We all hear the influence of Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Pulp Fiction, Gone With the Wind many times before

But what of Genre films; such as Sci-Fi, Horror, Fantasy, and Action
These films are usually dismissed by film snobs. But these simple genre films may actually give much impact then most people realize. Asides from the well-known ones Star Wars, LOTR, T-2, George Romero's Zombies films, The Matrix, I would like to write about films that are not well known, or films that not much people knows its influence too well. There's also many Firsts' in this list

Blood Feast 1963

Before the Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" there was Blood Feast; it been cited by critics to be the first ever splatter film. It shocked audience with its harsh gory violence, using tons of blood and goopy organs. Sure it's cheesy by today's standard's, but it did in fact pushed boundaries of the use of violence in filmmaking. Violence in filmmaking would later be expanded into "Night of the Living Dead" and "Bonnie and Cylde"

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEbeWMmp57U


Blade 1998

Blade was a very important film in the Superheroes film genre. In the late 90's Superheroes was starting to fade away from the film industry; due to the failure of Batman and Robin. Superheroes became cheesy, idiotic, and juvenile, this all changed from the film Blade. Blade the film was produced by Avi Arad Producer of many Marvel film. This was this Marvel film actually taken seriously, unlike the Roger Corman's Fantastic 4. This film took itself more seriously, grounded itself a bit more in reality like explaining vampirism with elements of science. It was the start Marvel profitable film career, as well of the today's popularity Comics and superheroes films. It also experimented creating superheroes powers enhanced with cgi effects on the big screen; which would later be used further in the first X-Men film. It wasnt nearly as campy or silly as previous superhero films, unlike what Spawn was supposed to be.


Mad Max 1979

Bullit may started the movie car chase, but Mad Max perfected it. Most of modern action movies is heavily influenced by this film. The action was direct, unlike filming cars from a distant statically, the film was putting the audience right into the action scenes. The momentum was fast with the car chases by using motion and position the camera. Using great camera angles to heighten the suspense, like the cameras positioned in the cars following the roads as they zooms through the highways with surreal wideshots. Using deliberate editing choices, combine with great stunt work, making the danger more greater.


Highlander 1986

Highlander was directed by music video director Russell Mulcahy. Most of today MTV-style of filmmaking started by this film. Using stylistic choices in editing, lighting, and camera choices. Like when Connor finally get the Prize in the dramatic flashy ending, or the transition effect with the fish tank to a lake in Scotland. All of this was heighten by the music soundtrack by Queen, making the film at moments seem like an eloborate music video. Sure today it may be overplayed, but back then it was an interesting and effective choice of filmmaking.


Looker 1981

A couple of months before Tron, Looker showed off revolutionary special effects. It was the first commercial film to attempt to make a realistic computer generated character. It was also the first movie to create 3-D shading with a computer. Many of today's modern cgi magic was all started by this one film

Looker's FX starts at 5:20



If any can say some other overlooked film or film contribution; I would like to hear them