Melodrama
Comedy
Musicals
Westerns
Horror
100

A movie that features outsiders or troubled people experiencing and expressing heightened emotions communicated through close-up shots and an increasingly confining mise-en-scène is this genre

Melodrama

100

A film genre that celebrates the harmony and resiliency of social life, typically with a narrative that ends happily and often emphasizes episodes or “gags” over plot continuity

Comedy

100

In a melodrama, characters express their emotions by crying. In a musical, they do this

Sing and dance

100

This is the term for the iconic gunfight between the hero and the villain in the Western

The draw
100

A film genre with origins in Gothic literature that seeks to frighten the viewer

Horror

200

The subgenre of the melodrama that focuses on the physical plight and material conditions that repress or control the protagonist’s desires and emotions

Physical melodrama

200

A common narrative structure in the rom/com, which features scenes centering one character that alternate with parallel scenes centered on the other

Dual focus

200

A subgenre of the musical that uses cartoon figures and stories to present songs and music

Animated musical

200

This is the job of the Western hero

To make the West safe for settlement

200

Films such as the Saw franchise, Evil Dead Rise, and Hostel, in which the psychology of a character takes second place to the depiction of graphic violence, are examples of this subgenre

Physical horror films

300

In May December, Joe’s troubled relationship with his children and his anxieties about his own weaknesses as a father exemplify how the film can be classified as this subgenre

Family melodrama

300

If a film contains physical humor and stunts like pratfalls and a topper, a protagonist who is obviously unsuited for romance, and a dynamic of the little guy versus the big guy, it is most likely this subgenre

Slapstick comedy

300

If a movie features song and dance numbers that occur in the real world and are part of the narrative rather than set aside as performances, then it is this subgenre

Integrated musical

300

Films like Stagecoach and The Great Train Robbery, which concentrate on action and movement with a heroic character on a quest, are examples of this subgenre

Epic Western

300

A subgenre of contemporary horror films depicting serial killers that originated with Psycho

The slasher

400

This subgenre of the melodrama extends its reach to include larger historical, community, economic, and racial issues

Social melodrama

400

A comic subgenre of the 1930s and 1940s known for fast-talking “Hawksian women” and unpredictable, absurdist action

Screwball comedy

400

Movies like The Producers or Tick, Tick…Boom, which center around the production and performance of a musical show, are examples of this subgenre

Theatrical musical

400

This subgenre communicates a more introspective worldview, in which the traditional hero is troubled by his changing social status and the frontier is more populated and civilized

Existential Western

400

Movies like Halloween, in which a young woman survives the attacks of a serial killer, introduced this new type of character

The final girl

500

Two major cultural anxieties that are evident in the post-World War II melodrama are fears of deviance and indiscriminate threats like nuclear warfare. What is the third?

The crisis of masculinity

500

A subgenre of comedy in which humor takes second place to the emotional attraction of a couple who achieves a happy ending

Romantic comedy

500

This technological development was necessary for musicals to emerge as a genre after 1927

Synchronized sound

500

Naturalized use of violence is a convention of this Western subgenre

Political Western

500

If a movie features a spiritual evil that erupts in the human realm, it is this subgenre

Supernatural horror film