Film Genres: Film genres are various forms or identifiable types, categories, classifications or groups of films. (Genre comes from the French word meaning "kind," "category," or "type").

Genres refers to recurring, repeating and similar, familiar or instantly-recognizable patterns, styles, themes, syntax, templates, paradigms, motifs, rules or generic conventions that include one or more of the following:

• a characteristic setting or period (modern day, historical or fictional, urban/rural, etc.), e.g., the frontier in Westerns, outer space or the future in Sci-Fi, dark and isolated foreboding places (forests or woods, graveyards, spooky castles, abandoned buildings or structures) in Horror films, battlefields in War films, sports arenas or other venues in Sport films
• the recurring use of stock characters (or characterizations), e.g., the detective in a Crime film, the nerd, the jock, or token minority in Comedies or Horror, aliens in Sci-Fi, stereotypical 'heroic saviors' or 'good guys, monsters/killers, etc.
• the use of stereotypes, props or icons, e.g., six-shooters and ten-gallon hats in Westerns, laser blasters in Sci-Fi, killing instruments and locked doors in Horror films
• representative content and subject matter (the storyline, narrative or plot) resonant with other films in the genre category, e.g. the chase sequence or extended fight scene and gun violence in Action films, the 'final girl' survivor in Horror films, the self-sacrificial figure in Melodramas, stages of 'falling in love' and the subsequent break-up and reconciliation in Romances
• technical (filmic techniques), e.g., including the camera angles (use of low and high angles) and shooting style (hand-held or stationary, POV, or 'found footage'), the lighting (high-key, or low/dark lighting), the style of editing (length of edits, use of jump cuts), color schemes, make-up and costuming (use of blood, masks, special effects), etc.
• music and audio to enhance or emphasize various characteristics, to advance the plot, or to create a mood (danger, adventure, laughter, fear, sensual, excitement), e.g., upbeat for Romance or Comedy, eerie for Horror, depressing for Drama

Genres provide a convenient way for scriptwriters and film-makers to produce, cast and structure their narratives within a manageable, well-defined framework (to speak a common 'language'). Genres also offer the studios an easily 'marketable' product, and give audiences satisfying, expected and predictable choices.

Genres History: By the end of the silent era, many of the main genres were established: the melodrama, the western, the horror film, comedies, and action-adventure films (from swashbucklers to war movies). Musicals were inaugurated with the era of the Talkies, and the genre of science-fiction films wasn't generally popularized until the 1950s. One problem with genre films is that they can become stale, cliche-ridden, and over-imitated. A traditional genre that has been reinterpreted, challenged, or subjected to scrutiny may be termed revisionist.

Many films currently do not fit into one genre classification. Many films are considered hybrids - they straddle several film genres. There are many examples of present-day filmmakers reflecting familiar elements of traditional or classical genres, while putting a unique twist on them.

There are many genres or film types that were once popular staples but have mostly fallen out of fashion nowadays, such as big-budget musicals (stolen from Broadway), large-scale romantic epics, classic film noirs, nature documentaries, spoof or parody comedies, 'spaghetti westerns,' YA (young adult) book adaptations, Devil/Satanic or vampire horror films, classic 'creature feature' or 'monster' movies, political-election campaign films, 'found footage,' mockumentaries, inner-city 'hood' films, adult-rated animations, Cold War thrillers, various sports films, women-in-prison (WIP) and other exploitational sub-types such as 'torture porn' and 'slasher' films, and classic who-dun-its. The two mainstream genre areas of war epics and westerns have also struggled in recent years.

Stages of Genres: There are basically five different stages of genres as they have progressed and developed through cinematic history:

1. Primitive or Early: The earliest and purest genre form with iconography, themes, and patterns starting to develop
2. Classical or Traditional: This stage marked the growth, popularity and solidification of the genre and clear establishment of its characteristics and prototypes, setting a 'benchmark'
3. Revisionist: A reinterpretation, recasting, or questioning of the original genre, with greater complexity of themes while retaining many of its characteristics and iconographic elements
4. Parodic: The spoofing or mocking of the genre by over-exaggeration of the characters and the genre's traditional themes
5. Extended or Mixed as Hybrid: The blending, modification or creative extension or melding of various genre elements as the genre categories evolved, i.e., a sci-fi western, comedic war film, etc.

The Major Categories or Classifications of Film: Mega-Genres

There are other major types (or mega-genres), classifications, or general categories of films (defined in this site's glossary of film terms), including: