5 Movies That Saved Dying Genres

So much of many writers' time is spent chasing popular genres to get their specs read and produced. But that can be like swimming upstream against a powerful current. A lot of people are doing the same things, so chances are many execs are reading the same kinds of ideas over and over again.

The same goes for audiences wanting them to write stories. Sometimes, it can be good to pick a genre no one is doing and do it so well that it blows readers' or viewers' minds and takes a surprising turn in a genre people once thought was dead.

These kinds of cycles have recurred throughout Hollywood history, and today I want to look at five films that helped revive genres we thought would disappear forever.

Let's dive in.

1. Unforgiven (1992)

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• Director: Clint Eastwood
• Writer: David Webb Peoples
• Cast: Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris, Jaimz Woolvett

It Revived the Western Genre

I think you've heard the story before if you've read any of our Unforgiven quotes, but by the late 1980s, the traditional American Western was entirely extinct.

The golden age of John Ford was long gone, and the massive box-office failure of Heaven's Gate (1980) had terrified studios out of funding any western ever again.

Then Clint Eastwood raised his hand and said he wanted to make another one, and every studio but Warner balked. His vision is what got people to buy in. He wanted to deconstruct the genre and take a realistic look at life in the Wild West.

That meant making a movie that was messy. It was a bout a cycle of violence and the weight of what it meant to kill someone. This movie broke out and was a hit and an awards film because it subverted expectations.

It won Best Picture and paved the way for everything from Deadwood to No Country for Old Men. It showed Westerns could make money and matter if we let them talk about contemporary America.

2. Scream (1996)

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• Director: Wes Craven
• Writer: Kevin Williamson
• Cast: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Matthew Lillard, Skeet Ulrich, Rose McGowan, Drew Barrymore

It Brought Slasher Movies Back

Slasher movies were all the rage in the '70s and '80s, but they had gotten so cheesy and so salacious that people stopped caring. It's hard to believe, but horror was not exactly raking in money at the time.

What's more, the rules of the slasher had become so rigid that audiences were always three steps ahead of the script, killing all tension and making them funny, not scary.

Then Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven stepped up and made a movie that attacked slashers for their rules, and flipped them on their heads. These were people who were inside a movie, deconstructing the actual movie around them as the killer closed in.

Scream mocked the ridiculous contrivances of the genre while simultaneously delivering genuine, bone-chilling terror that the genre had once promised.

I mean, look no further than the shocking opening sequence with Drew Barrymore instantly killed off. We were in a world where anything could happen.

The genre came roaring back thanks to Scream, and its sequels, and it hasn't really left since either. Now it's seen as something grounded and gritty.

3. Gladiator (2000)

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• Director: Ridley Scott
• Writer: David Franzoni, John Logan, William Nicholson
• Cast: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed, Derek Jacobi, Richard Harris

Sword and Sandals Films Returned

The Sword-and-Sandal movie was an expensive staple of early Hollywood. Much like the Western, these historical epics brought people in droves and unleashed some of the most popular movies of all time, like Ben-Hur (1959) and Spartacus (1960).

But after the financial disaster of Cleopatra in 1963, executives stayed away from these movies and remained skeptical of them for like 30 years.

Then Ridley Scott stepped in with an idea to do one like it had never been done before, as an action movie.

Ridley Scott brought a gritty, tactile, and muscular atmosphere to ancient Rome.

From the opening battle in Germania, we knew we were in for something different as he used variable shutter speeds, desaturated colors, and chaotic handheld camera work that felt much closer to Saving Private Ryan than a classic Hollywood film.

Maybe more important than all that, he used a character arc that turned the journey of the gladiator into something incredibly personal and violent.

Russell Crowe’s grounded performance gave the audience an emotional anchor that helped became a massive commercial juggernaut.

I mean, who wasn't going around saying the "I am Maximus Decimus Meridias" line on the playground? I was.

The film won Best Picture, and single-handedly greenlit a decade of large-scale historical epics like Troy, Kingdom of Heaven, and 300.

Now, not all those did well, and the genre has faltered, but we're getting The Odyssey in large part because it proved these movies could make money.

4. Chicago (2002)

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• Director: Rob Marshall
• Writer: Bill Condon (Screenplay), Bob Fosse & Fred Ebb (Stage Book)
• Cast: Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, John C. Reilly

The Musical Was Marketable Again

I love a good musical; I even probably love a bad one, but that's a conversation for another time. The point is, Hollywood used ot make a ton of musicals, but after massive financial failures of the late 1960s and 70s (Star!, At Long Last Love), studios stopped singing.

Modern audiences favored something more grounded, and they kind of went away, aside from random films like Phantom of the Paradise and midnight screenings of Rocky Horror.

Then, Director Rob Marshall and screenwriter Bill Condon cracked the code by having every single musical number as a stylized vaudeville performance occurring entirely inside the fame-obsessed mind of Roxie Hart.

That way, it felt more realistic to audiences, who returned in droves to see this movie.

Chicago became a massive box-office hit and the first musical to win Best Picture since Oliver! in 1968. We haven't gotten a ton of musicals since then, but it paved the way for hits like La La Land and West Side Story.

5. Casino Royale (2006)

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• Director: Martin Campbell
• Writer: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Paul Haggis
• Cast: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright

Spies Were Cool Again

It's kind of hard to believe, but in the early 200s the spy movies we were used to were largely killed by Austin Powers. Bond was Pierce Brosnan, and the movies were fun and never really grounded.

Now, look, I love those Brosnan Bond films because they are fun and had excellent gadgets and some playfulness, but in the early 2000s, we were on this quest for grittiness after 9/11 that Bond could not fulfill.

For some genius reason, the Broccolis brought back director Martin Campbell to reboot Bond. He stripped James Bond down and even cast a blond guy in the role.

Casino Royale served as a hard reboot and introduced Daniel Craig as a volatile and emotionally vulnerable Bond.

There were no real gadgets, just a guy playing poker and fighting hard and going through action set pieces that were stunning on the big screen.

Spies were cool again!

And the Bond as an action franchise was reborn, along with so many gritty things around it. Without this Bond, we may never get Nolan's Batman Begins or other titles that decided the best way forward was to ground things in realism.

Summing It All Up

All of these films had an immense impact not just on their genres but on Hollywood as a whole. Which one was your favorite? Can you think of other films that fill the bill?

What dead genre are you planning to bring back next?

Let us know in the comments below.