POSTMODERNISM Postmodernism argues that all the 'isms', eg capitalism, communism, are now meaningless / the meta-narratives no longer have the power to explain the world or reality. It is of course self- contradictory: postmodernism is an 'ism'! Strinati argues there is a collapse in the high/popular culture divide - all are now equally valid. Such notations lead to playfulness. DECONSTRUCTIONISM The ironic use of existing conventions in a knowing way, the audience is assumed to be in on the irony EG in Scream the Matthew Lillard character cries out dramatically "I'll be right back". an old horror trope being that this denotes a character will be killed. The other teens at the party respond with that in mind, in a scene where they are sat watching Halloween.Craven is poking fun at the very genre that he helped to create with 1972's The Last House on the Left.
This occurs across all media - this Depeche Mode video is a classic example, deconstructing the band's poor, tawdry image and the male gaze.
INTERTEXTUALITY A simple but profound concept originating with Kristeva - the preferred reading (Stuart Hall!) of two texts are linked; the viewer needs knowledge of the earlier text to be able to follow the preferred reading of the newer text. TV shows like The Simpsons are built on this, and there is a strong vein of this running through the slasher genre to help generate cheap publicity for his 1978 proto-slasher Halloween, director John In Scream, the characters are watching Halloween. SIMULACRA Scary Movie exemplifies the ideas above - it takes intertextuality to a new level: Scream had the working title of Scary Movie, and this film is a satirical remake, quite literally signposting the conventions (eg the Carmen Electra scream queen sees a sign giving the options of either death or safety... and runs up the stairs where the death sign points to, as the dumb scream queens tend to). These movies have been much analysed, not least for gender representations. Baudrillard might argue that this leads nowhere as there is no ultimate meaning behind an endless sea of signifiers; Scary Movie is an expression of many existing ideas or signifiers, which cannot be tracked back to any concrete 'true reality' or meaning. Ideas like encourage playfulness as seen in these two films.
