Public Perception of Genre
A Clockwork Orange was not marketed as a horror film, nor reviewed as one upon release. Over a period of time, it has gained a following among horror film aficionados, frequently discussed as one in online bulletin boards and chat rooms devoted to horror films (with some dissenters as to the classification), as well as being listed in an online horror film database. The UK daily paper Metro had a reader poll of favourite horror films in 2010 and reported that The Exorcist beat out Saw and A Clockwork Orange.
One well-known critic who counts the film as horror is Maitland McDonagh, senior movies editor of TVGuide from 1995 to 2008, and author of a book on the horror films of Dario Argento. Commenting on why horror films rarely win Oscars, she notes the exceptions of The Exorcist, Silence of the Lambs, and A Clockwork Orange saying the prestige of the directors meant the films could not be ignored.
On the other hand, American Movie Classics' film critic Cory Abbey in an article on scary movies that are not horror lists A Clockwork Orange along with Jaws, Silence of the Lambs and others. When the American Film Institute chose their top 10 films in several genres, it listed Clockwork as a science-fiction film, while having no horror list at all.
Read more about this topic: A Clockwork Orange (film)
Famous quotes containing the words public, perception and/or genre:
“Learned institutions ought to be favorite objects with every free people. They throw light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty and dangerous encroachments on the public liberty.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)
““The proper stuff of fiction” does not exist; everything is the proper stuff of fiction, every feeling, every thought; every quality of brain and spirit is drawn upon; no perception comes amiss.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“We ignore thriller writers at our peril. Their genre is the political condition. They massage our dreams and magnify our nightmares. If it is true that we always need enemies, then we will always need writers of fiction to encode our fears and fantasies.”
—Daniel Easterman (b. 1949)