10 Movie Crazes You Forgot Were A Thing

In this diverse and convoluted thing we call life, it's still quite a lovely thought to know that

something new that you don't even know you want or need is about to enter your life and change it

Be it a change in diet, those brand spanking new trainers, or maybe even a hairstyle

trends have become part of human nature. Movie making is no exception to this rule

and throughout the generations we've found fresh ideas that wow us into a state of awe

and that success brings the studio's profit. The industry will latch onto whatever new crazes it can get its claws into

fill their screens to the brim with them, and then disappear into the dark abyss never to be seen again

But we remember, and soon you will too. So with that in mind, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture here with movie crazes you forgot were a thing

3D movies. For a long time, 3D movies were seen as something of a novelty

a way of poking fun at each other for wearing goofy red and blue glasses

whilst trying to dodge things jumping at you from the screen. Avatar, however, shattered this perception in 2009 and gave birth to a new way of moviegoing

Slick, trendy black glasses and an experience that was new and novel

we could now live in the world being painted around us. The trend continued over the subsequent years with The Hobbit, Marvel and Star Wars

all enhancing their worlds with this immersive venture. Crucially, 3D was being used as the primary selling point for some movies, and audiences

were actively reacting to that by buying tickets. Now though, we've become so neutralised to the idea of 3D that a film can't be sold

simply on the premise of being able to add depth to your picture

Most big summer blockbusters offer this experience as a given, and in doing so, the fuss that

was caused over ten years ago by those blue aliens of Pandora appears to have subsided

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Parodies When a spoof is done right, it can be a thing of pure beauty

See Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein and Spaceballs as two examples of what can be achieved

when the correct levels of wit and self-awareness are combined with, you know, making the film actually funny

A string of god-awful spoofs started to raid the box office in the mid-2000s, ranging from

the bad like the epic movie to the downright offensive Meet the Spartans It not that the acting was particularly bad it that these films seemed to be designed for someone with the attention span of a gnat which made their popularity near miraculous We devolve from a monster putting on a show performance of Pudding on the Ritz to fart

and incest jokes, and not even the funny ones. Scary Movie and Walk Hard, The Dewey Cox Story aside, the quality of the spoof has been

in a low ebb for nearly three decades, and now that the paying public are regularly being

spoiled with new original comedy movies, the day of the parodies seems to be done

Found Footage In an age where it's near universal to carry around a recording device

Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield use the footage captured on these devices to incite honest dread and panic

Pure genius! The ability to move the camera with pace and frenetic energy

whilst also incorporating our ever-changing technological advances, like Xbox's Kinect being a staple of the fourth Paranormal film

make for some must-see viewing. Or at least it did in the late 2000s

Then, the wheels fell off. Paranormal Activity squeezed out three sequels and a few spin-offs

whilst Cloverfield sensed the end was nigh and leaned into the thriller and sci-fi elements of

their material instead of the found footage. The truth is, now we are fully aware that these real

people being shot are actors, and that element of realism has taken a catastrophic hit. And even

though it is a thoroughly underrated filming technique that can really spice up a well-conceptual

movie, it's far less likely to be getting any big-hitting movies released in that style

anytime soon. People have just had enough of it. Shaky Cam When filming a fight or battle scene, a cameraman will quickly find out that it is quite difficult

to stay steady with an assortment of flailing actors and extras buzzing around them

The usage of the effect has attracted its fair share of hate over the years

but it's fair to say that it more than contributes to the intense and unpredictable nature of most

of the scenes it is used in. We're at a point in cinema now where action films have lent so hard

on the trope that it almost feels unusual if a fight scene is shot in a stable way. Think about

it. It's hard to differentiate between which action films that do and do not use this way of

shooting, as for the most part, we've gotten so used to shaky cam it's no longer just a craze

it's the norm. The sheer effort and dedication that goes into choreographing an intimate fight

between two actors or stuntmen is then stitched together with the added variable of a handheld

cameraman, who has to try and keep up and not lose the fine work that has just been formulated

It is a craze that you forgot about but one that is definitely still around Raunchy teen comedies In the early noughties something quite peculiar happened A glut of ideas involving young adults trying to get their end away whilst also coming to terms with what the future will hold for them swept the globe

The breakthrough came almost 20 years earlier with 1982's Porky's, and if Porky's started it, then American Pie perfected it by 1999

Managing to represent a generation that had been greatly influenced by porn and their own peers

four dorky mates seek to lose their virginities by their prom night

It was a hit and spelled an era where sex, gross-out comedy, and the losers, coming good, were a winning combination

But it wasn't long before oversaturation and culture changes began to take an effect on the popularity of the genre

It tanked at least for a while before being reborn in the fire of modern movie-making standards

Teen comedies these days tend to be a lot more woke, with Booksmart claiming critical success in early 2019

Teen and Good Boys, opening to a warm reception too. Mockumentary comedies

Ricky Gervais is to blame for this one. His overwhelmingly successful series The Office amassed an audience so dedicated that the

big screen had to take notice and buy into the genre. And with the mockumentary comes three unavoidable names

Sasha, Barron, and Cohen. Cohen had dabbled in the art of mockumentary with his epic interviews with Donald Trump

and the Beckhams as Ali G in Da Ali G Show. However, he took things to a whole new level when he was commissioned to bring another of his TV

sensations, Borat, to the big screen. And then everything continued to spiral. Later, Cohen's

dictator showed the cracks that had been emerging due to the increasing number of follow-up attempts

by other studios and creators. Unfortunately, post-Bruno, the genre hasn't been quite up to

scratch with Tour de Pharmacy and pop star Never Stop Never Stopping, proving to be futile efforts

Cohen and Gervais caught lightning in a bottle, and it looks like the only hope for this dying art

may have been Taika Waititi's What We Do in the Shadows film and series, really

Werewolves, not werewolves. POV. James Cameron's Terminator took advantage of the POV style

notably shooting many of Arnie's scenes through the vantage point of the cyborg

The effect can also be located in the high-octane, night-vision-wielding, ass-kicking, in Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass Dished Out by Hit Girl, and of course

in the beloved video game adaptation Doom. GoPro-style filming hit new peaks with the

release of Hardcore Henry, a film almost entirely shot in POV, and whilst visually the outcome was

spectacular, the critics weren't convinced with a healthy dose of mixed reviews. In a society where

we offered the chance to step into another world for a small fee it looks as though we draw the line at having to spend an entire film in someone else shoes as not many films have gone back to that well since Henry exploits Ships at Sea Films

Sea life has long been explored in the art of film. The utter size of the open water

and unmitigated potential for all manner of weird and wonderful stories have made for everything from horrors

from the deep in Jaws to the coastal comedies such as Baywatch

Titanic did the movies about large vessels at the sea, what Mick Jagger did for skinny jeans. James Cameron's epic went on to break all the global

box office records and other studios smelt cash in the water. The late 90s and early noughties

saw a wave of films about people on boats having trouble in the big blue. Deep Rising, The Perfect

Storm, The Lost Voyage, Ghost Ship, and Poseidon all trying to lure audiences back for a sniff of

what they enjoyed so much in Titanic. But they didn't quite succeed in giving their films

characters you cared about like Rose and Jack. There have been exceptions to the lull like Captain

Phillips and In the Heart of the Sea, but Hollywood is definitely not as obsessed as it once was

Art House Movie Posters Your movie is sold based on how well its marketing is, and no piece of marketing works

quite as well as a specifically designed poster. If you look at how the MCU has gone about promoting

its work, you'll see how the onus has shifted from brooding, almost metallic imagery of the

first Iron Man to the more vibrant, visceral options we had almost 10 years later in Infinity

War. This is due to the audience's tastes shifting and demanding a lighter and brighter design to get

them into the cinema. Although today's posters are quite pleasing on the eye, they simply don't

compare to the now retro options of yesteryear. A clockwork orange with its plain white background

pierced by Alex brandishing a knife through the centre, Apocalypse Now plotting a seemingly

melting Marlon Brando front and centre, whilst Apache helicopters flock like birds around them

They really don't make posters like they used to, except for maybe Quentin Tarantino

Works of art, instead of works of pure marketing, are really a thing of the past

Westerns In terms of forgetting that this was a thing, let's be honest, it's highly unlikely that you did

Westerns dominated the box office and made John Wayne, Robert Redford, and Clint Eastwood household names for generations to come

What we do forget is just how big this era was, since it spanned almost 30 years of unbridled popularity

Storytelling was simple and compelling, well-constructed heroes taking on darsadly villains and horseback action

and showdowns aplenty. They also boasted incredible cinematography, and the likes of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly are irreplaceable classics

But with time comes change, and this has never been more prevalent than with the dying of the western genre