“Under monopoly all mass culture is identical, and the lines of its artificial framework begin to show. The people at the top are no longer so interested in concealing monopoly: as its violence becomes more open, so its power grows. Movies and radio need no longer pretend to be art. The truth that they are just business is made into an ideology in order to justify the rubbish they deliberately produce”(Adorno and Horkneimer, 1).
For some time, the existence of film spoofs has played on the continued use of identical elements in a variety of film genres. Scary Movie, made in 2000, parodies the clichéd parts of horror and slasher films including all of the “interchangeable” parts into one film. Some of these parts include falling, hyper-sexualized women, black characters being the first to die, monsters in the closet, etc. The popularity of these spoofs is consistent with the theory of a culture industry that produces identical products that the population continues to consume without much resistance. Scary Movie, in my estimation, exemplifies the awareness that the public has of being presented with identical content repeatedly while continuing to consume it without question.
Adorno and Horkneimer describe the culture industry as a process by which consumers are constantly being sold products that bear the same components over and over. Since the products are exactly the same, the packaging of the products is specialized based on the type of consumer to which it is being marketed. They argue that the process is so efficient that it serves to eliminate any independent thought on the part of the consumer by offering a consistently predictable product. Opponents of this ideology would say that the consumers’ desires require the reproduction of these homogenous products and obscure the power of the culture industry in creating “false wants” and perpetuating a particular “truth.”
Scary Movie has had 5 sequels over the past 13 years and has spawned other horror movie parodies like Haunted House. Each film includes a formula that is comprised of virtually the same elements in varying combinations. The original movie trailer from 2000 shows Marlon Wayon’s character offering the rules to “survive a horror movie” which include not answering the phone and not running into the woods. These two characteristics are in almost every horror film in the past 50 years. When viewers see these elements they can be pretty certain of the outcome and often the scenario that will precede it. The killer or villain will inevitably be the voice on the other end of the phone call and if you run into the woods it is likely you will not return from that run unharmed. Even though viewers can predict the conclusion with relative certainty, they continue to accept these stock stories because one “has to accept what the culture manufacturers offer him” (Adorno and Horkneimer, 3).
As an industry, culture is being produced and packaged as a commodity to be sold and “by craftily sanctioning the demand for rubbish it inaugurates total harmony”(Adorno and Horkneimer, 8). So obviously, the quality of the content of the Scary Movie and its sequels leaves much to be desired of originality but that is not the intention. Originality is not the aim but the blatant acknowledgement of the trite elements of horror films throughout the years seems to be the goal. The irony, of course, is that in producing multiple spoofs of identical horror film details it is also reproducing this scripted formula of horror parodies. It would seem that with films either no one is actively imagining anything new or every idea has already been used. Whichever is the case, people will continue to flock to the theater to see the same old story over and over and over...
Adorno and Horkneimer describe the culture industry as a process by which consumers are constantly being sold products that bear the same components over and over. Since the products are exactly the same, the packaging of the products is specialized based on the type of consumer to which it is being marketed. They argue that the process is so efficient that it serves to eliminate any independent thought on the part of the consumer by offering a consistently predictable product. Opponents of this ideology would say that the consumers’ desires require the reproduction of these homogenous products and obscure the power of the culture industry in creating “false wants” and perpetuating a particular “truth.”
Scary Movie has had 5 sequels over the past 13 years and has spawned other horror movie parodies like Haunted House. Each film includes a formula that is comprised of virtually the same elements in varying combinations. The original movie trailer from 2000 shows Marlon Wayon’s character offering the rules to “survive a horror movie” which include not answering the phone and not running into the woods. These two characteristics are in almost every horror film in the past 50 years. When viewers see these elements they can be pretty certain of the outcome and often the scenario that will precede it. The killer or villain will inevitably be the voice on the other end of the phone call and if you run into the woods it is likely you will not return from that run unharmed. Even though viewers can predict the conclusion with relative certainty, they continue to accept these stock stories because one “has to accept what the culture manufacturers offer him” (Adorno and Horkneimer, 3).
As an industry, culture is being produced and packaged as a commodity to be sold and “by craftily sanctioning the demand for rubbish it inaugurates total harmony”(Adorno and Horkneimer, 8). So obviously, the quality of the content of the Scary Movie and its sequels leaves much to be desired of originality but that is not the intention. Originality is not the aim but the blatant acknowledgement of the trite elements of horror films throughout the years seems to be the goal. The irony, of course, is that in producing multiple spoofs of identical horror film details it is also reproducing this scripted formula of horror parodies. It would seem that with films either no one is actively imagining anything new or every idea has already been used. Whichever is the case, people will continue to flock to the theater to see the same old story over and over and over...