Combination works.

I'm not quite sure what to call books/movies/plays that cross genres. Genre-bending? Combined goodness? Fusions? They're not "experimental," exactly, as that's more an art term, but recently I've seen a host of projects that aren't just one genre, and the results have been cool...mostly.

Bones, a cross of urban drama (think The Wire) and horror starred Snoop Dogg as the vengeful ghost of a drug dealer and Pam Grier as his bereaved lover. Which was a great idea, in my opinion. Drugs and gang wars are plenty terrifying, and thus perfect for horror. The first half of the movie went great, too, with a good mix of character introduction and spooky atmosphere. Unfortunately, then Snoop Dogg came back from the dead and apparently stole the movie’s budget, because the special effects looked like something an intern had put together on his laptop. I could see the garbage bags they’d used to create the walls of Hell, for Pete’s sake. ><

Paul, on the other hand, a combined road-trip comedy/sci-fi movie in which Simon Pegg fights Sigourney Weaver for the safety of an eponymous little green man, looked great. The animation of Paul was awesome, fitting him right into the real world without a hitch. The movie was funny, too, and had lots of in-jokes for sci-fi geeks. It didn’t make me laugh out loud, and didn’t stick in my mind after I watched it, but was genuinely entertaining and worth the viewing.

The most successful genre-bender I’ve seen recently, though, was not a movie, but a musical: The Book of Mormon, a (hilariously) vulgar and cheerful Rogers-and-Hammerstein style musical about Mormon missionaries going to Uganda and encountering the local warlord. It’s South Park meets State Fair—not surprising as it was made the guys behind South Park, who are huge fans of Rogers and Hammerstein. This is genre-bending done right, paying homage to everything great in two genres, while lambasting everything silly about both. And yet it’s moving! I was with our empty-headed heroes all the way, through every offensive, thoughtless thing they said about “black people” and “the poor” and “gay thoughts.” I couldn’t not love them. Throw in catchy music, great lyrics, and Eddie Izzard/Billy Connolly/Monty Python-esque humor, and I don’t CARE how much tickets cost, I’M GOING TO SEE THIS LIVE SOMEDAY.

-Elizabeth Reuter
Author, The Demon of Renaissance Drive