Applying the Cultural Industry theory to the film industry.

1. Applying the Cultural Industry theory to the film industry. By Yasmin Watkins

2. The Cultural Industry Theory Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer (1944) criticized the media industry through 4 conclusions on media texts: • Are produced in the same way as other goods and services in a capitalist economy. Production is marked by the standardization and repetition. • Are inauthentic, repetitive and communicate at the level of the lowest common denominator. • Are loaded with a dominant ideology that works to justify and naturalise social differences in the real world. • Produce a mass, passive and obedient audience of consumers who are lulled into accepting the dreams and the hopes offered. In application to the film industry, one could look at the horrorgenre…

3. Horror! 1. Production is marked by the standardization and repetition. • Conventionally portrays one or more antagonists • Plays on the audience’s primal fears • Feature an antagonist who is primarily a man, or male creature, who shows malevolence. However in recent years, films have used a female character as the antagonist in the form of a twist ending, which differs from the norms of the genre, as men are usually seen as the ones more capable of heinous acts. Typical storyline consists of a group of friends who go on a trip to a remote location and are killed one-by-one by some unknown forces or antagonist. Entertainment is found in tension, dramatic irony and watching each character die.

4. Vera Dika • This genre in particular can be applied to the theory, as horror or ‘slasher films’ frequently use the same plotlines. • Feminist Vera Dika holds a Ph.D. in Cinema Studies from New York University and specializes in American film from 1973 to the present. • Her book Games of Horror analyzed the genre’s formula and treatment of female victims. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slasher_film#Defining_the_subgenre

5. Cabin in the Woods (2011) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXfc12BqFkc • This film used the tagline of ‘You think you know the story’ as the marketers know that the audience have seen the same storyline before, and won’t expect anything new. • This film however has a completely different set-up, in which the scene juxtaposes with men in a white room who are controlling the situation because of the ‘Gods’ who need a stereotypical sacrifice. This goes against conventions of a horror film, as: • In a sense it humorously emphasizes the stereotypes of teenagers that are used in it’s genre of films. • The film incorporates antagonists used in previous horror films in their one film, and supposedly explains horror films through the use of a ‘ritual’. • Uses the repetition of protagonists killed, however uses the twist ending.

6. Scream(1996-2011) • Combines a traditional slasher film with humour and knowledge of the horror cliché. • Uses a slight inauthenticm repetitive plot –yet still entices the audience. • The 4th conclusion made by the theorists could be included as in this series of films, it portrays the message that you can get fame through becoming the ‘sole-survivor’ which is especially prominent in the fourth film.

7. Evaluation • In conclusion, the Cultural Industry can definitely be applied to the film industry, as films are churned out under certain subgenres such as romantic comedy, action, sci-fi and thrillers. • Because of this, film’s plotlines have to follow certain conventions in order to fit with the standardisationof other films, as this is what the audience has grown to expect.E.g. Rom-coms feature a love story Thrillers feature a complicated psychological plotline Action films feature action-sequences, guns and special effects.