Genre and Sub-genre

Teen films
A lot of teenagers watch teen films as it either features a popular actor/actress of teen films (e.g. Zac Efron or Lindsay Lohan), or because they feel that they can relate to the characters and their situations. Also adults also watch teen films because it may feature an actor/actress that was in one of their favourite teen films or because it reminds them of their childhood. 


Themes and topics

There are many themes and topics to teen films:

• Romance/relationships
• Conflict with adults
• Friendships
• Sport/competition
• Aspirations
• Drama
• Violence
• Betrayal
• Crime
• Drinking/partying
• Rebellion

A good example of a teen film that has most of these themes and topics is Step Up.

Sub genres

Different teen films have different audience and appeal to different people because of sub genres. Examples (and their movies) of sub genres are:

• Romance (Sixteen Candles)
• Comedy (The Inbetweeners Movie)
• Adventure (The Hunger Games trilogy)
• Fantasy (Beastly)
• Competition (Bring It On)
• Horror (Carrie)
• Sci-Fi (I Am Number Four)
• Thriller (House at the End of the Street)
• Action (Kick-Ass)

Locations
A lot of teen films are all based around similar locations. 

• If the location is at a character's home, it is likely to be either the bedroom, kitchen or garden. 
• If the location is at school, it is likely to be either the classroom, bathroom, hallway, canteen, gym or school bus.
• If the location is a sporting location, it's likely to be at a stadium, park/field or dance studio
• If the location is a 'hang out' location, it's likely to be at a diner, woodland, shopping mall, beach or cinema

Characters

Every teen film will contain at least one character with a particular stereotype:

• Cheerleader 
• Jock, usually quarter-back
• Geek/nerd
• Main character's best friend 
• Outsider
• Bad boy/girl
• Popular one(s)
• Loser
• 'Cool' adult
• Teacher