Genre theorist: John Cawelti

'Genres tell a society about itself. The popularity of a genre suggests it reflects the value of society.'

Agree or disagree? - Supernatural horror?

Film and genre can both represent the society we want to see and watch, as well as the cruel realities of society which are harder to accept. Genres such as horror reveal the harsh realities of society which includes murder etc. This is more effective in evoking the fear factor as the audience's real life terrors/fears are almost forced onto them on screen; as well as presenting them in an absurd way that subconsciously would evoke the societal horrors in a surreal way. I agree with Cawelti's view that genres tell us about society itself, especially supernatural; the combination of the fear of the unknown with the harsh reality of the audience's life makes the fear factor within the movie more convincing and believable for the TA. Supernatural horror is a relatively popular genre which therefore reflects our society's obsession with the cruel actions of the world, but instead of focusing on the factual reality, audiences like it to be overly-emphasised and far from the reality so they do not have to accept the true consequences of the acts of horror.