Defining the genre & sub genres

Defining a genre of a fillm can be quite difficult but there are four main ways to define the genre of a film. These being the setting (the environment in which the action takes place), the theme or topic (refers to the issues or concepts that the film revolves around), the mood (emotional tone of the film) and the format ( the way the film was shot). However film genres often branch out into subgenres (a subcategory with a particular genre) For example a 'Chick flick' is a genre but it may include sub-genres such as comedy, tragedy, 'tearjerkers', fiction fantasy etc.

'Back to the future' is defined as a science fiction adventure film. However it includes sub genres such as comedy(in the character of 'The Doc'), romance (between marty mcfly and jennifer parker, and his parents george and lorraine mcfly), tearjerkers (when the doc is shot, when marty believes he can't bring his parents back together) and others. This shows how all films also include sub genres.

Defining a thriller - Thrillers can often be further divided into action thrillers, crime-caper thrillers, western-thrillers, film-noir thrillers, even romantic comedy-thrillers. Another closely-related genre is the horror film genre. Thriller and suspense films almost go hand in hand and are hard to depict as different genres. Normally films classed as thrillers promote intense excitement, suspense, high levels of anticipation, uncertainty, anxiety, and nerve-wracking tension and this is how we can begin to define their genre. Spy film are the best example as they are mainly considered as a type of thriller/suspense film.