Action
Action films usually include high energy, big-budget physical stunts and chases, possibly with rescues, battles, fights, escapes or destructive crises (floods, natural disasters etc.) Non-stop motion, making it more adventurous. Often include heroes battling the villain.
Examples of action films are-
Die Hard- A New York cop gives terrorists a dose of their own medicine as they hold hostages in an LA office building.
Raiders of the Lost Ark- An adventuring archaeologist races around the world to single-handedly prevent the Nazis from turning the Ark of the Covenant into a weapon of world conquest.
Subgenres of action include Action- Comedy, Disaster film, Girls with Guns and Action War.
Adventure
Adventure films are usually exciting stories, with new experiences, very similar to or often paired with the action film genre. They usually tend to be in exotic or different places, including searches or expeditions for lost continents, "jungle" and "desert" epics, treasure hunts, disaster films, or searches for the unknown.
Examples of Adventure films-
Pirates of the Caribbean- A meek blacksmith joins forces with a free-spirited pirate and his cursed ship to rescue his love, the governor's daughter.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade- When his father goes missing, famed archaeologist Indiana Jones must find him and ultimately stop the Nazis from obtaining the Holy Grail.
National Treasure- A modern day treasure hunter is in a race against the FBI to find a war chest hidden by the Founding Fathers.
Subgenres of Adventure include Swashbuckler.
Comedy
Usually light-hearted plots consistently and deliberately designed to amuse and provoke laughter using one-liners or jokes. This is done by exaggerating the situation, the language, action, relationships and characters.
Examples of Comedy films-
Groundhog Day- A grumpy weatherman finds himself living the same day over and over again.
The Princess Bride- A farm boy must save Princess Buttercup from a forced marriage to the nasty Prince Humperdinck.
Happy Gilmore- A reject hockey player takes up golf in order to save his grandmother's house.
Subgenre examples- Anarchic Comedy, Action-Comedy, Black-Comedy, Horror Comedy, Dramedy, Parody/ Spoof, Romantic-Comedy and Slapstick.
Crime and Gangster
These types of films are developed around the sinister actions of criminals or mobsters, particularly bank robbers, underworld figures, or ruthless hoodlums who operate outside the law, stealing and murdering their way through life.
Examples of Crime/ Gangster films-
Fargo- A car salesman from Minnesota is in debt, so he hires two men to kidnap his wife in order to collect her ransom money.
The silence of the Lambs- An FBI agent develops a relationship with the notorious serial killer, Dr.Hannibal Lector, to gain Lector's assistance in the hunt for another serial killer.
Reservoir Dogs- An unacquainted group of professional criminals are brought together for a diamond robbery that goes amiss.
Subgenres include film-noir, neo-noir and crime thriller.
Drama- These films are serious, plot-driven presentations, portraying realistic characters, settings, life situations and stories involving intense character development and interaction. Usually, they are not focused on special-effects, comedy, or action, dramatic films are probably the largest film genre, with many subsets.
Drama film examples-
The Shawshank Redemption- A former banker convicted of murdering his wife develops a lifelong friendship with a fellow prisoner, and ultimately tries to defy the odds by keeping hope alive inside the prison walls.
The Godfather- The aging patriarch of an organized crime circle must secure the future of his family's empire by leaving it in the hands of his reluctant son.
Casablanca- A jaded nightclub owner must choose whether or not to help his ex-lover and her husband flee Nazi- occupied Morocco.
Subgenres of drama films include Biography, Courtroom, Dramedy, Historical, Melodrama, Period piece, Political, Romance and Tragedy.
Horror- Horror films are designed to frighten and invoke our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale, while captivating and entertaining us at the same time in a cathartic experience. Horror films feature a wide range of styles from the earliest silent Nosferatu classic, to today's CGI monsters and deranged humans.
Horror film examples-
A Nightmare on Elm Street- Freddy Krueger, an evil being from another world, stalks a group of teenagers and kills them through their dreams.
Saw- Two men are held hostage by a psychopath, who is set on teaching his victims the value of life by putting them into demented life or death games.
Friday the 13th- While trying to re-open a summer camp, a group of camp counsellors are mysteriously murdered by a machete swinging slasher.
Examples of subgenres for horror include Comedy-Horror, Teen-Horror, Monster-Horror, Slasher, Supernatural-Horror and Zombie-Horror.
Westerns- Westerns are the major defining genre of the American film industry. They are one of the oldest, most enduring genres with very recognizable plots, elements and characters. For example six-guns, horses, dusty towns and trails, cowboys, Indians etc. Over time, westerns have been re-defined, re-invented and expanded, dismissed, re-discovered and spoofed.
Examples of Western films-
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre- The harsh realities of the Mexican South Western Frontier threaten three men in their search for gold.
Unforgiven- A reluctant and retired gunslinger teams up with two sharpshooters for one last killing.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid- Two train robbers flee to Bolivia, with the law just one step behind them.
Western film subgenres include Contemporary Westerns, Revisionist Westerns, Science fiction Westerns and Spaghetti Westerns.
Fantasy- Fantasies take the demographic to netherworld places, or another dimension where events are unlikely to occur in real life. They transcend the bounds of human possibility and physical laws, often having an element of magic, myth, wonder and the extraordinary. These can appeal to both children and adults, depending upon the particular film.
Fantasy film examples-
The Lord of the Rings- The Fellowship of the Ring: When a young hobbit is trusted with an ancient ring, he must travel to fires of Mount Doom in order to destroy it.
Star Wars: Episode IV, A New Hope- Luke Skywalker joins the Rebel Alliance and tries to save Princess Leia from the sinister Darth Vader.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone- After discovering his true identity as a wizard, Harry Potter takes on adventures at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Fantasy film subgenres include Bangsian Fantasy, High Fantasy and Sword and Sorcery.
Romance- Love stories, or affairs of the heart that centre on passion, emotion, and the romantic, affectionate involvement of main characters (usually being a leading man and woman), and the journey that their love takes through courtship or marriage. Romance films make the love story the main plot focus.
Romance film examples-
Slumdog Millionaire- Knowing the girl he loves is a fan of the show, an uneducated boy becomes a contestant on the Hindi version of Who wants to be a millionaire to win her over.
The Notebook- An old man who visits an elderly invalid woman, reads a love story to her that centers around two lovers torn apart by life events.
Love Actually- A look at eight very different love stories that are loosely intertwined in England during the Christmas season.
Romance subgenres- Romantic drama and Romantic comedy.
Thriller/ Suspense- Thriller and suspense films are virtually synonymous and interchangeable categorizations. They are types of films that are known to promote intense excitement, suspense, a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety and nerve-wrecking tension.
Thriller/ Suspense film examples-
The Great Escape- A large group of POW's plan an escape from a German camp in World War II.
The Silence of the Lambs- An FBI agent develops a relationship with the notorious serial killer, Dr. Hannibal Lector, in order to gain Lector's assistance in the hunt for another serial killer.
North By Northwest- Mistaken for a government agent by foreign spies, an advertising agent travels cross-country trying to survive.
Thriller subgenres include Action Thriller, Crime Thriller, Film Noir, Psychological Thriller, Science Fiction Thriller and Religious Thriller.
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