Hegemony

HEGEMONY

WHAT IS HEGEMONY?

Hegemony is the power or dominance a society, a group of people or a country have over others. Linking it to my horror genre, they tend to pass on certain ideologies or beliefs that according to Gerber's cultivation theory, as these are constantly portrayed through different horror movies, they are injected into the audience’s head. 

SOME EXAMPLES ARE:

The church and Christianity:

Throughout many movies, the church is often represented as the hero of the story. Priests tend to be the ones that carry out exorcisms and save the possessed person or object. Other religions are not often portrayed in these films as they want to represent Christianity as the most powerful religion, enough to defeat the devil himself.

Sexualized couple die first:

Crazy teenagers on a crazy night tend to be the first to die in a movie, an those who are virgin tend to be the survivors or the last ones to die. It could be linked to the religious idea of the sinners die first. Although, it could also mean that the horror genre is representing couples as the most vulnerable characters in a film.  

In my film, I will include some religious elements as props but I will not represent Christianity as the hero of my movie. The hegemonic characteristics in the horror genre may be seen in my movie regarding the idea that satanic rituals and paranormal activity always leads to death and evil.