Movies that made a huge impact on the genre itself/revive the genre

[thebeloitmoderate]

I.E Horror genre is possibly the most influential of all the genres imo with The German Expressionism movement movies of Dr Caligari, Nosferatu, The Golem being influential in the early silent horror era, Dracula, Frankenstein being the height of classic horror during the early sound age, the genre then went into more sci fi/tongue in cheek during the 1950s until Hammer Films revived the genre into it's classic form. Night of the Living Dead was the turning point of the genre itself as it went from monsters and vampires to zombies and bloodshed. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to Child's play was called the era of the 70s and 80s horror icons, Scream revived the slasher genre and began the trend of teen/young adult horror movies from the mid-late 90s to early 2000s. Saw and hostel alongside remakes of Asian horror movies was seen as the beginning of more gruesome/splatter and supernatural horror movies now dominating modern horror. Drag Me To Hell was seen as a more return to form for more scarier and less bloody horror movies in the end of the 2000s.
An American werewolf in London/Evil Dead II was seen as the pioneering movies of the horror comedy subgenre even Abbott and Costello meet the Monsters was seen as too comedic and not scary enough. 

[Thank you for being a friend...]

"Moulin Rouge!" (2001) revived the musical genre, and the following year, the phenomenal "Chicago" won Best Picture

[Crumpets]

Pirate movies were totally dead following the release of Cutthroat Island in 1995. Disney thought it was a huge risk to make Pirates of the Caribbean, and it ended up being one of the biggest movies of the decade.

[dead0man]

Pirate movies were totally dead following the release of Cutthroat Island in 1995. Disney thought it was a huge risk to make Pirates of the Caribbean, and it ended up being one of the biggest movies of the decade.

is the "pirate" genre revived though?

[thebeloitmoderate]

Following the critical failure of the Joel Schumacher Batman movies X-Men, and ultimately Spider-Man kicked off the superhero movie craze still going on. Pre MCU marvel movies ranged from great (Spider-Man 2), mediocre at best (Fantastic Four), and crappy (Ghost Rider) before Iron Man not just kicked off the MCU but also revived the X-Men series, and totally changed the superhero genre for the good.
And also Gigi is widely remembered to be the end of the MGM musical going back to the days of early sound movies.

[T'Chenka]

I'm really into the "New Wave Of Art Horror" going on right now, though to be fair, the movies aren't truly art-house, just more artsy than your average Hollywood flick. They're doing a lot to revitalize horror from the perspective of critics and movie watchers that aren't explicitly horror fans.

Some movies:
Midsommar (2019, Ari Aster)
Get Out (2017, Jordan Peele)
The Lighthouse (2019, Robert Eggers)
Hereditary (2018, Ari Aster)
Ex Machina (2015, Alex Garland) ---> not strictly horror, mixed genres
The Witch (2015, Robert Eggers)
Annihilation (2018, Alex Garland) ---> not strictly horror, mixed genres
Us (2019, Jordan Peele)
The Babadook (2014, Jennifer Kent)

Also, I need to make a point here to shout out The Safdie Brothers, who are making films that kind of fit into a genre of it's own, but it's very fresh and different and is making a huge impact on film overall, on a larger scale than genre. These films are Good Time (2017) and Uncut Gems (2019).

[GeorgiaModerate]

Star Wars

[T'Chenka]

I also forgot to mention, The Green Knight (2021) was the best fantasy film in years and hopefully inspires some genre revival. Warning: this is the kind of film that some people absolutely love and some people get really bored with and hate, if you are contemplating watching it.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Pirate movies were totally dead following the release of Cutthroat Island in 1995. Disney thought it was a huge risk to make Pirates of the Caribbean, and it ended up being one of the biggest movies of the decade.

is the "pirate" genre revived though?

Yeah other than the Pirates of the Caribbean movies I can't think of a single one.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I think Juno and Superbad jointly did this for teen comedies, even if the revival was generally slightly less raunchy than the sort of American Pie movies that people associated with the genre when it mostly died and has more in common with PG-13 ones like Clueless and 10 Things I Hate About You. (Yes Superbad was pretty raunchy but thematically it had more in common with the PG-13 movies.) It didn't last long sadly. I guess Booksmart was a pretty recent one (again rated R and somewhat raunchy but thematically was closer to PG-13 movies than American Pie) but it didn't do all that well despite near universal critical acclaim.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Horror:

Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Evil Dead
Friday the 13th
Halloween
The Exorcist

Sci-Fi:

Star Wars
Empire Strikes Back
Blade Runner

WW2:

Saving Private Ryan
Schindler's List
Dunkirk

There has been a mini-resurgence every now and then, but they come in waves.

If you were to pick a single film which started the Animated Film industry, it would be Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1938).

That was many years ahead of its time.

[thebeloitmoderate]

One type of movie that DEFINITLEY needs to get a revival. Traditional animation in the Western World.