Christian Metz's Model- History of Horror
Christian Metz developed the idea that every film genre had passed through four phases. The four phases in the horror genre started with the experimental horror's which then led onto the classic horror, parody horror and the final stage of deconstruction horrors.
Experimental
The experimental phase of film is the first phase and is the often the making of the genre through trial and error in films, seeing what worked well in films and what wasn't successful. A lot of experimenting was done around the horror themes in its narrative. The experimental horrors started being created around the time of the first world war, this was a time of darkness and gave inspiration to directors who were making films. Many of the early experimental films such as 'Caligari' and 'Nosferatu' used German expressionism which is the use of art and shadows to create the scary scenes in the film.
Classic
The Classic phase of film is the point where the narrative convensions were established and the horror genre was successfully defined. This phase was the period of the hollywood film studios, specifically the Universal studios creating the classic horrors such as 'Dracula' and 'Frankenstein'. When the television came into the scene the art of cinema took a decline and so English film studio Hammer took on trying to reboot the horror scene and recreated the classic 'Dracula' films using iconic actors such as Christopher Lee and Peter Jackson.
Parody
The parody phase of film is where films use previous successful films to create a comical version often mimicking the original. Examples of parody's include the 'scary movie' films which has gone on to create trilogy of films soon to release the 5th.
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