The auteur theory says that a film is a representation of the director's thoughts, and reflects their personal creative visions since they were the primary auteur (French word for author). Film-making auteurs usually have their own distinctive style which has almost become their signature for their pieces of work. It also keeps creative control over it, since it makes them very recognisable as well as individual.
Some examples of auteur styles that can possibly relate to our genre of horror are Tim Burton and his gothic, dark and quite unusual takes on conventional ideas and stories. There are many aspects within his films that all come together to create this style, for example, the choice of the same or similar actors throughout them. Those who are most commonly seen within his films are people like Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, as well as others actors who are very familiar with darker films like these. The mise-en-scene throughout the films is also very consistent, since dark lighting and quite run-down settings are usually used and paired together. In terms of costume used within the films too, it usually incorporates the colours black and white and often have patterns. They are usually quite stereotypically 'fancy' in terms of appearance too. As previously mentioned, his films are also, more often than not, based on traditional stories as well and since many of these are set in the past, they all reflect the periods they are based in, just with slightly more modern twists and concepts.
Another is George A. Romero who is known for creating films that fall into the Zombie sub-genre and has done a wide variety based around this idea of the apocalypse. Some of the concepts and ideas that he follows to create this own distinctive style for himself are, firstly, how in many of his film titles, he usually uses the word "dead" or other death and evil-related words. This means people can easily identify the movies he's created and relate many of them together. Many of his films are also a combination of both gruesome and satirical aspects, making them quite different to many others within the horror genre as a whole.
The genre theory draws the audiences attention towards what is different between the films the auteur does rather then the similarities such as their signature. It looks at the types and kinds of things in a certain genre and the characteristics and features expected in that types of genre, by the audience.
An important part of Genre theory is knowing at which period a film was made. This is particularly important when considering what technology was being used. With today's high speed films (shorter exposure times) films may be shot with very different lighting from those of twenty years ago. The rhythm and pacing of the film may have been altered with editing. Core values which would seem unimportant to us when watching certain films may be of prime importance to the people who are contemporary to the films. However, if all films were exactly the same then genre theory would be easy to study and defining which type of film it is would be easy. Unfortunately though it is far more complicated than this. As we look and analyse various films we find that although they have similarities in other aspects they are very different. It creates the need for genre theory to continually re-define itself according to the technology, the audience, the political message among many other variables. What may have been typical of a genre at one time may evolve other time as the audience evolve in such a way that an action film from the a few years ago may be a very slow paced film by today's standards, compare for example the Western with the action films.
There are some theories of audience that we can apply, these being:
The Effects Model is the idea that the consumption of media texts can have an effect or influence upon an audience. This effect is usually considered to be negative and audiences are passive and powerless to prevent the influence.
The model is also known as The Hypodermic Needle, meaning the messages from the media text are 'injected' into the audience by the media. Once again, it is argued that an audience is powerless to resist it and therefore, the media works like a drug and the audiences become addicted and almost brainwashed to what they are shown. This model can applied to many areas of study such as film, psychology and more.
Some examples of films are:
(Child's Play 3 in the murder of James Bulger 1993)
(A Clockwork Orange 1971 in a number of horrible events)
The Uses And Gratification Model is the opposite to The Effects Model. In this one the audience is active, they use the text and are not used by it, the audience uses the text to their own gratification and pleasure. The audience will use the text to gratify there needs for:
- Diversion
- Information
- Pleasure
- Escapism
- Relaxation
- Emotional Satisfaction
- Learning
Emphasises the subtler, less direct capacity of the media to influence perceptions. It recognises that people respond to other influences, such as opinion leaders, who may mediate the message of the media. Thus, media effect can be seen as one of reinforcement – closer to ‘influence’ than ‘brainwashing’. Research by Stuart Hall found that rather than the autonomous individualised audience members of the uses and gratifications approach, that audience members shared certain frameworks of interpretation and that they work at decoding media texts within these frameworks. Hall proposed three types of audience readings:
Dominant – the reader recognises what the text’s preferred meaning is and broadly agrees with it.
Oppositional – where the dominant meaning is recognised but rejected for cultural or ideological reasons.
Negotiated – where the reader accepts, rejects or refines elements of the text in light of previously held views.
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