Genre and Hollywood By Steve Neale
Despite a long-standing intellectual interest in horror in France and else-where in Europe, there was comparatively little serious discussion of the horror film in Britain or America until the publication of books by Clarens in 1968 and by Butler in 1970. In consequence, as Gledhill points out, 'only in the seong half of the 70s was the genre put on the agenda of film studies'(1985b : 99). In partial explanation, she goes on to cite Wood (1979), who refers to the low cultural status of the horror film, and to what she calls 'the special relationship' (1985b : 99) between the genre and its fans and 'aficionados'
Steve Neale then quotes (Wood 1979: 13)
The horror film has consistently been one of the most popular and, at the same time, the most disreputable of Hollywood genres. The popularity itself has a peculiar characteristic that sets the horror film apart from other genres: it is restricted to aficionados and complemented by total rejection, people tending to go to horror films either obsessively or not at all. They are dismissed with contempt by the majority of reviewer-critics, or simply ignored.
There is a good amount of research in to other texts, and other people’s work, but what you need here is evidence of your own planning. Storyboard sheets, narrative structures, audience research and questionnaires. All of this should then inform your production processes. I am also concerned that there is no evidence that you have started any filming yet. At the moment this is a very low Level 2 – which is disappointing. Mr H
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