Codes & Conventions

Codes: blood, knife, mask
Conventions: Chase sequence, good vs evil

Characters - even particular kinds of characters: e.g, at its most simple, 'good' and 'bad' characters.
Stories - they all tell stories, whether those stories involve adventure, crime or romance and the often, but not always, end happily.
The stories are told against familiar backdrops: - e.g. homes
Camerawork - particular kinds of shots are used: e.g. sequences involving establishing shots followed by mid-shots of characters, shot reverse shots to show the characters' emotions.
Stories use dialogue to tell the stories. Occationally, monologues are built in (as voiceovers, a character telling a story).