Genre ‘Horror’ in Modern Russian Cinema

Abstract

The last quarter of a century, as a result of the socio-economic changes and processes that took place in Russia, the Russian film industry is not yet able to compete with Hollywood films aimed at a mass audience. Taking into account the changing preferences of the Russian audience, formed over the past three decades under the influence of Hollywood production, a number of Russian studios today are trying to master the genres that have never been characteristic of domestic cinema, in particular the genre of “horror”. The article analyzes the difference between the Western and Russian mentality in relation to the topic of fear; examines the main genre features of horror films; categorizes the dominant stories and subgenres of modern horror. Particular attention is paid to the aesthetics of horror films — visual and sound techniques used to create suspense, as well as modern and postmodern methods of inclusion in the style of horror films techniques peculiar to other genres. As the analysis illustrated, the most successful were attempts to combine the genre structure of Hollywood horror with the plots of Russian myths and fairy tales, while the creation of horror films on modern Russian material results in rejection by the domestic audience, except for the use of elements of horror in fantasy films.