Media Language Flashcards
What is genre and why is it significant?
Which theory can be applied?
In its simplest terms a genre is a type of media product, but it is more complex than that; genre provides a way for producers to communicate messages to audiences.
Audiences need to be able to recognise genres and the codes and conventions are established over time.
The audience have expectations that need to be fulfilled and establishing the genre is key to the effective marketing of the product.
(Steve Neal Genre theory)
How does genre have an impact on the production and distribution of television programmes
It affects the way in which they are marketed and scheduled
Context for conventions of the supernatural thriller genre
The supernatural thriller genre has a well- established cultural history and has a recognisable repertoire of elements.
These conventions have evolved over time and developed to reflect social and cultural change and the needs and
expectations of audiences.
What is one convention which is commonly shared within the genre - and is expected by audience members
A narrative with a focus on the appearance of the undead/zombies within a community and their attempts to deal with this.
Narrative structures (Todorov) common within the genre
+ Les Revenents narrative structure
Supernatural thrillers may use a range of different narrative structures.
The programme may conform to Todorov’s theory where the structure is linear from the initial disruption through to a resolution, or non-linear where time and space is manipulated through for example, flashbacks or flashforwards.
In The Returned, the narrative is fragmented and there are
flashbacks to the crash at the beginning and
end of the episode.
THIS IS CALLED ‘in media res’
Supernatural thriller conventions
Narrative disruptions + specific to Les Revenents
Narrative disruptions occur that change the course of the story, these can be events that happen or revelations that are made by characters.
Sometimes the audience are in a privileged spectator position whereby they know more than the characters within the story world.
For example, in the set episode of The Returned the audience is shown Victor’s part in the bus crash, this allows the audience to anticipate how the narrative may develop in future episodes. - Acting as a hermeneutic code.
(Structuralism: Levi-Strauss)
Binary oppositions as a part of narrative structure in supernatural thrillers
+ Specific examples
Binary oppositions function as part of the narrative structure in supernatural thrillers.
In The Returned, these include;
- past vs present
- living vs dead
- illusion vs reality
- the truth vs the perception of truth
- light vs dark.
The resolving of some of these binary oppositions within the story world may reveal an ideology associated with a genre, for example the triumph of life over death is typical of mainstream supernatural thrillers.
(Structuralism: Levi-Strauss)
Binary oppositions as a part of narrative structure in supernatural thrillers
Living vs The dead
Binary opposition between the dead and alive, reccuring theme throughout the show.
Direct binary opposition between the two twins (Camille & Lena) juxtaposition posed where they are both supposed to be the same age as they are twins.
(Structuralism: Levi-Strauss)
Living vs The dead
What is the significance of using twins (Camille & Lena) to form the binary opposition (3)
Use to argue for:
- Les Revenents not as a typical ‘supernatural horror’
- The metaphor behind ‘The returned’
- Destabilizing the Binary of Life and Death – Twins are expected to be identical, but when one is alive and the other is a revenant, it forces the audience to question the boundary between life and death. The contrast between their experiences challenges the idea that these states are absolute or mutually exclusive.
- Existential Horror and Identity Crisis – The living twin serves as a mirror to the returned twin, raising unsettling questions about what it means to be “alive.” If they look the same, behave the same, and share the same memories, what truly separates them? This taps into the show’s broader themes of identity, memory, and existential dread.
Two sides of the same coin analogy? - Emotional and Psychological Impact – The presence of a returned twin creates a deeply personal and emotional conflict for the living sibling. Instead of being purely fearful of the revenants, the twin experiences an intimate, unresolved grief and confusion. This makes the horror of Les Revenants more psychological than supernatural.
What are some plot situations within Les Revenents and how do they communicate meaning to the audience?
- The Dead Returning with No Memory of Their Deaths
The show uses muted color grading, still camera shots, and minimalistic sound design to enhance the eerie normalcy of these events, making the supernatural feel disturbingly mundane.
- The Arrival of the Strange Child ( Victor’s Role as an Omen-like Figure)
His role is ambiguous—he is not overtly evil but carries an uncanny energy that unsettles the audience and other characters. His stillness contrasts with the world around him, and his frequent use of eye contact with the camera creates a sense of direct engagement with the audience, intensifying his eerie presence.
- Slow Door Openings to Reveal What is on the Other Side
The show frequently frames characters behind doors, in thresholds, or through reflections, emphasizing the idea of liminality—the space between life and death, reality and the supernatural. Specifically through compositions such as closed frames
- Flickering Lights to Connote a Strange Event
The cinematography often uses low lighting, with shadows obscuring parts of the frame, reinforcing the idea that something unknown lurks just beyond visibility.
How are these plot situations significant to Genre formation?
By incorporating these familiar supernatural thriller elements, Les Revenants positions itself within the genre while subverting some expectations. Instead of using them for jump scares or overt horror, the show employs them to deepen the psychological and existential themes, making the horror more ambiguous and atmospheric.
These media language choices—long takes, subdued sound design, symbolic use of lighting, and restrained performances—shape Les Revenants into a psychological supernatural thriller, where fear emerges not from violent threats but from the quiet, uncanny disruption of reality.
Steve Neal Genre hybridity
Story arcs within Les Revenents outlined
Story arcs and narrative strands occur in and
across episodes of an episodic series.
In The Returned, as the first episode of a new series, there are several complex, enigmatic narrative strands, which will be interwoven across the episodes.
Including: the focus on each of the returned in future episodes, in the first one the focus is on Camille, the dam, the quest to find the truth and the impact of the returned on the community of the living and the dead
What is significant about the enigmatic narrative strand within the first episode in terms of genre conventions/formation
Camille
- Convention:
The return of the dead, unexplained supernatural events, and eerie disturbances in the town are all common conventions of the supernatural thriller genre. - Application in Les Revenants:
• Camille’s return, along with other revenants (the dead returning without knowing they’re dead), creates an unexplained event that sets the tone for the mystery. The supernatural element of the dead returning serves as the foundation of the show’s mystery-driven plot.
• The slow reveal of supernatural occurrences (e.g., the dam, unexplained changes in the environment, the water levels) is crucial to building the genre’s suspense.
- Subversion:
Unlike typical supernatural thrillers that may focus on overt horror or violence, Les Revenants focuses more on the psychological and emotional impact of the return, emphasizing existential dread over direct threats. The supernatural events are uncanny, not purely monstrous.
What is significant about the enigmatic narrative strand within the first episode in terms of genre conventions/formation
The Quest for answers
- Convention:
Mystery is a central element of the supernatural thriller genre. A key convention is the quest for answers (Todorov: quest narrative) as characters investigate the strange, supernatural events. - Application in Les Revenants:
The first episode introduces characters who start to piece together the mystery of the revenants, but the answers are elusive. As Camille’s return raises more questions, the town’s characters (like Jérôme and Claire) search for answers, setting up the slow-burn mystery element typical of the genre.
• This gradually builds the intrigue of the genre, where information is doled out sparingly, and each answer leads to more questions, keeping the audience engaged in a puzzle-like narrative.
- Subversion: The show withholds direct exposition, opting for atmospheric ambiguity over easy answers, creating a gradual revelation rather than a fast-paced uncovering of secrets - focusing more on the ‘master narrative’ which could hint at an ideology more than simply life vs death
What is significant about the enigmatic narrative strand within the first episode in terms of genre conventions/formation
The dam
- Convention:
The setting in supernatural thrillers often plays a key role in creating an unsettling atmosphere, such as eerie locations (old buildings, desolate landscapes). - Application in Les Revenants:
The dam functions as a symbolic and literal source of mystery and unease. Its physical deterioration and the strange changes around it, including the dropping of water levels, mirror the gradual breakdown of the town’s sense of reality.
The dam also acts as a boundary between the known and the unknown, emphasizing the liminal space between life and death.
- Subversion:
Unlike more traditional thrillers that might focus on an overt haunted house or monstrous threat (focusing on visual horror) the dam creates a metaphysical space—it is not just eerie because of what happens there, but because it evokes themes of repressed histories, hidden traumas, and the collapse of normalcy.
What is significant about the pairing of stock characters
The pairing of stock characters as binary oppositions often contributed to tensions within the narrative
The Pairing of stock characters:
(Character based binary oppositions - Levi Strauss)
Victor & Julie
Victor
- The eerie, silent child, embodies the unresolved trauma of the community.
- His silent suffering and his supernatural qualities are symbolic of the unacknowledged or hidden emotions that plague the characters.
- His presence forces others, particularly Julie, to confront how they would act in environment far from normal
Julie
- a maternal figure, nurtures Victor despite his unsettling nature, illustrating the human drive to protect and care for others, even when those others may embody death or trauma - or a ‘foreign’ state
- This brings a profound reflection on forgiveness and healing, suggesting that no matter how unsettling or ambiguous something may seem, human connection, especially through empathy, is essential for growth.
Stock pairing:
- His strange, supernatural nature disrupts the narrative’s focus on human loss, undermining the idea of normalcy and forcing Julie to reevaluate her perceptions of what it means to be alive.
- Nurturing (intrinsic human behaviour) and how far it can go
The pairing of stock characters:
(Character based binary oppositions - Levi Strauss)
Camille & Claire
Camille:
Camille’s return from the dead serves as a stark reminder of unresolved grief and unfinished business.
Claire:
• Claire’s nurturing nature plays a key role in the narrative’s exploration of human resilience in the face of trauma.
• Even though Camille’s return is supernatural and impossible to explain, Claire’s instinctive motherly care for her daughter keeps her grounded.
• It also reflects the deep emotional bonds that drive human behavior, even when they seem irrational or damaging.
The relationship between Claire and Camille highlights the tension between attachment and acceptance of loss. Claire is torn between continuing her role as a mother and acknowledging that her daughter is not truly alive, representing the impossibility of reconciling life with death.
Stock Pairing:
• This creates a narrative arc where acceptance of the unnatural and the emotional complexities of motherhood shape the storyline.
• The show questions whether love and grief can be healed.
• The maternal figures (especially Claire) anchor the show in human emotion, grounding the supernatural elements in a very relatable human experience, making the supernatural occurrences feel more unsettling.
The pairing of stock characters
(Character based binary oppositions - Levi Strauss)
Simon & Adele
Simon:
• Simon embodies the impact of death - especially when it’s self inflicted.
• His return forces Adèle, his former lover, to confront the impact of his death and the guilt she feels for moving on with her life after his death.
• As well as the feeling finality and lack of closure involved with death - he died on their wedding day
Adele: The damsel?
• Adèle is caught between two worlds: the memory of Simon and her present relationship with Thomas.
• Simon’s return highlights the emotional scars people carry from loss, while Adèle’s struggle with moving on after Simon’s death illustrates the difficulty of emotional closure.
Stock pairing
- Creates sense of emotional stagnancy involved with grieving
- His presence forces Adèle to deal with the notion that death may not provide closure or an end, but rather a perpetual haunting.
- The tension between Simon and Thomas—who represents the possibility of a new life for Adèle—creates a narrative exploration of how the past continually intrudes upon the present, making it nearly impossible to truly move forward. - This reflects one of the show’s major themes: the haunting nature of unresolved emotions.
The stock pairing of Characters
(Character based binary oppositions - Levi Strauss)
Jerome & Pierre
Theism mentioned AH! .
Stock pairing: How the individual deals with grief & theism
Jerome:
- Jerome lost his daughter, direct trauma which may contribute to his morally ambiguous character (e.g. Engaging in prostitution as a form of necromancy).
- This seems irrational and is deemed morally wrong and contradicts the rational persona we would expect from an ex-policeman (prostitution also illegal)
= The extent in which grief can impact us / how irrational it can make us
Pierre:
Whereas Jerome needs to feel a sense of control and understanding for the emotional complexity of the situation, Pierre focuses remedying that feeling the feeling of loss through a sense of community (theism).
- He conducts the group counselling sessions which Jerome scoffs at.
Stock pairing:
This contrast could be a metaphor in using religion as a remedy for grief - (link to poetic realism).
Grief is a feeling of loss, and by extension the sense that we cannot control what trauma is inflicted upon us - its intrinsic for humans to want to understand, but the methods we turn to may differ.
How do character based oppositions via stock character pairings create depth within the narrative
How may this impact the formation of the shows genre?
They act as a meditation on the emotional complexity of being human. Each pairing (such as Camille vs. Claire, or Julie vs. Victor) amplifies the central themes of the show, including loss, grief, identity, and the fragility of the human condition.
The relationships between these opposites are key to understanding the emotional stakes of the series: the supernatural events become a metaphor for emotional, psychological, and existential crises.
In addition, these character dynamics allow the show to subvert traditional genre conventions, using familiar tropes to create a narrative that is more about internal conflict than external threat, adding depth to the supernatural thriller genre.
Through this, Les Revenants transforms the supernatural not just into a series of eerie events, but into a reflection of the human experience, with its struggles, contradictions, and complexities.
Settings & locations: genre conventions/ formation
- Settings as codes for Genre identity
- Isolated homes, long empty roads, and the pervasive mist and darkness are key codes.
- The claustrophobic feeling within the homes, heightened by darkness and specific framing, further enhances this sense of entrapment
- The isolated environment is a classic convention of these genres, often used to create a sense of disconnection from the outside world.
- Potentially isolating human nature into an environment where it can be closely examined - via binary oppositions - Location as a Tool for Branding and Audience Recognition
- The isolated, misty landscape creates a distinct atmosphere that is often used in marketing materials, promotional imagery, and even branding.
- For example, posters and trailers may emphasize the moody, foggy settings, immediately associating the aesthetic of isolation and mystery with the show.
This becomes a visual shorthand for the show and overall supernatural thriller genre.
Overall:
Aligns with genre conventions but also plays a critical role in creating the narrative image of the show - in that it takes part is a much wider and complex discourse overarching simply zombies verses humans.
Iconography its role in conveying both the genre & thematic significance
Mirrors
(Ref to a scene)
Cementing Les Rev as a psychological horror.
Mirrors:
- Mirrors and windows are conventional visual motifs in the supernatural thriller and psychological horror genres
- Mirrors often symbolize the fracturing of reality or a distortion of truth a key theme in supernatural thrillers where characters may struggle with understanding what is real or not.
- The opening credits where a dead butterfly on display breaks through the glass.
- Broken glass = fractured reality & a distortion of truth. The butterfly was dead why the feck is it flying?
Iconography its role in conveying both the genre & thematic significance
Windows
Cementing Les Rev as a psychological horror.
Windows symbolise a barrier between the known and the unknown, a common feature in supernatural thrillers where the characters are either literally or metaphorically separated from the truth.
The presence of windows often creates a sense of surveillance, as characters look at or through them, adding to the tension and unease associated with the genre.
For example, when Claire and Jérôme watch Camille through a window, it evokes a sense of disbelief and alienation, underscoring the suspense and mystery inherent in the supernatural theme.
Psychological barrier: Camille is the embodiment of a memory being surveyed - she is not real, she is not alive.
PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER BOOM.
