RESEARCH - Intertextuality.

Intertextuality is defined as the relationship between texts. It refers to the way in which the meaning of text's can be understood through referencing other texts. In many films, the audience may find that a particular scene reminds them of another film.


One obvious use of intertextuality is within Scary Movie (2000), the Scary Movie films are know for creating a spoof of a horror film/thriller. The opening sequence of Scary Movie (2000) is extremely similar to the opening sequence of Scream (1996). 


The top image on the left is from Scream (1996), the character of 'Ghostface' was used in Scary Movie (2000). 


Scary Movie 2 (2001) also makes references to The Exorcist (1973). Scary Movie 4 (2006) includes a shower scene that is a spoof of the original scene from Psycho (1960). 



Sometimes the use of intertextuality may not be so obvious. Alfred Hitchcock's famous shower scene from the movie Psycho (1960), has appeared in various other films. Some examples are show below.  

What Lies Beneath (2001)     The Grudge (2004)       The Stepfather (2009)

Intertextuality can increase the audience of a film as more people may want to watch the film, knowing that it has references to something else that the enjoyed watching. Therefore, we could use intertextuality in our own thriller as we could take elements from other films that we enjoyed and use them in our opening sequence.