The small town has become emblematic of traditional values and the quiet life (particularly in US cinema). Some films show villagers as backward and behind the times, while in other portrayals, they are seen as leading a simple, untroubled life and/or more attuned to the land than city dwellers. In genre material, there is also the frequent ongoing feeling that something is not quite right in this world.
In genre cinema, small towns can be at siege from outside forces – alien invaders, Body Snatchers, vampires or zombies. More disquietingly, the threat can often come from within – that there is a secret cabal in the community that has been replaced by aliens, is being mind controlled or wants to replace their wives with androids. Or else that the townspeople are all part of a Satanic coven or that they guard some secret rite or ritual to protect themselves, maintain the harvest or grant them immortality.
A frequent plot in these films is where someone innocently strays into town and then finds that for whatever reason they are being prevented from leaving.