is present as thing such as Michael Jackson's Thriller album cover with the walking dead being present, it gives the audience an uncomfortable environment. The Classic phase establishes the growth of the horror genre and it is typically more creepy and uncomfortable as we would find the Michael Jackson album cover more uneasy, this is the same with the Jekyll and Hyde cover that is shown above both are equally uneasy.

3.The Parody
 The Parody phase is where films mimic the horror genre in a comical way, which eliminates the horror codes and conventions and would have typically have been there. Films such as Scary Movie (2000) which are very successful horror parodies that have continued for 13 years as the latest one (Scary Movie 5) has recently been released in 2013 and another (Scary Movie 6) is due to be released in 2016. The film has aspects of the codes and conventions of horror films such as jump-scares and they typically have the aspects of smoke and low- key lighting, however the film then continues to make a light hearted joke about the uneasy codes and conventions. Another film that creates the humorous aspects of horror films is the film 'Carry On Screaming'(1966) which presents a family that, aren't all that normal and a detective that is sent into the woods and disappears and is not seen again.The film makes multiple jokes about this in the way that similarly to the Scary Movie characters are to make comments that are seen as humorous due to their unexpected nature as there are large forms of danger that surrounds them.


4. The Deconstruction
 The Deconstruction phase is that the films which have taken the generic elements of the horror genre and amalgamated them into varying sub genres. Films such as Se7en (1995) and The Sixth Sense (1999) which both explore different types of genres in the within their narratives, for example Se7en involves elements of Film noir and the thriller genre into its story-line and editing. The Film noir element becomes apparent through its use of detectives in it's narrative. It also creates this aspect through the use of its low-key lighting which creates the same mysterious effect that it does in Film noirs. The thriller elements that are presented in the film Se7en is due to its story-line of the protagonist going after the antagonist in order to build tension and create a climax for the audience. The movie develops these codes and conventions to create a greater effect to work well with the codes and conventions of the horror genre that the movie also involves and uses effectively to create tension and keep the audience interested in the movie. The deconstruction overall involves taking aspects away from the core genre and adding aspects of other genres into the narrative and editing of the film.