Talking Cliches: Crawlspace and the Genre Problem

Where genre is concerned, it can be difficult to do something new – as many a postmodern theorist has contended, an artwork can't help but pay homage to its precedessors. But according to Dave Hoskin, films like Justin Dix's Crawlspace point to an overreliance on genre conventions whereby, instead of offering a directorial tribute, works end up derivative and formulaic.

Additional keywords: horror, science fiction, sci-fi, Pine Gap, Umberto Eco, James Cameron, Aliens, Ridley Scott, Alien, Scanners, David Cronenberg.