Peripheral characters in weepie, serious film (7)
I believe the answer is:
western
'film' is the definition.
(Western is an example)
'peripheral characters in weepie serious' is the wordplay.
'peripheral characters in' means to remove the middle letters (outside letters).
'serious' becomes 'stern' (I've seen this in another clue).
'weepie' with its middle taken out is 'we'.
'we'+'stern'='WESTERN'
(Other definitions for western that I've seen before include "American film" , "Old film genre, horse opera" , "Cowboys and Indians movie" , "Type of film or music" , "The Occident" .)