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Miss Wellings

In terms of genre, how far can Stranger Things be considered post-modern?

It could be said that Stranger Things belongs to the Horror & Thriller Genres. Post Modernism tells us
that genre is a label and that its bad to give things labels. In the first episode of Stranger Things
genre might be obvious because of the narrative and the micro aspects in it.

Stranger Things fits the conventions of the horror genre through the use of mise-en-scene like low
key lighting and isolated locations which might scare the audience. An example of this is when Will is
taken. Within this scene, it begins with a long take of Will (young boy) riding (performance) his bike
(prop) within the dark woods (location). This makes us as an audience feel scared for him through
the use of the wide shot showing he is completely alone. The lighting is low key because often at
night we have less ability to see what may be around and therefore more opportunities to scare one
another.

A lot of the micros aspects go against a post-modern reading of genre because the genre
conventions are quite obvious. This could be how Stranger Things has become so successful and why
the Duffer Brothers storyline follows a hybrid genre. Examples of this are when the Demogorgon
appears, its like a Sci Fi, and then dark mise-en-scene makes it like a horror genre, as you could say
that the genre is hybrid as it uses conventions from both genres. The disappearance creates a
restricted narrative where the audience is not given all of the information and are left to interpret
this as either a horror or sci-fi convention. (You could compare to one of the other theories here for
high level 2/bottom level 3 you would need to give examples if you do) Stranger Things borrows
conventions from 80s films and TV shows to that use the same conventions, this would mean that it
cant be considered post-modern. This makes sense because the Duffer Brothers were trying to copy
horror films from the 80s and Steven King novels made into television and film.

The character Eleven is an example of how the episode is post modern. This is shown in the edit
using ellipsis when Eleven kills the bad guys in the diner scene. By doing this it links with French
philosopher Baudrillards idea that genre is not important in terms of narrative and character.

To conclude I believe that Stranger Things could be post modern, but only to a point because it sticks
to some genre conventions of horror and sci fi, that is why it is so successful. (You could link back to
other theories again here to criticise for high level and bottom level 3) This is important if
audiences are going to want to watch every season of Stranger Things.

Level 2 (4-6 Marks)

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