Week 5: Genre & At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul (1964)
Jancoivich examines the differences between how academia and the audience classify film genres. Countless audiences have participated in and argued about genre classifications, yet the academics often pay little to no attention to how the audience understands and defines the genre. They expect the audience to "recognize" the genre rather than to question the boundaries. Jancovich writes that academia tends to view the audience's identification of genres as homogenous, thus not exploring their involvement in policing and constructing genre classification. Tudor argues that a genre is "what we collectively believe it to be," but the audience can have numerous beliefs on a single genre. This contradicting genre distinctions lead to struggles between the "ordinary consumers" and the "hardcore" fans. The hardcore fans often look down on the ordinary consumers as the victims of generic, commercial movies and distinguish themselves as the "true" fans of the genre. Their taste leans toward the art-cinema and auteur films, which is supposedly a higher art form than the mainstream cinema that is commercially successful (i.e., blockbuster, rom-com, drama, etc.). Additionally, the distinctions can occur across the genre lines. Jancovich shows that the horror genre and science fiction genre fans criticize each other's problematic stereotypes, thus Othering the fans of different genres and establishing one genre fans' superiority over the other. He points to the discussion regarding whether Alien is a horror film or a sci-fi film. The hardcore fans (or the "purist" fans, according to Jancovich) will either claim or expel the film for/from their genres, policing the boundaries of different genres and Othering each other. The hardcore fans have Othered not only the ordinary consumer as a conformist horde and the fans of different genres to police the genre boundaries but also the fans of the same genre they love. The hardcore fans of horror associate the "rarity and distinction from the supposedly mainstream audiences" with the genre's authenticity (28). They would label films like Scream a fake horror and target the young female audience who celebrate such films for criticism. Coding the mass culture feminine (with the rise of female stars in "fake horror" films), the hardcore horror fans (coded masculine) take the subcultural capital. The "possession" of the subcultural capital entitles them to brag their niche taste for "certified" (by themselves) auteur films and preach the authenticity of the horror genre—often bloody, gory, and way too many female body mutilations.
The policing of genre boundaries can be observed on the global cinema distinctions as well. Western cinema either disregards the "Third World" cinema for its cultural deficiency rooted in colonization and imperialism or praises it for its uniqueness and differences but does not recognize it as an equal, ultimately Othering it. In other words, the Western academics (or the Western intellectuals as Spivak describes) tend to overlook what the audience of the non-Western cinema defines various genres. Rocha calls the uniqueness and differences Latin America's general misery, which the Latin Americans cannot articulate, nor can the Western observers fully comprehend. He explains that Brazil's historical "philosophical undernourishment" has led to impotence and hunger that got exaggerated and aggravated in its cinema. The distinctive characteristic of Cinema Novo defies the Western genre boundaries and breaks off from the subaltern status.
Does At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul (1964) count as a horror film from the classical Hollywood standpoint? Coffin Joe (Zé) is more human than Imhotep (The Mummy) and not an outsider like King Kong. Coffin Joe's appearance does not stand out because he shares the same ethnic heritage as everyone around him. His difference lies in his psychology and his actions which are based on his beliefs. He embodies the Otherness with his indifference to religion and superstitions. He terrorizes the townspeople with extreme violence, not with his inhuman appearance or innate difference. His confidence and trust in his knowledge make Coffin Joe believe that he is above his townspeople. He also murders people close to him for the sake of continuing his bloodline but never succeed. His desire for a son eventually leads him to his own demise. Although Coffin Joe seems to obsess over beautiful women like Hollywood monsters, his interest points to preserving his blood rather than taking those women.
