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What do horror movies and comedies have in common?
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The two genres might seem totally different, but the reason they're both so popular is perhaps because what they have in common: their use of dramatic irony.
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First, let's clarify.
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There are three types of irony out there.
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Situational irony is when you expect one thing, but get the opposite.
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Verbal irony is when someone says something, but truly means the opposite.
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Dramatic irony, though, is what we will be looking at right now.
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Dramatic irony is when the audience seems to know more about an event, a situation, or a conversation than the characters in the movie, on the show, or in the book do.
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The audience is in on a secret that the characters have missed.
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This is a great story-telling device that creates tremendous emotion within that text.
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Think about it for a moment.
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How does it feel when, in a horror film, you know that the scary villain is hiding behind that door in the darkened room?
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The music becomes eerie.
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The lighting creates complete shadows.
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This has to be bad for the hero!
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Of course, though, that hero must enter the room to find the villain.
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You feel tremendous tension and the suspense of knowing that someone will jump out and be scary, but you just don't know when.
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That tension is dramatic irony—you know something more than the characters in the film.
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Now, take the typical comedy.
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There will probably be some type of "misunderstanding".
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Again, we know more of what is going on than the characters do.
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Picture two characters making a plan for a birthday surprise for their roommate, while that roommate overhears the entire conversation from the hallway.
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From there, confusion and misunderstanding occur, and the tension builds.
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But this isn't the same tension as the horror film since it is probably pretty funny, as the character tries to figure out the whos and the whats.
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But it serves as a great example of the tension and suspense of dramatic irony.
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This tension or suspense in both genres drives the story and keeps the plot progressing.
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The audience wants, no, needs, to see the tension of the dramatic irony broken,
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either by the scary person jumping out of the shadows, or by someone finally revealing someone's true identity and clearing up the confusion.
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So, when you feel like you are in on a secret, that is dramatic irony, a hallmark of all the great writers from Shakespeare to Hitchcock.
