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Introduction The postmodern aesthetic can be used to address all manner of objects and texts; this includes using these aesthetics in the horror film series’ such as Scream (1, 2 and 3) and Halloween (1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7) to illustrate the examples of postmodern aesthetics in blockbuster horror sequels. Both the Scream and Halloween series are films of the horror genre that exhibit examples of typically postmodern aesthetics and the qualities of a blockbuster movie. Postmodernism Postmodernism reacts against earlier modernist principles by reintroducing traditional or classical elements of a method, technique or style, for example horror film or romance novel. In other words using principles of a particular object or text and changing parts of it, while still retaining some of the original concepts of the object of text it is based on. Terry Eagleton in his book The Illusions of Postmodernism says “postmodernism is a style of culture which reflects something of the epochal change in a depthless, decentred, ungrounded, self-reflexive, playful, derivative, eclectic, pluralistic art which blurs the boundaries between ‘high’ and ‘popular’ culture as well as between art and everyday experience.” (Eagleton, 1997, pvii) This set of theories, though not always well defined, in essence, is the re-creation of something as something new but that is still recognisable as what it was before not necessarily improving it but leaving a self-conscious reference to the old object or text. For example, in fashion, a style of dress may become fashionable again but with a new fabric and different accessories. It is still recognised as a dress from its original time period (eg. the hippie fashion of the 1960s) but it is a new style because of a few modernising adjustments (eg. instead of cotton it could be made of a cotton/nylon blend), leaving a product that when viewed can be recognised as a similar object from the past. Therefore the postmodern text is the following of a set of rules, essentially by creating the rules in the work itself. By drawing on past works, to create a new product familiar to audiences by genre or style, creating a type of derivative and pluralistic art that is, as Eagleton said, ungrounded, eclectic, playful and self-reflexive, is comfortable to audiences because it is recognisable as something else, blurring the borders involving ‘high’ and ‘popular’ culture as well as between art and everyday experience despite any differences. Postmodernism in Film “A notable achievement of contemporary mainstream English-language cinema is the slick recreation – as new cinema – of the styles and techniques of the past.” (Pen, 1996, p93) Postmodernism tendencies are evident in the contemporary horror film genre. By using a set of ‘rules’ as stated in each subsequent Scream movie, we can see how this film in particular, self-consciously references the horror genre and by using the generic norms of the slasher sub genre of the horror family established in Halloween and its sequels are playfully and self consciously referenced in Scream and its sequels making the Scream trilogy an example of postmodern representation. Blockbusters The aesthetics that make these films blockbusters make them an example of postmodern textuality. By creating and using the rules, the films can all make narrative less influential to the movie and concentrate on more suspense and gore. Robin Pen, in his book The Secret Life of Rubber Suited Monsters: Selected Essays 1990-95, says “with the right formula, who needs a story.” (Pen, 1996, p32) This characteristic ethos of the traditional blockbuster movie is evident in both Scream and Halloween. “The key to Hollywood’s survival and the one abiding aspect of its postwar [sic] transformation has been the steady rise of the movie blockbuster.” (Schatz, 1993, p9) James Monaco is quoted in the Schatz book Film Theory Goes to the Movies, describing the offspring of the classic blockbuster as mere “machines of entertainment, precisely calculated to achieve their effect.” (Monaco, 1993, p19) It is this mechanisation and calculation by filmmakers to create the mass marketed and produced blockbuster effect that can be categorised as postmodern because of the qualities in the text.
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