Christian Metz model of a genre development

Christian Metz in his book 'Language + Cinema' (1974) explored the development of genre film and suggested that genres pass through the four phases of existence.


1. The Experimenal - meaning the phase of early fims which explored and experimented with the horror theme. Films that fit in to this category would be 'Nosferatu' and 'The cabinet of Dr.Caligari'

                                                     

2. The Classic - Established the narrative of the Horror genre in it's most successful and defining period. Universal Studios ceated many of the classic horror films, for example, Dracula and Frankenstein.

 3. The Parody - mimicked a horror film in a comical way, an example of this would be 'Scary Movie'.

4. The Deconstruction - taken the generic elements of a horror film and blended them into various sub genres, i.e. Se7en and Scream