Christian Metz' Model of Genre Development

As some extra work into Task Two: Research of Genres, i decided to explore Metz's genre development and this is what i found.

In Christian Metz's book, "Language and Cinema" (1974) he explored genres and hypothesised that all genres pass through 4 phases of existence.

1. The Experimental- Early films which explored themes.
2. The Classic - Established all conventions of the genre
3. The Parody- When the genre has been mimicked in some way
4. The Deconstruction - Films which have mixed genres to make sub genres E.G. Romance and Comedy mixed to create Romantic Comedies or Rom-Com's.

I will now take the horror genre and see if I can find a film that fits into each of Metz's phases of existence.

For the experimental, films such as; Nosferatu, The Cabinet of DR. Caligari, Dracula and Frankenstein all fit the criteria.

For the Classic, films such as; Dracula and Frankenstein can be used.

For the Parody, films such as; Carry on screaming, Scary Movie and Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein would fit.

For the Deconstruction, films such as; Scream, Sixth sense, The Blair witch project and Se7en would be good examples.

To conclude this i have found that Metz's idea of 4 phases of existence is correct for certain genres.