Subgenres

 A while ago I watched The Burbs a 1989 Horror, Mystery film starring Tom Hanks it starts quite well with some surprisingly good music used just to set the scene. But it quickly devolves into a confusing mess the plot isn't confusing mind you but style wise it is a mess. it has 2 big problems the first one is balancing/consistency now horror comedies can be good The cabin in the woods for example is a great meta commentary on horror films in general but it is difficult as comedy and horror are just innately different genres to make it work though you have to haver a balance otherwise it stops being a horror film or a comedy film and just goes into the other genre until the script remembers its got to be both pulling the viewer out in this film you're likely to get cinematic whiplash. The second part is consistency now this is fairly similar to the balance problem there is a difference consistency means that for a majority of the film you have to have equal parts horror and comedy otherwise the tenseness leaves the horror scenes and there is uneasiness in the comedy parts creating a smushed together mess. The Burbs suffers because there is more comedy than horror meaning the scenes meant to be tense aren't they become awkward even because at least in my experience while expecting some sort of horror or scare the comedy kicks in and if a scare was to come in I knew there was a 90% chance it wouldn't work. It has whole segments dedicated somewhat to comedy when there neighbour goes missing it could've been a tense reminder of the possible things happening but it ends with Tom Hanks posting a toupee through the door. It has another problem it has been altered down for children the "scary" parts loose alot of tenseness before you get to them because if kids can watch it it can't really be that bad but there is more inconsistency instead of just having some creepy neighbours the new neighbours are suspected to be part of an evil satanic cult. The comedy becomes inconsistent as well one character is only there because she is pretty and dresses skimpily "kids film" there are jokes for kids and jokes for adults Disney films do it better because when they make adult jokes in their films they are thinly veiled to go over children's heads whereas in The burbs all subtlety goes out the window. With all of this there are subplots and the films social commentary about the problems with American suburbia gets piled in as well. 

How to do a subgenre well then?

Halloween is a perfect example it is incredibly simple while also giving the viewer what they want plot is barebones a murderous psycho escapes from a psychiatric facility while in transit so he can kill more  the suspense is there and the gory kills are there what this film does better than other early slashers though is patience it is a while before Michael Myers even starts his killing spree because this way it doesn't serve up what the viewers want on a silver platter because if it did that it would become boring and predictable the only question being who gets killed next. Now this makes it look contradictory because this means that it isn't balanced and it isn't consistent but that is only because it did something The burbs failed to do it knew from the start it was for older people removing that problem it had a barebones plot so if it wanted it could've had subplots or social commentary. But those are minor it was balanced and consistent in a different way there is a kill in the first few minutes to set the scene this works incredibly well because it then gives space for the plot to move along without other kills littering the film. Its balanced because of the shock as Michael as a child kills his sister. this makes it balanced and consistent as even though there isn't another kill for a while the feeling of shock and terror and knowledge of upcoming violence in terror is planted in the audiences mind meaning that for its entire runtime it has its horror and its gory kills forming in itself the subgenre known as slasher.

Now these examples are very different as one is a horror comedy and one is a slasher so lets have a look at the aforementioned horror comedy The Cabin in the woods 

The Cabin in the woods is consistent by turning expectations upside down creating comedy while still being a horror film and when it turns things upside down it has to have a reason otherwise it doesn't make sense it does that by showing us the agents causing all this mayhem and this alone along with the bits of comedy inherent in this upside down moment leave space where the horror would be for the meta commentary but it keeps them short so you don't get my new phrase cinematic whiplash more like a very small bump in the road softened alot by the comedy. The flipping things upside down doesn't happen too often which allows time for the horror and so when they do happen the horror is still present but since its slightly lowered the meta commentary is fitted in where needed meaning it is balanced and consistent. swap out meta commentary for social commentary it is the exact same. The only thing     I haven't shown is the failed creation of a subgenre but that is because they usually fall to the wayside because a subgenre is formed from 2 existing components and maybe even some films which have already set the basis so the reviews for a bad one usually are its a neat idea with failed execution but that's rare on its own as the idea in itself is something new and it only has to be done semi competently because as a new idea it can stand up on it's own if that makes sense so I didn't really think it was worth including. next article will be about video game graphics which does sound boring but hopefully it isn't :) bye