History GenreSavvy / Film

* In several horror movies, several of the victims have watched enough horror movies to know the signs of a horror plot. Unfortunately, this turns right into GenreBlindness as they proceed to do things that any horror expert would know to never do, like going off on your own. Usually, the film writers have the experts killed off right at the start.
** ''Film/FridayThe13thPartVIJasonLives'' is a shining example of this, which contained this little gem: "I've seen enough horror movies to know that any weirdo wearing a mask is never friendly." Then, they proceed to ignore and annoy Jason.

* ''Film/FridayThe13thPartVIJasonLives'', which contained this little gem: "I've seen enough horror movies to know that any weirdo wearing a mask is never friendly."

* ''Film/RustlersRhapsody'' is an AffectionateParody of B-movie westerns from the Golden Age of Hollywood. The hero Rex has been through the same boilerplate plot so many times that he's memorized it and can predict each event long before it comes around the bend. This time, however, the villains become genre savvy themselves and realize that the bad guys never win, so they hire a "good guy" to stop Rex.

* In the 2012 German adaptation of ''Literature/HanselAndGretel'', the witch is [[AdaptationalIntelligence pretty much aware]] of how man-eating villains usually get defeated. When Gretel asks her to demonstrate how one bends to look into an oven, the witch laughs it off: did Gretel really think she’d fall for that?

** For example:

*** Immediately subverted with the dark figure waiting in her room, who turns out to be a friend.
** He discovers the name "Megan" written on the envelope.

* In ''Film/TheFaculty'', several of the students (being sci-fi fans), realise that the strange goings-on at the school resemble the ''Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers''. Though they correctly work out that the 'infected' are actually part of a greater 'queen' organism (and what happens should they find and kill it), they fail to realise that the queen is actually [[spoiler:The New Girl]] and not one of the more obvious suspects. The 'queen' even asserts that they should stop resisting her, since this plot ended in them winning even in fiction (the pod people in the aforementioned Body Snatchers). Though Genre Savvy, Casey comes up with a quite amazing conspiracy theory regarding aliens: he asks whether sci-fi itself is a tool for the authorities to inure the public to the existence of aliens, [[PlausibleDeniability just so nobody would believe it if it really happened]]. Stokely is unsurprisingly not convinced in the slightest, but thinks it's a cool idea.

* In ''Film/TheFaculty'', several of the students (being sci-fi fans), realise that the strange goings-on at the school resemble the ''Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers''. Though they correctly work out that the 'infected' are actually part of a greater 'queen' organism (and what happens should they find and kill it), they fail to realise that the queen is actually [[spoiler:The New Girl]] and not one of the more obvious suspects. The 'queen' even asserts that they should stop resisting her, since this plot ended in them winning even in fiction (the pod people in the aforementioned Body Snatchers). Though Genre Savvy, Casey comes up with a quite amazing conspiracy theory regarding aliens: he asks whether sci-fi itself is a tool for the authorities to inure the public to the existence of aliens, just so nobody would believe it if it really happened. Stokely is unsurprisingly not convinced in the slightest, but thinks it's a cool idea.

* Budd of the ''Film/KillBill'' films. While the other ex-Vipers decide to fight [[TheAce The]] [[OneManArmy Bride]] in fair combat, Budd sits in wait and gives her a shotgun full of rock salt right in the chest when she kicks his door open.

-->'''Murphy:''' What's this 'they' shit? This isn't a movie.

* ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'': Just like in the ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen graphic novel}}'': [[spoiler:Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias, declares that he is not a villain from a Republic Films serial and therefore had already completed his plan 35 minutes before beginning his BreakingSpeech]]

* ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'': Just like in the ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}} graphic novel'': [[spoiler:Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias, declares that he is not a villain from a Republic Films serial and therefore had already completed his plan 35 minutes before beginning his BreakingSpeech]]

* ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'': Just like in the ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'': [[spoiler:Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias, declares that he is not a villain from a Republic Films serial and therefore had already completed his plan 35 minutes before beginning his BreakingSpeech]]

* ''Film/Watchmen'': Just like in the ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'': [[spoiler:Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias, declares that he is not a villain from a Republic Films serial and therefore had already completed his plan 35 minutes before beginning his BreakingSpeech]]

* ''Film/FrightNight1985'': The two main characters, a teenage horror film fan and a professional HorrorHost, get all of their information on killing zombies from horror films. This is lampshaded in one scene where the horror host asserts that movies have been correct on all points so far, so they can safely assume that other tropes will hold true as well.

* In ''Film/DeadSnow'', a Norwegian film, the characters are hiking into the snowy mountains (without cell phone reception, of course) when one of them remarks "How many movies start with teenagers going on a trip without cell phone reception?" This does not actually deter them, which is unfortunate [[spoiler:considering they all wind up slaughtered by Nazi zombies.]] In a CrowningMomentOfFunny, another character says "''Film/FridayThe13th1980''" only to have a third say, "Yeah, because they didn't ''have'' cell phones."
** The Genre Savvy character actually causes some problems for the other characters, as he [[spoiler: tells everyone not to get bitten when he realizes that they're under attack by zombies. One character later saws his own arm off with a chainsaw after being bitten because of this, even though it's never been established that being bitten by a zombie leads to zombification.]]

* ''Film/{{Unbreakable}}'' deconstructs this trope horrifically. [[spoiler: Elijah takes Genre Savvy too far and sees comic book tropes in the real world, leading him to cause accidents which kill hundreds of people in the hopes of finding a superhero. This ends with him revealing the truth to David and happily describing how he is clearly meant to be the villain of their story, delighted to finally know his purpose.]]
-->[[spoiler: '''Elijah''']]: I'm not a mistake! It all makes sense! In a comic, you know how you can tell who the arch-villain's going to be? He's the [[{{Foil}} exact opposite]] of the hero. And most times [[BigBadFriend they're friends]], like you and me!

* In ''Film/TheFaculty'', several of the students (being sci-fi fans), realise that the strange goings-on at the school resemble the ''Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers''. Though they correctly work out that the 'infected' are actually part of a greater 'queen' organism (and what happens should they find and kill it), they fail to realise that the queen is actually [[spoiler:The New Girl]] and not one of the more obvious suspects. The 'queen' even asserts that they should stop resisting her, since this plot ended in them winning even in fiction (the pod people in the aforementioned Body Snatchers). Though GenreSavvy, Casey comes up with a quite amazing conspiracy theory regarding aliens: he asks whether sci-fi itself is a tool for the authorities to inure the public to the existence of aliens, just so nobody would believe it if it really happened. Stokely is unsurprisingly not convinced in the slightest, but thinks it's a cool idea.

** The GenreSavvy character actually causes some problems for the other characters, as he [[spoiler: tells everyone not to get bitten when he realizes that they're under attack by zombies. One character later saws his own arm off with a chainsaw after being bitten because of this, even though it's never been established that being bitten by a zombie leads to zombification.]]

* ''Film/{{Unbreakable}}'' deconstructs this trope horrifically. [[spoiler: Elijah takes GenreSavvy too far and sees comic book tropes in the real world, leading him to cause accidents which kill hundreds of people in the hopes of finding a superhero. This ends with him revealing the truth to David and happily describing how he is clearly meant to be the villain of their story, delighted to finally know his purpose.]]

---> '''Snidely Whiplash''': This is the part of the job I hate the most, the ending. Up until then, being The Bad Guy is the best job in the world.

* In the live action DudleyDoRight movie in 1999, all of the main characters understand that they live in a corny, formulaic melodrama, and they're perfectly happy about it. Later, the hero and villain begin to deviate from their predetermined roles within the genre, which provokes a severe existential crisis in both men. This is so stressful that Snidely Whiplash returns to his villainous ways, despite knowing in advance that "The Bad Guy" is automatically predestined to failure.

* In the live action DudleyDoRight movie in 1999, all of the main characters understand that they live in a corny, formulaic melodrama, and they're perfectly happy about it. Later, the hero and villain begin to deviate from their predetermined roles within the genre, which provokes a severe existential crisis in both men. This is so stressful that Snidely Whiplash returns to his villainous ways, despite knowing perfectly well in advance that "The Bad Guy" is automatically doomed to failure.