Postmodern films attempt to undermine main conventions of narrative and characterisation, while testing the audience’s ability to suspend disbelief. Key elements of postmodernism in film include:

1. extensive use of homage/pastiche
2. meta-referencing
3. connecting highbrow and lowbrow
4. a form of contradiction, in visual styles, morals, etc

Postmodern films tend to blend different themes and tones in one film, which can lead to homages or pastiches to previous films. For example, The World’s End, could be seen as a homage to The War of the Worlds, as it features many similar narrative elements. The World’s End is a postmodern film, and has many other homages to other films throughout. The scene in The World’s End when the characters try to prove to each other that they aren’t androids could be seen as a homage to a scene in The Thing (dir. John Carpenter, 1982), where the characters go through a similar process. Meta-referencing is also common in postmodern films, and it is when the film or characters reference things outside of their film, drawing the audience’s attention to that fact that what they are watching is just a film.