The 21st Century film is either part of a generic franchise, as predictable as your popcorn choice (case in point: the normalised laziness of the Paranormal Activity anthology) or a genre-bender; a mush of unconscious and deliberate twists on the old familiar tropes and ideas influenced by the producers peers, politics and past. Not forgetting their biggest interest, you, the audience. Like ants far from the nest, we look for snippets of cinema that we can schlepp back into our own culture, changing them into something we can process and understand. Look at the U.S. and Japan, where film houses take each others stories and styles (say, the Western and J-Horror respectively) and develop them into something very much their own. Often the films immigration transforms the film and the intended target audience entirely and you have to wonder whether theyre still characterised as part of the original collection. This mismatching of genres is often one of cinemas greatest strengths, the yoking together ideas and styles are like a mad scientist in his laboratory; you really never know whether the cocktail produced is going to entertain; educate, send you into a hallucinogenic trance or all three. Whatever the case, here are 10 film genres thatll help send any film buff bully spluttering into his double orange mocha frappuccino.
