Every generation of filmmaker seems to want to make their mark on the horror genre.  Since the German Expressionists revolutionized the use of contrasting shadows and light in films like Nosferatu (1922) and off-kilter production design like those in The Cabinet of Dr. Kaligari (1926) as a means of conveying terror in the audience, horror has been a dominant genre in the medium.  Universal Pictures popularized the genre with their monster features in the 30’s and 40’s, and the post-war era gave way to the B-picture brand of kitsch horror.  Then came the slasher films, which took advantage of the end of the Hollywood Production code in order to increase the level of gore on screen. Though the styles have changed, the genre has managed to remain resilient through the years, and that’s mainly because of it’s exceptional ability to adapt to the changing times and values, more than any other genre.  I think that it’s mostly because the Horror genre targets a younger audience; albeit an audience on the cusp of adulthood.  Because Horror movies are targeted at a young adult audience, they are intended to be more in tune with what younger people value; though it doesn’t always work that way.  That’s why you always see clearly defined lines between different eras in the Horror genre; because every era’s audience is different.  Usually you’ll find a defining film that helped to guide each era’s character in the Horror genre; whether it was Friday the 13th (1980) for the slasher 80’s or Scream (1996) for the self aware 90’s.  But, if there was ever a horror film that had the unlikeliest legacy, it would be the unexpected hit, The Blair Witch Project (1999).

The Blair Witch Project was the horror movie blockbuster that no one saw coming.  Made on a shoestring budget, Blair Witch brought a new concept to the genre, and that was the use of “found footage.”  The film proposed that it was pieced together from real footage shot by student filmmakers on the search for a fabled witch who had been haunting the woods around a small Maryland town for centuries.  With their gear in tow, the three documentarians set out to find out if the local legends are true, and the deeper they travel, the weirder things get.  Their cameras pick up strange phenomena and eventually they start to become harassed by someone or something out in the wilderness.  Madness and frustration begins to take hold of the filmmakers and they begin to suspect each other.  When one of them goes missing, then it turns into a life or death situation for the remaining duo.  And soon, they learn that there is indeed no way out for them and all they can do is to continue to record their experience in the hope that their story may be told.  Of course, none of the footage is found at all.  The three filmmakers are really just actors following a script (Joshua Leonard, Michael C. Williams and Heather Donahue respectively) and the legendary “Blair Witch” was a complete fabrication made for the movie.  But, even still, the movie is genuinely terrifying and it’s primarily due to the way that it is presented.  Using hand-held cameras gives the film a stunning you are there feel, and the scares are generated more from the things unseen rather than what is seen.  The “Blair Witch” herself is never actually shown, and it’s really up for debate if the movie concretely says if she’s real at all.  But, it doesn’t matter in the end, because it’s the paranoia of not knowing everything that truly gives this movie it’s power.

Though revolutionary, The Blair Witch Project is not without it’s problems either.  There’s little to no character development, and the dialogue can be groan inducing at times.  And the quality of the film-making is not for everyone’s taste (hope you can get used to a lot of grainy shots of nothing but darkness).   But The Blair Witch Project is less fascinating as a film and more interesting for what it actually affected within the industry.  As a horror movie, it was something very new and original.  In an era that was becoming increasingly dominated by Scream knock-offs, Blair Witch was a breath of fresh air.  Here was a movie that didn’t need buckets of blood or music crescendos to drive the scary moments.  All it needed was a sense of confusion and a bleak atmosphere.  But, it’s legacy wasn’t just limited to the horror genre.  What was also groundbreaking about The Blair Witch Project was the way it was marketed.  The movie only cost $60,000 to make, but it ended up grossing $240 million worldwide, and that is because of how well it generated buzz before hand and how it spread by word of mouth.  This happened in the then underground world of the internet, and it became the first ever viral marketing used to promote a movie.  More than anything, this is the biggest legacy that Blair Witch has left, because every film now has followed it’s lead with marketing films through websites and online forums.  In addition, the movie also launched a genre of it’s own that even extends outside of the Horror genre where it started; the found footage film.

Of all the things that would define the “digital era” of horror film-making, it would be “found footage.”  In the wake of The Blair Witch Project, there were dozens of copycat films that would also try to capitalize on it’s success.  Movies like Quarantine (2008), The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007), and REC (2007), emerged in this time; some good, but mostly bad.  For the most part, few movies could ever achieve the same novelty that Blair Witch had when it first released, but a couple of them still stood out.  Paranormal Activity (2007) took the Blair Witch style and updated it with modern technology, giving the found footage sub-genre a more refined look.  And then there were movies like Cloverfield (2008) and Chronicle (2012), which took “found footage” into other genres, showing the format’s versatility.  More often than not, the success of these “found footage” movies hinged more on whether or not the films were actually good and entertaining enough, and less about how well they look, which is something that boded well for the format.  “Found Footage” is better able to get away with a less polished look, which in turn made it a valuable genre to work within for the budget-minded filmmaker.  Many up and coming filmmakers across the world find the “found footage” sub-genre as a great place to flex their film-making muscles, because it allows for more flexibility with the storytelling, as you are not tied to conventional Hollywood conventions.  This was also the era when reality television was dominating the airways, with shows like Survivor and American Idol generating huge ratings, so “found footage” was perfectly reflective of it’s audiences’ new found fascination with documented reality, or the illusion of one.  Whether or not Blair Witch is responsible for launching all of that, it nevertheless marked a big push forward for a film-making technique whose time had come.

But, “found footage” is not without its fault as a technique either.  Too many young filmmakers tend to mistake the format as a film-making shortcut.  It’s so easy to create a sense that you’ve made a Hollywood level film by just emulating the “found footage” movies that are released in theaters.  But, more often than not, most “found footage” movies fail because they don’t have a compelling story behind them.  Horror “found footage” films in particular have churned out some truly horrendous movies in recent years; so much so that there seems to have been a backlash by audiences, who are now demanding a different direction for the genre.  This is largely due to the fact that for a while, “found footage” became a crutch for a genre that was lacking ideas, so Hollywood filmmakers used it to cover up the fact that they were just rehashing the same cliched elements over and over again.  One particular sub-Horror genre that was done to death with “found footage” was the Exorcism and Demonic Possession films.  These types of movies, such as The Last Exorcism (2010) and The Devil Inside (2012), especially squandered their potential by taking way too many film-making shortcuts that actually ended up insulting their audience.  The Devil Inside was even documented to have elicited boos from multiple audiences because of it’s audacity to end with resolving a thing in it’s story and conclude with a plug for it’s website.  It was at that point where audiences were seeing that there was no innovation in the genre with this kind of technique; it was just a way for hack horror filmmakers to quickly churn out a cheap product.  And for a fan-base that was starved for something fresh in the Horror genre, this became a terrible blight on the ever evolving genre.  If Horror movies were to reinvent itself, it would have to escape the shadow of the Blair Witches and the Paranormal Activities.

In recent years, we’ve seen this new tug-of-war in the Horror genre between the cheap “found footage” style, and the sleeker, more ambitious Horror.  Nostalgia is something that has actually moved the Horror genre in a different direction, as many new filmmakers in the genre are looking more to slasher movies of the 70’s and 80’s for inspiration, and less to The Blair Witch Project.  Recent critically acclaimed horror movies like The Conjuring  (2013) and It Follows (2014), have brought back a more refined look to the genre, with thematic lighting, practical effects, and a grounded camera all making old fashioned techniques feel like new again.  They are far more emblematic of the techniques of it’s 70’s and 80’s cousins, and in some cases, they even borrow the era’s aesthetic right down to the smallest details.  It’s a clear sign of an audience coming of age and recognizing the value of something other than what the Hollywood machine has been churning out.  What seems to be happening more now is that audiences have grown tired of the cheap amateurishness of “found footage” horror, and are instead looking for better scares from filmmakers who continually challenges their audience and makes the visual presentation just as important as the scares.  Filmmakers like James Wan (The Conjuring) bring a lot to the genre because they know what they’re doing and they are not trying to hide their filmmaker shortcomings through gimmicks.  And as we’ve seen not just in the movie theaters but also on television with the success of the Duffer Brothers’ series Stranger Things, this shift in the Horror genre is not just a little one, but a bigger mainstream move that will probably change the face of Horror for years to come, and mark the end of the “found footage” era.

But, that’s not to say that The Blair Witch Project‘s legacy will disappear entirely.  “Found footage” is a technique that is actually finding it’s footing outside of the horror genre at the moment, and I believe that’s where it’s future will be.  As we’ve seen before, “found footage” can be used for all sorts of different types of stories and depending on the subject, it actually becomes a refreshing and unexpected exercise in narrative.  Cloverfield proved that visual effects and CGI would not look out of place with handheld photography, and Chronicle showed that the format could even tell a compelling story with a surprising amount of depth and tragedy.  Comedies have even found a way to use the “found footage” technique to tell their story, with movies like Project X (2012) letting the POV perspective catch audiences with unexpected visual gags in a new way.  And with better cameras out today, hand held photography can hold it’s own in cinemas just as well as other movies.  Take for instance David Ayer’s End of Watch (2012), a movie that could have been filmed the conventional way, depicting the day to day lives of inner city cops (played by Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena), but instead is shot documentary style with hand-held cameras, which gives it a distinctive look.  Ayer’s stylistic choice turns out to have been a better one for the story he wanted to tell, putting us right in the middle of the action and in the process, within the mindset of his characters.  It also calls to mind the kind of footage that you would normally see on a real police dash cam, or on shows like COPS, which is a direction you rarely see mined for dramatic purposes on film.  So it shows that like the Horror genre that it was spawned from that the “found footage” sub-genre is evolving too, finding itself becoming a handy technique for unconventional storytelling.

That as it turns out is what The Blair Witch Project‘s lasting legacy will be over time.  It didn’t invent the “found footage” technique, but it popularized it in a way that it became a genre on it’s own, one that doesn’t need to stick solely within the realm of Horror.  Not only that, but it truly modernized the industry in ways that no one expected, including using the internet for film marketing.  It’s hard to believe that this little micro-budget horror movie has had such a ripple effect on the industry, but it shows how valuable it can be to take steps steps outside of the normal ways of business in film-making and try something different.  As a movie itself, it holds up as more of an oddity than anything else.  Perhaps it’s the audacity of the project that we find so fascinating about it and how well it succeeded.  I for one admire how effectively it used it’s little gimmick and created scary moments without having to resort to gore and violence for shock value.  It’s also unmatched as a gimmick as well.  Few others have managed to emulate the the visceral experience of watching this for the first time, although others like Paranormal Activity have successfully done their own thing with the same techniques.  And the indie spirit of it is something that also keeps it appealing.  We all saw how disastrous Hollywood’s version of it could be with Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000); a clear example of a bigger budget producing lesser results.  Within the Horror genre, Blair Witch still looms large, even as the genre changes again.  Heather Donahue’s teary flashlight lit close-up is still on of Horror’s most iconic images.  Overall, The Blair Witch Project proves that even small movies can have huge impacts on film-making, and be rewarded with a new genre that owes it’s whole existence to it.

Cinematography can create many eye catching images that immediately stick out in the mind of the viewer.  Sometimes it’s with simple framing, or some kind of optical trick, or even some bold choices of color.  Oftentimes, it’s the shot that doesn’t call attention to itself right away that ends up sticking in our minds, because of the precision of it’s execution.  But, as we’ve seen over the years, to become a successful cinematographer in Hollywood, you have to be someone who knows all the minute details of the tools of their trade.  If a film is poorly shot, it will affect the movie even more than poor writing and weak performances.  The cinematographer must understand everything about how the camera works, and understand the best way to use it for dramatic purposes.  That’s why they are such a valued member of the crew and are often the ones who work more closely with the director than anyone else.  Some even go on to be directors themselves, like Haskell Wexler (Medium Cool), Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black), Jan de Bont (Speed), and Nicolas Roeg (The Man Whod Fell to Earth).  But, one tool of the trade that carries it’s own significance across a broad spectrum of different styles and stories that many of the best cinematographers do love but seem to seldom use is black and white photography.  Once the dominant form of film in the early days of cinema, the practice of shooting a movie in black and white has become somewhat of a rarity, and yet it still persists and is admired to this day despite the change in the market.  In a time when color film is the standard, how does black and white photography still hold up today?

The biggest misconception that’s made about black and white photography is that it’s easy to do and that’s why you rarely see it valued by Hollywood elite; because it’s thought to cheapen the overall product.  While it is true that black and white photography is easier and less expensive to process, it is by no means easier to shoot.  In fact, because of the lack of color, many cinematographers and directors have to take into more account how they are going to light a scene, as well as know how they are going work with their designs.  Cinematic shortcuts that are commonplace in color films like thematic color coding and high key lighting are not as readily available to a film shot in black and white.  The Director of Photography or DP (aka the cinematographer) needs to work around these shortcomings in order to deliver the same kind of storytelling that a color film will give you and this is a challenge that many DP’s embrace with pleasure.  It takes a knowing mind to figure out how to suggest color in a scene when their is none, and which ever filter they run the film through can offer some interesting visual surprises as a result.  The way a scene is lit also becomes a much more important tool, since contrasts between light and dark become much more delineated in the two tone process.  Because of the advancement of color, the black and white process has indeed gone through it’s own evolution into a different kind of storytelling tool, and one that is used much more carefully by filmmakers today than it had in the past.  That’s probably why it’s a seldom used but cherished art-form today; because it’s something that immediately stands out in the market and is also held to a different standard than everything else.  And for something that’s held to different standards, it’s uses and misuses are caught more acutely by the general audience.

Looking back at film history, we can see how competition in the market spurred a different kind of classification for the use of black and white photography.  For years, the only way to make a movie in early Hollywood was in black and white.  Kodak wouldn’t develop the first color kodachrome film for the public market until 1935, and the process took even longer to take hold in Hollywood.  Different attempts to bring color into cinema included dyeing film stock like what D.W. Griffith did for the different segments of his epic Intolerance (1916), or painting directly onto the film itself like Georges Melies had done with his early shorts.  Sephia tone was the most commonly practiced form of coloring for silent films and even today, it’s a commonly parodied form of coloring to make a movie appear old-fashioned.  But for the most part, most movies had to work with shades of gray and little else for decades.  That was until the Technicolor company developed it’s first three strip process which for the first time true color was successfully recreated on film.  The Walt Disney Company was the first to jump on the new process and they were given exclusive rights to the process for nearly 5 years, using the process to give bright color to their Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony shorts.  Because of Disney’s success with the three strip process, Hollywood was convinced that they needed to begin using Technicolor film on a much larger scale.  The year of 1939 became a monumental year for this change as audiences were treated to a triple whammy of color blockbusters with The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Wizard of Oz, and the Oscar-winning Gone With the Wind all released that year.  Because of those movies, color photography had taken it’s place in Hollywood, but for a while it would have to share theater screens with black and white.

Black and white films still dominated for a few decades more, mainly because of the higher cost for color film.  The wartime rationing also played a role in keeping color film to a minimum, and for a while, Hollywood would treat color photography as a special storytelling licence used only on special occasions.  The advent of television, which was also limited in it’s ability to display true color, helped black and white film to survive even longer, since there would be little change from one format to the other.  But, as color processing became more prevalent, and as a result cheaper and more available to the public, color cinema began to quietly take over the industry, and by the late 70’s and early 80’s, black and white films were almost non existent.  It never went away fully, but instead sort of switched places with color as a process that was no longer the standard, but instead an exception; used solely for the purposes of style and story.  Hollywood blockbusters in particular stayed away from black and white photography, because it was believed that in the public’s eye, the process was viewed as old-fashioned.  That would change though in the early 90’s, with the growth of the indie film market.  Many independent filmmakers saw the value in black and white photography because they felt it gave a grittier, more documentary look to their films.  Because a black and white movie is more eye-catching in a world dominated by color, shooting your low budget movie in the format could help get it noticed, and that’s what spurred a new revival in the process.  With films by Gus Van Sant (Mala Noche), Jim Jarmusch (Coffee and Cigarettes) and Kevin Smith (Clerks) all getting recognition with the process, it was time for Hollywood to take notice again.

And this leads to an interesting era in Hollywood that we find ourselves in today, where black and white photography has a mystique around it that it hadn’t had in the early part of it’s history.  If a filmmaker uses black and white for a movie today, it’s not because it’s required of them like it was back in the old days, but because it is necessary for the story that they want to tell.  I especially find it interesting when a director suddenly shifts their style to work in black and white as opposed to color which they normally work with.  In some ways, their style stays the same no matter what the format, but their black and white feature will still stand out.  Tim Burton has made only two features in black and white, Ed Wood (1994) and Frankenweenie (2012), and while very different, they do affect the director’s body of work in some way.  With Ed Wood, the normally bombastic visual artist subdued his style to make a more down-to-earth biopic, and the black and white photography did an effective job of conveying that while still feeling true to the director’s style.  And Frankenweenie stands out as one of the rare black and white animated features, another oddity that fits within the director’s body of work.  Mostly, high profile directors look to the process as a way of underlying a darker, more somber tone to their movies.  Steven Spielberg used it to profound effect in Schindler’s List (1993), giving the movie an immediacy and visceral effect that I don’t think it would’ve had in color.  And Martin Scorsese memorably shot his classic Raging Bull (1980) in black and white, giving the biopic of boxer Jake LaMotta a very stripped down and naked feel to it, fitting the tone perfectly.  But, even still, these directors don’t rely on black and white always.  It’s only used when it’s absolutely essential for the movie they’re making.  Black and white wouldn’t work well for something like E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (1982) or The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) for instance.  Accomplished filmmakers know the proper uses of black and white cinema, and that’s something that could be misused by an unskilled amateur.

Black and white is misused sometimes, and it more or less has to do with how black and white has evolved into a more prestigious trade tool.  There’s a misconception today that filming in black and white will automatically make your movie feel grittier and cinematically deeper than it really is.  It’s become a crutch for the pretentious wannabe director, who tries to cover up his or her cinematic shortcomings by making their movie more monochromatic.   The only problem is that doing so doesn’t hide the other problems like script, acting, and/or direction and this kind of audience manipulation is often too easy to spot.  In an age today where switching between color and black and white is as easy as a push of a button on your keyboard, or a filter on your phone, people too often take this change for granted.  To make black and white look good, it takes an expert eye to understand how the image will come out when the color is removed.  That’s why when a movie shoots in black and white, it must be carefully constructed by the cinematographer.  Their input is the most important from movie to movie and they make all the difference when it comes to black and white.  Take two examples for instance from  the body of work of Woody Allen; Manhattan (1979) and Celebrity (1998).  Manhattan is heralded as one of the director’s best and it’s stunning widescreen black and white cinematography is part of that.  And then there’s Celebrity, a later less heralded feature also shot in black and white, made during Allen’s off years.  So, why is one more celebrated than the other.  Part of it is because black and white is cinematically more essential to the story of Manhattan, whereas it’s an afterthought in Celebrity.  Manhattan (shot by Gordon Willis) was meant to evoke a sense of nostalgia, and that’s why the black and white imagery stood out, because it was evocative of old photographs of New York City from the pre-War years.  Celebrity (shot by Sven Nykvist) just uses it to give the movie a more gritty look, and as a result, it feels more cliched.  It just shows that even with the same filmmaker, the process can be misused depending on the film.

But, depending on how a director uses it, it does affect the overall story.  One thing that I am pleased has developed in the last couple decades regarding black and white photography is the value that audiences put into it.  Remember the outcry that audiences made when studio and broadcast executives like Ted Turner began to “colorize” old black and white movies.  It’s unheard of today, but some believed that in order for old films to be accepted by modern audiences, they had to have color added to them.  It didn’t matter that a movie could hold up well because of how it was performed or directed.  Because they were in black and white, people at the time purely thought that without the color, these movies were worthless.  Thankfully, the process was short-lived and audiences accepted the old black and white movies as they were originally intended to look.  But this gets into an interesting aspect of filmmaker intent and how that contrasts with audience reception, and how often the studios tend to misread both.   There have been different attempts by some filmmakers to try to bring more black and white films to the forefront, only to end up compromising later on by switching to color.  Filmmaker Frank Darabont, the man behind The Shawshank Redemption (1994) has tried to be a champion of the black and white process, often producing two different versions of his movies in the editing process; one in color and the other in black and white.  He released two version of his film The Mist (2007) on home video, and left it up to viewer to prefer which one they wanted to watch.  He also did the same for the pilot episode of The Walking Dead series that he also produced and directed.  It’s an interesting experiment that I’m glad Darabont is putting out there for us to decide, but it seems unfair that he has to work outside the studio standards in order to achieve this, and not in the cinemas like it’s supposed to.

Black and White continues to hold a special place in the film-making world, but I often feel that it’s value is somewhat underestimated.  Like all great art, black and white photography requires expertise and it can often be misused or misunderstood.  Sometimes I’ve found that some movies could’ve been better served by using the process.  In my own personal experience, I can recall one time when I was watching Martin Scorsese’s forgotten 1999 film Bringing Out the Dead, and it was all in black and white.  Despite the film’s shortcomings, I was finding the cinematography interesting because of the stark contrasts in lighting, and it actually enhanced the experience for me.  But then I realized that my TV had accidentally had it’s color settings turned all the way down, so I was in fact watching a color film that was mistakenly shown in black and white.  What strikes me is how different my reaction to the movie was purely based on whether it was in color or not.  While I don’t believe it’s true for every movie, and it shouldn’t be encouraged as a practice by studios to circumvent the intentions of the filmmaker, I actually would recommend trying to do this trick with a variety of other movies, just to see what might happen.  It just goes to show how much of a difference black and white photography makes in storytelling.  There are some movies that actually play better in black and white than they would in color.  The same isn’t true the other way around.  And that’s the sign of a process that has matured over the years.  It is far from old-fashioned, but rather a different and more challenging passage into a story, whether you’re watching it or making it, and in many ways, it represents film-making in it’s purest form.

Our recent summer season revealed a few things to us, particularly with the abundance of Superhero movies released in the last few months.  First thing we know is that the genre still has power at the box office, with 4 of the 5 Superhero movies this year meeting or exceeding their projected grosses.  But, what we’ve also seen this year is a much more mixed reception from both critics and fans towards the genre.  There are a variety of factors for this, though it mostly comes down to some movies just being better than the rest.  But, the other underlying factor that is also starting to develop in response to these movies is a feeling of fatigue.  It may not be a dominant factor, but it’s there and it’s growing.  Some people are just sick and tired of hearing about what’s going on in the Marvel universe and the DC universe, or have just stopped caring.  And while it’s a feeling that hasn’t hit me just yet, it’s one that I do understand.  Hollywood goes through many cycles, with audiences taking interest in one type of genre of movies before eventually losing interest and finding something else to watch.  Superhero movies has been surprisingly resilient in the last decade; staying strong long after many industry predictions would have guessed it would die down.  But, by being on top for so long, the Superhero genre also runs the risks of eventually having a bigger collapse, one that could leave it fractured and dormant for a long time.  It may seem alarmist to think of this now after the success that we’re still seeing this year with movies like Deadpool, Captain America, and Suicide Squad, but as Murphy’s Law states, what goes up will always come down, and it depends on the genre itself to determine how far it may fall.

To see where there may be signs of a downfall on the horizon, we should look at the results of this year’s slate of Superhero movies.  The year started off strong with surprise showing from Deadpool, a film that took an irreverent look at the genre as a whole.  Then came Batman v. Superman, which rode a hype train towards a strong box office, but was savaged by critics and ultimately also by disappointed fans.  Then Captain America: Civil War continued Marvel Studios hot streak and grossed a billion worldwide.  After that, Fox released their eighth X-Men film Apocalypse to an underwhelming reception, becoming the lowest grossing film of the series in over a decade.  And then finally, there was Suicide Squad; probably the most divisive film released this year overall.  Looking at all of these, it’s really hard to say if the genre has hit a turning point yet, but the signs of fatigue are certainly there.  The mild reception of the new X-Men movie probably is the biggest indicator of the bunch that following the same formula may not be working out as well as it used to.  But, at the same time, it’s also the only real failure of the movies I named.  So, where is the problem?  I think it has more to do with than just the box office numbers.  The highly negative reception towards DC comics two big blockbusters this year also indicates a growing level of distrust towards the people making these movies.  Customers can only be sold a bad bill of goods so long before they turn against the merchant, and DC right now is dangling on the edge.  The ability to reach it’s base audience has managed to keep DC afloat in this year’s box office, but their problematic movies are not winning them over any new fans either.  Audience apathy is what ultimately kills a genre’s staying power, and given the long life span this genre has had, a significant shift can be expected if this kind of reception gets any stronger.

One only has to look at how other genres have fared over the years to see what the future might mean for the superhero genre.  Fantasy films were for the longest time a long marginalized genre, even with a brief upswing in the mid-eighties with movies like Labyrinth (1986) and The Neverending Story (1987).  Then in 2001, we got the double-whammy of the first adaptations of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels and J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy; both juggernaut box office hits.  Suddenly, a long dead genre saw new life and many other Hollywood studios quickly tried to cash in on other properties.  There was a brief window of time where it did seem like this was a genre with lasting power, as Disney’s adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe also became a hit.  But probably more quickly than many expected, the genre lost steam fast.  The Narnia franchise lost it’s mojo by the second film, and other would-be franchises like The Golden Compass (2007), The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008) and The Seeker: The Dark is Rising (2007) barely took off at all.  More recently, we have seen the sad fall of Hunger Games (2012) clones in the last year, with The Maze Runner (2014) being put on an indeterminate hiatus and the Divergent (2013) series being reduced to having it’s last film made for TV instead of theatrical.  Not to mention other genres like the Western which have stayed in hibernation for ages now.  Superheroes movies have the benefit of broader appeal and more diversity of the stories that can be told than some of these other genres, but it is not immune to changes in the tastes of it’s audience like them.

The Superhero genre has gone through peaks and valleys before, and in one case, you could say that had crashed.  It’s also a genre that took a long time to come into it’s own.  It was Richard Donner’s Superman (1980) that really marked the beginning of the genre, but the series took a dive once Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) came out.  A couple years after, the genre hit a high point again with Tim Burton’s Batman (1989), but like Superman, that franchise lost steam and resulted in a movie that many claim could have been a genre killer with the campy mess that was Batman & Robin (1997).  Yet, the genre endured with highs and lows as Marvel started entering the fray with their adaptations of X-Men (2000) and Spiderman (2002), which of course led to the less beloved X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and Spiderman 3 (2007).  But, then Marvel began their ambitious plan for a Cinematic Universe where all their movies would be interconnected and aimed towards culminating in huge crossover productions.  This is what ultimately ended the up and down trajectory of the genre and instead brought Superhero movies to full dominance in Hollywood.  That’s why it’s hard to say whether or not the genre is due for a downfall or not, because Marvel’s Cinematic Universe is something that we’ve never seen accomplished so well in Hollywood before.  Marvel has found it’s Midas touch and it hasn’t let them down yet.  The same can not quite be said for their rival DC comics.  While their movies do see huge opening weekends, they can’t quite match Marvel’s numbers and their movies are far less beloved.  The perception that DC is just in the game to capitalize on the success of what their rivals have built is another sign of weakness in the genre that could lead to a downfall later on.  When you start to do what’s best for your bottom line instead of what’s best for the material and characters in question, then you begin to lose the goodwill with the audience that could help you sustain success in the long run.

Despite the fact that Marvel’s done things right so far, even they may not be immune to a dramatic shift in attitude towards the genre.  And that shift in attitude may have found it’s origins this year within a product from the genre itself.  The success of Deadpool indicated several things about the genre as it stands right now and they are things that should give the big studios pause and concern right now.  For one thing, Deadpool found it’s best laughs by openly mocking the state of the Superhero genre; with it’s formulaic origin stories and often obnoxious self-importance.  Though most of his jabs were aimed at the increasingly stale X-Men franchise, Deadpool did brutally critique the Marvel and DC formulas as well; including a hilarious spin on Marvel’s predictable post-credits scenes.  And secondly, Deadpool managed to become a success without any meddling from the studios.  This makes it an anomaly in a genre that’s increasingly micro-managed by studio executives; much to the detriment of DC’s recent movies in particular.  The fact that this upstart, irreverent little movie was able to laugh right in the face of it’s bigger adversaries and become a hit because of this shows that audiences are ready to embrace something that is able to skewer the genre as a whole.  And for a genre that currently is caught up with trying to make their grand plans bigger and more meaningful, this sudden shift in perspective could undermine what they are trying to build.  Not that it’s Deadpool‘s intent to destroy it’s competitors and change the genre to suit it’s needs.  Like the character himself, the movie is more or less there to be a silly diversion for the comic book world; never taking itself seriously, while still embracing the genre cliches it’s also trying to critique.  But, given that the response to the movie was so big, it’s irreverent tone may have more of a lasting impact on the genre than it’s creators had originally intended, and set a tide against the genre that could shift how well the ongoing story-lines evolve from here out.

This has already affected DC’s plans for it’s cinematic universe.  When they first embarked on building their franchises, the idea was to take a far more serious, dark tone, inspired mostly by Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy.  This, however, changed in the wake of Deadpool’s record breaking success.  Released on a month before Batman v. Superman, Deadpool managed to still out-gross the more high profile release; making a $363 million gross on a $50 million budget, while BvS settled at $330 million against a $250 million budget.  DC and their parent studio Warner Brothers sensed something was amiss and they quickly reshuffled their creative team behind their future films, including giving star Ben Affleck more of a role and director Zack Snyder less of one.  This also led to costly re-shoots for Suicide Squad and a re-edit to make it more comical that many believe made that movie much more of a mess that it would have been.  So, one unexpected hit that deconstructs the genre has already caused cracks to form at one of the major comic book empires already.  But, is the mighty Marvel vulnerable as well.  Well there has been no sign of fatigue just yet, but by climbing so high they may ultimately be the bringers of their own doom.  You see, what Marvel has done is put a lot of investment on the end game of their grand master plan of a Cinematic Universe, and that end game is coming up soon with the release of Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War in the summer of 2018.  For the whole plan to be worth the time we’ve spent watching all of it, Infinity War needs to be a outright masterpiece, otherwise we’re going to look at the whole build-up as worthless in the end.  It’s been a fun ride to be sure, but Marvel has to know that they need to deliver on this, otherwise the genre itself may never be able to reach the same highs ever again, because we would have been put through the biggest of letdowns.  That’s the risk associated with being on top for much longer than you were expected to be.  The inevitable fall could be not just damaging, but crippling as well.

So, when will such a downfall eventually happen to the Superhero genre.  Well, that’s ultimately up to the filmmakers and studios behind the movies.  The thing that can kill a genre over time is a growing disconnect between what the audience wants and what the studios think the audience wants.  Marvel, at this moment, has been very good at anticipating the desires of it’s audience and delivering them to us on screen.  The successful relaunch of Spiderman into the Marvel Universe is an example of how they’ve managed to deliver on such a promise, making us once again eager to see the webslinger on the big screen again by actually focusing on his character and personality rather than his abilities.  DC on the other hand seemed to be doing things the way they wanted to, and once it became apparent that they needed to change direction, it became too late.  And X-Men faulted when they decided to just coast on formula and perhaps spread themselves too thin with a way too big cast of characters in Apocalypse.  But, when you’ve been on top for so long, it becomes tempting to just follow the rules instead of take a gamble.  That’s why the last thing that the Superhero genre needed right now was a game-changer like Deadpool.  Because of Deadpool, now both Marvel and DC are second guessing themselves after investing so much effort in building their respective cinematic universes.  Do they stubbornly stay the course, or do they alter things just enough to stay relevant.  I think what has benefited them up to now is that the worst that the genre has produced over the last few years has been marked as disappoints rather than outright disasters.  We have yet to see this generation’s Batman & Robin.  Last year’s Fantastic Four could have been that tipping point, but there was no legacy for that film to ruin, so it ended up just being a forgotten failure that didn’t effect the industry in any way.  But, if second-guessing their plans and using unnecessary last minute fixes become the norm for both Marvel and DC in the years ahead, then we may end up seeing a point where the Superhero genre comes crashing down.

So, the Superhero genre remains fine for now, but the seeds are planted for an eventual downturn.  It remains to be seen how the genre will fare in the years ahead.  We know now that an overabundance of genre entries can wear down and overwhelm an audience and that tastes can wane over time, diverting towards something else.  At least for now, that something else is another representative of the same genre with Deadpool, but at the same time it’s a movie that deconstructs the foundations that the genre is built upon.  The release of Marvel’s Infinity War in a couple years will tell us if the genre has hit it’s apex yet, and if there will be a future ahead of it still.  But even before then, are we going to see a backlash develop all of a sudden towards Superhero movies?  If there are a string of disappointments, or if DC continues to alienate it’s base by continually trying to meddle with their movies before they’re ready, than that day may come sooner than expected.  The truth of it all is that the Superhero movie genre has enjoyed a very good run, but it’s time will come eventually too.  Just like how Hollywood has abandoned fantasy and western films in the past, despite some worthwhile releases, so too will audiences tastes change towards something new and fresh that’s not in the Superhero genre.  As of right now, Superhero movies are the mainstream, and there is a constant trend in the film industry to renew itself every several years by subverting the mainstream and finding that fresh new thing.  My hope is that while the industry will eventually move away from the superhero genre, that it will be a gentle fall for them and that the whole thing won’t be brought down by one particularly wretched failure.  The best we can hope from Marvel and DC now (and also Fox with their Marvel licenced characters) is that they still create entertaining movies that don’t ruin the characters we love.  Their own bad judgement can be their kryptonite, and it’s a walk along the edge that none of them would like to take right now.