Model of Genre Development - Metz Theory

Christian Metz explored the development of Genre film in his book 'Language and Cinema' (1974) and came up with his own theory that genres pass through four phases of development.

1) The experimental - The Cabinet of Dr Calgari (1919)

2) The classic - Dracula (1931)

3) The parody - Scary Movie (1998)
4) The deconstruction - The Blair Witch Project (1998)


The Experimental Phase
This is the first phase of Christian Metz's theory, it suggests that the first few years of a genre are just an experimental stage where the movies are played around with trying to find out which story lines will attract the audiences, which codes and conventions work in the genre that they trying to create. This whole process is what helped to shape how the genre came to be.


The Classic Phase
The second section to Metz's theory, it is when the genre has really been defined and the codes and conventions have been set and will be followed by other movie makers so that their film goes into that specific genre
The third section to Metz's theory is the parody stage, this became popular during the 90's and it gave the usually tense scenes of the horror genres a more comedic side. It mocks the stereotypical codes and conventions of the genre, such as when the main character goes to look at what the loud noise was.
The final phases of Metz's theory is called the deconstruction and it consists of copying the main codes and conventions of the genre but modernising them.