Mash up: how mixing and matching genres can pay Five of the best examples of cross-pollination Adapted from The Observer FILM QUATERLEY March 2009
Alien (15) Ridley Scott, 1979
Shaun of the Dead (15) Edgar Wright, 2004
Starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost Weaver
The film that reinvented the “In space, no one can hear genre “romzomcom” was you scream,” promised the remarkable in that it invested tagline of this iconic equally in its three components synthesis of horror and – zombie peril, wisecracking science-fiction, which buddy comedy and romance. yielded three sequels (four Giving the lie to the notion that if you count computerhorror comedies are neither game spin-off Alien vs. scary nor funny, the film Predator) and provided the sneaked in a story of romantic template for lesser title reconciliation that helps give its such as Event Horizon. narrative shape. The producers of the Best scene Friday 13th franchise even Frost and Pegg, armed with a box had a go with Jason X. of old records, argue over which sending the hockeyof these vinyl missiles should be masked slasher into lobbed at the advancing zombies. space. Best scene No contest: John Hurt has the most memorable stomach ache in film history.
Bride and Prejudice (PG) Gurinder Chadha, 2004 Starring Aishwarya Rai, Martin Henderson
Following Amy Heckerling’s successful transfer of Jane Austen’s Emma to the world of Californian teens with Clueless, Kenya-born British-Asian director saw similar possibilities with a Bollywood reinvention of Pride and Prejudice. After all, the book’s tale of arranged marriages and close family ties found a neutral echo in Indian film narrative Best scene Nitin Ganatra’s Mr Kholi (i.e. Mr Collins) an Indian chump who has made it big, disastrously attempts to woo the heroine.