Rachel and Leeman talk about Guardians of the Galaxy and question just what genres are and what defies them.
Topics Discussed and/or Spoiled
Guardians of the Galaxy, GotG as an RPG, Star Wars, Inception, Total Recall, Looper, Princess Bride, Pinsent on Bieber, Stardust, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Silver Linings Playbook, Moulin Rouge, The Office (UK), and The Bible
Our outro is Debs & Errol’s Cuz He’s a Geek Guy
Geekually Yoked is a proud member of the Crossover Nexus
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The whole thing about marketing non-kid-appropriate movies to kids reminded me of the big one from my childhood: Gremlins. Gremlins was PG, but I suspect might be PG13 if it were out now — it’s pretty violent and gory. I was 7 when it came out, and begged and begged to see it — my parents, wisely in retrospect, did not let me. But I remember stickers, toys, picture books, and all sorts of other kid-targeted tie-in marketing. By the time I actually saw it, I was in college, and was glad I did not see it at 7.
I remember playing with “Aliens” action figures at 9. Good times.
Another great example of a genre-bender is “Ghost.” You’ve got the genuine horror elements (Creepy shadow demons! “Get off my train!”), the mystery/thriller elements (Who killed Sam? Why? OK, now that we know that, how do we stop his evil plan?), the romance elements (duh), and the comedy elements (it’s a testimony to how good this movie is that Whoopi Goldberg doesn’t seem to have wandered in from another set). And that’s not even getting into the fact that most of the ghost-related stuff is more dark fantasy/general spec fic than horror, because there’s nothing really scary about watching Sam figure out how to navigate the ghost world.
Horror actually leads to a lot of genre-bending, come to think of it, because you’ve also got movies like “The Sixth Sense” and “The Orphanage” (which no parent should watch under any circumstances) that start out terrifying and end up bringing in elements of tragedy or heartwarming reconciliation or whatever. If the movie ends up not actually being about defeating the monster, it’s going to bring in some other genre.