Vampire films and standardisation

The Frankfurt School was a group of highly influential German scholars, whose Marxist views led to numerous theories on popular culture.  Their "fear of the masses" came about when they had to flee Nazi Germany in the 1940s, changing their way of thinking and causing them have an overal pessimistic view of society. 

They saw how media was used during the war and saw this as a threat and a danger; the media was used as a tool power causing people to believe they lived in a free society. 


Their work has heavily influenced the culture industry today and many theorists have added to their criticisms.  The culture industry is key in our society, however many people believe that it cheats consumers and manipulates people in to spending money and thinking that what they are seeing is reality. 

The film industry

I have decided to look at the film industry; more specifically at vampire films. Vampire films have become increasingly popular in the last five years with features such as the Twilight Saga, Fright Night, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and most recently Dark Shadows. The classic horror films have a magical feel and attract audiences with their story lines full of mystery, death and ultimately... love.

This type of genre has soared in the last few years. A lot of critics and theorists say that genre creates an audience; if people watch a vampire film they like, they are likely to go and watch another vampire film. This presents to us a standardisation of culture. Furthermore, each film or TV series that follows this particular genre always has the same characteristics; a love story, mystery, a sexy image that appeals to both male and female audiences...

Pseudo Individualism 

- The illusion of something not being standardised

This is very common of the film industry, especially vampire films. They all follow the same structure and the same sort of storyline; even with the same kind of characters... yet they still manage to sell film after film and series after series. Consumers are attracted to a certain genre, therefore they do not realise the standardisation of the texts.