Most texts today mix genres, how true is this of District 9? (30)
District 9 can be labelled as a post-modernist mixed genre text due to its hybridity between different genre conventions. Being prominently a Sci-Fi movie, District 9 features a common convention which is a polysemic narrative. On a primary level, the film to viewers is about a struggle between aliens & humans, however on a deeper second level it is representative of the Black & White struggle during the Apartheid years in Johannesburg. This convention is represented by Wikus' dehumanisation in labelling the aliens as 'Prawns'. This is the polysemic reading within the text and is indicative of the verbal abuse black south africans endured during the apartheid years. More active viewers will also understand that the relationship between how Pre-Alien Wikus is received and how Half Alien Wikus is received .
However an example of hybridity can be accredited to Horror elements. In one scene in which Wikus' is a subject of an Experiment, we see a close up shot of his mutated arm notifying us that this film features body horror as well as Sci-Fi elements. The miss-en-scene, oxygen masks, arms strapped ot the bed, and blurry security cameras al display elements which we would assossicate with modern Horror texts. In one shot we see Wikus regaining his consciousness, accompanyed by muffles inaudible diegetic sound coming from the Doctors, imitating creepy whispering voices, which is further a convention paying homage to the horror genre. However these Horror/Body-Horror elements are combined with the Sci-Fi convention of Alien/Human relations in which we see the green tinted lighting representing a common Sci-Fi lighting technique. This dirty green lighting, in partiuclar a scene in which we see Wikus trapped inside a body bag, is deonstranted to presents a grubby unclean dystopian view, which also links to a a horror convention in its use of unclean clear lighting.
Documentary style conventions are also mixed with Horror and Sci-Fi elements, presents by further analysis of Wikus' experiment scene in which one camera shot presents stock footage. The stcok footage has the words REF CAM accompayned by a mutitude of numbers. This is an example of the hybridity the film presents, as the Futuristic/Medical style of the camera further pays homage to Sci-Fi and Horror elements.
