Cinema is more than just entertainment. It is a powerful mass media messaging tool that reflects and enforces culture. Sociologist and Marxist, Stuart Hall is well known for his theorization of Cultural Studies and his model of Encoding/Decoding. Hall expanded on the philosophies of Karl Marx to include popular (pop) culture mediums like film as a form of cultural production and to explain the relationship between producers and consumers of media. (Procter 18-19). According to Marxist theory, cultural productions “reflect or express the values of the economic base and, therefore, the dominant culture of society” (Procter 17). However, this argument does not account for the creation of popular media that actively critiques economic conditions and the dominant culture of society (Procter 17). If a traditional Marxist reading of culture and ideology was accurate, all forms of media, including film, would be free of cultural criticism and would be propaganda reinforcing a capitalist agenda. Hall’s expansion of Marxist theory accounts for the confound of pop culture. He argues that the base of the dominant culture is not purely economic but rather consists of “constituent factors” that are cultural, social, and political (Hall 32-34; Procter 18-19). This creates a more nuanced definition of the dominant class that accounts for criticism while still acknowledging a hegemonic structure.  

Hall’s Representation Theory argues that the representations of culture in media are crafted through the lens of the creator, interpreted by the consumer, and influenced by societal factors (Hall, Representation). Hall uses this theory to explain how the meaning of a message is formed. An audience’s understanding of a film is determined by the filmmaker’s construction of images and texts based on their own positionality as well as the consumers’ interpretation of a message and is contextualized by the society in which it was made. Hall’s theory is relevant to my thesis in two ways; firstly, for its impact on the understanding of social criticism through film and secondly, for its similarity to genre theory and its ability to identify cultural patterns in mass media.  

While the film industry exists as an avenue for creating entertainment and profit, films are still messaging tools. Films are stories that are constructed under cultural circumstances by creators with their own ideas and identities. The representation of something scary, like in a horror film, is based on what the filmmaker interprets and chooses to present as scary. Naturally, this understanding of story creation allows filmmakers to present their values in their work and to depict narratives that comment on or mirror society. However, Hall’s theory gives the consumer power to apply meaning as well. Meaning is fluid and dependent on culture, for example queer coding in the horror genre. The film industry is dominated by straight, white, cis, male directors and producers, and has a history of representing villainous characters as queer (Data USA; Benshoff). Dracula, a classic horror character, has been coded as queer throughout film history by being represented as a dangerous “other” with taboo sexual desires (Gelder 146; Opie). The idea of queerness as a negative characteristic though, is entirely based on how the message is interpreted. For some audience members queer identity can be something to fear and for others it can be something to celebrate. The consideration of audience reaction, creator intent, and cultural context all factor into how texts are analyzed for meaning. These intersections between the audience, creators, and culture are also significant in genre theory, and help to situate films in generic conversations. For this reason, I have chosen to incorporate both perspectives into my analysis.