What is Genre in Film: Definition and Types of Film Genres
Film genres are sets of conventions– groups of common themes, techniques, styles, and atmospheres.
In screenwriting, it’s essential to understand the cinematic and narrative conventions that allow you to conform to the genres of film or break their rules according to your objective.
Definition of Genre in Film
Genre is hard to define because it is made up of repetitive elements, like mise en scene and other thematic and aesthetic choices that are all slightly different. Film genre is a relatively recent phenomenon compared to the genres of literature or painting, and as films have proliferated and the art of filmmaking has progressed, so have the bounds of film genres.
Genre is an essential convenience for every audience member. Exploring movies without genre would be like wandering around blindfolded. It acts as a tool for aesthetic categorization. Think about the crazy amount of superhero movies released in the past decade. Genre allows us to group them into one category.
It also allows us to observe market trends from a wider perspective. Perhaps more than any other art form, cinema collapses the distinction between art and business.
Film genres are not pre-existing, immutable categories that movies are placed into once they’re made. Film and genre are reciprocal; films inform genres, and vice versa. Just as art is a reflection of humanity, genre is a reflection of artistic trends. As long as there are people who watch films, there will be film genre.
Key Film Genre Elements and Characteristics
Let’s discuss the various cinematic properties that influence genre. Depending on how you deploy these elements of your screenplay, you may find yourself venturing further into one genre over another.
Theme
Many genres have common themes, like forbidden love in romantic dramas (Brokeback Mountain, 2005), the effects of trauma in horror (Scream, 1996), or the excitement of exploration in adventure films (Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981).
Some of the best films in each genre have open ended themes. Horror movies have explored the question, what defines a monster? (Silence of the Lambs, 1991), and crime movies might consider, what is justice?
Setting
Horror and mystery may have dark, suffocating settings— mazes filled with shadows where danger awaits in every turn (The Shining, 1980). Settings like the woods, outer space, and even plain suburbia are fantastic for the horror genre because they are places both vaguely familiar, yet hauntingly foreign.
Romances and comedies are often filled with warm interiors and exteriors that invite the audience to smile and laugh with the characters (La La Land, 2016). These bright settings provide excellent contrast to a dramatic moment, where you might be thrown into a darker atmosphere. Check out our article, Setting the Setting, for a deeper dive into the elements of setting.
Main Characters
Since the beginning of literary criticism, there have been archetypal protagonists. Think of Aristotle's tragic hero, or, much later, the concept of the antihero.
There are plenty of similar character tropes in modern cinema, such as the group of teenagers in horror, or the hardened ex-military man in action films. Crime will often feature a detective, and Westerns will almost always have a cowboy.
There are so many ways to make your story unique. If you want to write a different take on the Western genre, switch up your protagonist. Make them a different race or gender, with a different background. In your action screenplay, make your main villain disgustingly unrelatable, or make him morally empathetic.
Narrative Structure
Action is often fast paced; the inciting incident comes early, and from there it is near constant conflict. A crime film might have more of an unusual storyline, confusing the audience with flashbacks, generating suspense for a great climactic twist or reveal at the very end (The Usual Suspects, 1995).
Dramas often go by the standard three act structure, and adventure sci-fi/fantasies usually hold to the quest narrative structure: call to journey, preparation, journey, return home (The Lord of The Rings, 2001).
The Evolution of Film Genres Over Time
The question of how film genres generally tend to originate and develop is complex. Because of modern cinema’s rapid expansion, there is no exact way to delimit the bounds of one genre or another.
The history of film is directly attached to societal, technological, and cultural advancements, and it is impossible to speak about the history of film without including genre.
By the middle of the twentieth century, movements like the French New Wave, and its spiritual progenitor Avant Garde cinema, helped to bring genre bending films into popularity.
Before the popularization of auteur cinema, Hollywood’s golden age was focused on defining the boundaries of each genre. Rather than a film being by a director, all Hollywood films were made by a certain studio, like Warner Brothers, or MGM. Movies were not intended to be the unique product of a subjective mind, but a relatable, emotional experience.
At the time, two of Hollywood’s main genres were the gangster film and the melodrama. One for the gentleman, the other for the ladies. Gangster films like Scarface (1932) and The Public Enemy (1931) provided a set of conventions that Hollywood action films still use today. Melodramas like Stella Dallas (1937), in their concerted effort to affect the audience’s emotions, provide the basic formula for the romances and dramas of today.
A couple other notable early film genres include film noir and westerns, the former taking inspiration from classic mysteries like Citizen Kane (1941) and adding atmospheric and thematic twists, the latter eventually adapting many characteristics of action films, like Clint Eastwood’s westerns.
Main Movie Genres
Western
The western genre is highly influential in the history of cinema. Often set in the American West, the western is often seen as a microcosmic representation of the American experience. Exploring themes such as colonialism, imperialism, racial and ethnic differences, justice, and revenge, the western evolved along with American culture.
From John Wayne in True Grit (1969) to Kevin Costner in Dances With Wolves (1990), the western film is defined by strong male leads and hypermasculine roads to redemption.
Horror
Horror will almost always feature a monster, be it a spiritual or a physical abomination. Its settings include menacingly dark places, mazes of the mind filled with something palpable yet incomprehensible.
Part of what is so compelling about horror is its focus on the interior, or the psychological, and how we react when confronted with the surreal. Some great horror films to check out are Hereditary (2018), The Conjuring (2013), and Blue Velvet (1986). Prepare to be spooked.
Romance
The romance genre is the quintessential mimetic film genre, the genre that tries to reproduce the real-life experience that resists definition: love. The emotions evoked by romance films such as In The Mood for Love (2000), and more recently Past Lives (2023), provide a cathartic release for viewers or a painfully relatable experience.
Who hasn’t experienced one of the common themes of romance, such as unrequited love, or love at first sight. This genre allows us to indulge our romantic fantasies and sigh alongside its oftentimes tragic characters.
Science Fiction/Fantasy
The sci-fi/fantasy genre is best known for its often boundary pushing and expectation defying visuals and techniques. This is represented in the common themes of the genre.
Sci-fi/fantasy films will often question and explore the limits of human experience or potential, constantly providing us with new phenomena, from magic to wormholes.
Between the vast, mystical settings of Harry Potter (2001), and the inconspicuous gray sprawl of Primer’s (2004) suburbia, the places where these stories can occur are infinite. Let’s not forget the greatest frontier since the West– outer space, where some of the best sci-fi movies of all time were set, like Alien (1979), and Star Wars, A New Hope (1977).
Fantasy narratives often follow the quest structure, while sci-fi does not have a specific narrative structure to follow.
Action
Everybody knows action. It’s the most exciting genre, filled with explosions, intense car chases, and meticulously choreographed martial arts.
Despite all this, the action genre is perhaps the most nondescript, with action films almost always being in some subgenre or other. However, this doesn’t mean it lacks profound themes like the meaning of justice, the effects of survival, and the conflict between good and evil.
Action movies will usually have a strong protagonist that eventually battles some sort of great force. Action most often features a linear progression, whether it’s a three or five act story, but feel free to do away with the linearity for your unique style of storytelling.
Some great action movies include Kill Bill (2003), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) and Die Hard (1988). The latter is featured in our article, Movie Scripts You Have to Read as a Screenwriter.
Comedy
The comedy genre may be the most beloved genre of film. A person who doesn’t appreciate a good laugh is rare, and with the amount of comedy films that have been made, there’s something out there for everyone.
A classic trope of the comedy protagonist is the bumbling idiot, but don’t be afraid to make them a haughty erudite instead, or even an average Joe.
What can make or break a comedy is the quality of the antagonist. For a good example of a strong antagonist, go see Dodgeball (2004).
Comedies most often have a series of foolish and fantastic events, all building up to some great realization or reveal at the end. Make sure to build that suspense while supplying the audience with goofy moments.
Mystery/Crime
The mystery genre is a cinematic staple. It often plays into film’s multifaceted, almost dreamlike ability to bend time through hints and foreshadowing. Mystery exploits the human hunger for knowledge. Alfred Hitchcock is a master of mystery, building suspense by keeping both the characters and the audience in the dark until that final climactic moment.
Crime can be considered a subgenre of mystery, though not all crime dramas have considerable elements of mystery in them (The Wire, for instance). Mystery is crime without the dualism of cop and robber, or the moral eyeglasses that crime so often wears.
Crime is one of the oldest genres, an intuitive blend of action, mystery, and contemporary social, political, and cultural concerns. Crime facilitates the audience’s urge to indulge in fringe personalities, the psychopaths, the serial killers, that odd satisfaction found in revulsion.
Golden Age Hollywood was obsessed with the gangster genre, an obsession that has continued to this day. In many ways crime asks the very American question, what is freedom?
Crime is often set in an urban environment, where the back alleys that make up the city are in themselves a mystery. Its colors are moody and dark, a suffocation that works superbly when juxtaposed with the color palette of normal life.
Your protagonist might be a detective working to track down and lock up the criminal antagonist. Or, you might tell the story from the perspective of the criminal, in turn questioning our societal and moral values.
Two of my favorite shows of all time, True Detective (2014), and The Wire (2002), are crime dramas. For crime/mystery movies, check out Fargo (1996), and Mulholland Drive (2001).
Adventure
The adventure genre takes many elements from action, but has enough unique characteristics to differentiate it. Adventure always has a hyper specific end goal that is prophesied or explained near the beginning of the story. Whether or not the end goal is fulfilled is another matter entirely.
Adventure can have nearly any setting, but is more suited to extensive universes built with depth and detail. The characters should be similarly complex, as the story is ultimately about their journey.
Some fantastic adventure films include, National Treasure (2004) and Stand By Me (1986).
Documentary
Documentary is the umbrella term for all nonfiction cinema, and is widely considered to be the oldest film genre. One of the most well-known forms of documentary is the biopic– a biographical or autobiographical film.
Documentaries do far more than simply disseminate knowledge, and it’s easy to forget that they always have an argument. For a level-headed crash course in American iconography and history, check out the filmmaker Ken Burns. For those who are interested in documentaries that push for change, see Michael Moore’s Sicko (2007) and Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (2018).
Drama
Drama, like action, is cinematically ubiquitous. It’s everywhere and in everything, from mystery, to horror, to romance. Drama is conflict, suspense, the engine beneath the hood of any compelling story. Dramas tend to be more serious, with heavy themes and plot points that bear the weight of real life issues.
Like romance, drama tries to fulfill the essential expectation of many moviegoers— to feel authentic empathy. If a movie tugs on your heartstrings, makes you tear up, or whisper some exclamation under your breath, it’s probably a drama.
This is not to say that dramas don’t have comedic moments in them. But a good drama strikes a chord that reverberates with the reality of life, an often somber note that distinguishes it from most other genres.
Some great drama films include, Anatomy of a Fall (2023), Whiplash (2014), and Moonlight (2016).
How Subgenres Enhance Storytelling
Subgenres are another term for hybrid genres, genres that are a category within a category, a mish mash of different themes and generic conventions. Every modern movie fits into one subgenre or other, and it has become impossible to discuss movies without including subgenres.
Some famous subgenres include, romantic comedy, slasher, spaghetti western, war, slapstick, mockumentary, black comedy, screwball, film noir, neo noir, true crime, sport, heist, and many more.
The vast amount of subgenres in modern cinema does not mean that cinema has nothing original left to offer, rather, it means quite the opposite. As more techniques, colors, and atmospheres become conventional of certain subgenres, it becomes easier to manipulate such conventions.
For instance, the conventions of the slasher subgenre are quite simple: a masked antagonist, who murders one or multiple people in brutal fashion. Consider instead a reverse slasher, where the antagonist is unmasked and the protagonist is left somewhat unknown, mix in elements of a mystery or the atmosphere of film noir, and you’ve got an intriguing, unique idea.
How Different Genres Appeal to Different Audiences
Certain genres have dedicated audiences from specific demographics. For instance, the superhero genre is extremely popular with young audiences. This information is incredibly useful when you're determining marketing strategies.
When advertising for an upcoming horror film, it would be more productive to put your ads before a scary video on Youtube than before a Paw Patrol ‘best moments’ compilation.
Blair Witch Project (1999), one of the first major films in the found footage genre, deployed a marketing campaign that was able to convince people that the footage in the movie was real. The film became more than just a film, but a cultural moment, enhancing both its effect and notoriety.
Genres help manage audience expectations by providing an easy way to navigate the constantly shifting mass of released movies. This allows audiences to find out which genres they enjoy more.
Some prefer the provocative and empathetic effects of drama, while others enjoy the goofy, feel good whimsicality of rom-coms. A lot of people like both, but are in the mood for one over the other at certain times. Dividing films into different genres is what makes them distinct, giving audiences a comprehensible approach to an enormous collection of films.
How to Choose the Right Genre for Your Screenplay
Try not to pick a genre before you start. If your ideas haven’t yet hit the page, leave them flexible. There’s no need to box yourself into one set of conventions over another before even starting.
This is not a rule. If you are passionate about a certain genre or subgenre, and want to write a story within that genre, shoot. Your passion for that genre means you have experience with its commonalities, giving you an edge on the writing process.
If you want to soak all your time into your next great project: a six part space opera, go for it. Just don’t expect to get a massive production fund, or for it to be a box office hit. If you are looking for that next big hit, think about taking a look at the market trends of genre categories and cinema demographics.
Adventures are big sellers, so I take back my earlier space opera jab. Action, romance, and comedy are widely loved. Consider trying out writing in these genres if you want to partake in their popularity.
Find Your Genre and Make Your Screenplay Reality
Consider your own favorite movies and what genre they fit into. In what ways do they conform, and in what ways do they break generic conventions?
Alternatively, think about trying to write in a genre you’re completely unfamiliar with. You may discover a newfound passion, or inadvertently break new ground.
While genres might seem like infrangible walls, to the best films they are merely suggestions.
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FAQs
What is genre theory in film?
Genre theory is the systematic, historical study of film genres, and its individual elements, which includes films, styles, techniques, etc. It’s essentially what we have been discussing in this article, although here we’ve only slightly scratched the surface.
What is genre vs. style in film?
Style is often individual, while genre is always categorical. Genre is a typification of style, a method of looking at style in a much larger magnitude.
Style includes technique, color palette, cinematography, and more. This may sound like what we were just discussing, but only when a certain style comes to be so widely used within one genre does it become an attribute of that genre (e.g. film noir).
How many film genres are there?
A quick google search tells us that there are 13 film genres. This is obviously wrong, especially if we are including subgenres.
In reality, there is no solid answer to this question, as genres are constantly changing and evolving with each new film and movement in cinema. As a creator or aspiring screenwriter, the bounds are endless.
