Sorry for the clumsy subject-header, but I wasn't sure how to word it.

This thread is a spin-off from The Waking Dead threads, and it concerns characters in movies who are completely unaware of the phenomenon that they are experiencing.

This is most prevalent in zombie movies, where typically NOBODY in the film has ever heard of a zombie, and you have the prerequisite scenes where they have to learn to shoot them in the head, that one bite is enough for infection, etc. It's pretty much a cliché at this point.

Compare to vampire movies, where everybody knows what a vampire is. However, the cliché here is the scene where somebody (usually the lead vampire) explains where the "rules" differ from typical vampire lore (for example, somebody says "How can you be a vampire -- I can see your reflection in a mirror!"). This is almost always followed by a variation of a line like "Don't believe everything you see in movies ha ha".

What other genres are dependent on the characters being completely ignorant of pop culture?

Slasher flicks, although "Scream" did a good job of turning your notion on its head.

I always laugh at the scenes in the Friday the 13th movie where somebody laughs off Jason. "That's just a myth!" In reality, the massacres would have made national headlines.

Exactly. The only one that got it right was Jason Goes to Hell. Unfortunately, it sucked.

Avatar. The creatures had no idea they were CGI.

The 1950s equivalent would be an alien invasion/UFO movie where no one had heard of flying saucers. However, since those movies were inspired by the phenomenon of UFOs then in the headlines, the people writing those movies generally had their characters being generally aware of flying saucers and "little green men." So I can't think of an actual example of such a film where no one has heard of the phenomenon before.

Donnie Darko and giant bunnies. It's as if Harvey never even happened.

"Men Who Stare at Goats" has a partial version of what you are describing. While the characters are aware of Jedi as a pop culture concept, the characters are conveniently unaware of the fact Ewan McGregor played one in the prequel trilogy.

I know it's a "wink, wink" joke to the audience, but the joke only works if the characters are ignorant of certain pop culture facts.

I've seen a few of those movies (typically of the "B" variety), where people are genuinely astounded by the events, and a "scientist" character (usually smoking a pipe) explains the whole concept of interplanetary travel to the dumbfounded heroes (usually a teenaged couple).

Mob movies. Every time some car screeches to a halt in front of another car, the guys in the now-pinned-in car get all irate like the new car is just some jerkoff driver that can't control their vehicle. Meanwhile, anyone who's ever seen a mob movie, let alone actually LIVES that lifestyle, knows that a hit is about to go down. Yet these guys are just yelling and flipping the bird rather than ducking or running.

How about movies where our hero has unearthed some giant government conspiracy. In all of these movies, the hero has a "friend" who is a government official. The hero always assumes that the friend is a good guy, and the friend always urges the hero to meet him somewhere, and it's always a trap.

In Watchmen, according to writer Alan Moore, superhero comics never existed, so the concept of the superhero was new to that universe when Doctor Manhattan came into existence. I don't include the unpowered mystery men since the pulp adventurers such as The Shadow may have been in pop culture there before the appearance of Nite Owl I.

Japanese Monster Movies. You would think by the 30th G-attack they'd have buildings and technology built to withstand these incursions. Yet, they still act as if it's the 1st time being attacked and they barely know what to do.

Good point, esp. about the '60s G movies, but in at least one of the series entries from either the 1990s or 2000s, the government had a whole anti-Godzilla agency established just to combat Godzilla attacks. Or maybe it was set up simply to deal with Godzilla, I'm not sure which. I know that the six Heisei-era G movies (1989-1995) all had a recurring character named Miki Saegusa (played by Megumi Odaka) who was a psychic capable of understanding G, and so she was always called in for each new G appearance.

Yeah, I thought after a while.. they created a special JDF task force just to deal with Godzilla (and the various monsters) just to herd them away.

I think in most vampire movies or shows there is an element of them hiding in plain sight spreading disinformation due to having been around so long.

Yeah but they flip back and forth depending on the film series.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...GenreBlindness

Awesome link, and a great term for it "Genre Blindness".

Nice.

Or everything about a particular giant insect has to be explained as if they have no knowledge of the regular variety.

On a side note. When somebody suspects a vampire, werewolf, etc. is at large no one believes them. If someone you really trusted came to you with the story of a vampire on the loose would you dismiss it or go with it.

I still wonder how someone got that awesome Jason picture shown in the newspaper during F13 part 4.

I just spent a good part of my afternoon on that page. Thanks!

And wasn't Monster Island established (late '60s, early '70s) just to keep all the monsters in one place and prevent further rampages? And then aliens came and programmed the monsters to rampage again. Isn't that what happened in DESTROY ALL MONSTERS?