Neo-noir films

Neo noir films refer to a category of the films that have a dark theme attached to it. The word is derived from the French word noir which means black and neo in Greek means new. These are new black films. These were derived from the film noir genre which was very prevalent between 1940 and 1950. From then on there have been many films which adopted this genre. Neo-noir films are usually characterized by a conflicting antihero who is pressured to take extreme and immoral measures to come out of it. It has a nihilistic angle of seeing negative side of a system or practice which would be normally considered as good. Usually these movies use a shadow effects and are shot in low light.

Hitchcock’s Psycho is an excellent example of a neo noir film. In the modern times Tarantino’s movies like the Reservoir Dogs, Pulp fiction and Kill bill come under this category. Although not many Indian movies have adopted this to a great extent, there have been movies, like Being Cyrus and Aaranya Kaandam which have adopted this genre and have been successful as well.