Thread: Sooooo what defines a horror movie?

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Okey dokey! What exactly is a horror movie? I see people refer to The Others, The Sixth Sense, and The Orphanage as horror movies. I say a ghost does not a horror movie make. I LOVE these movies, but they aren't scary although they are suspenseful. I call them supernatural dramas. Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay................. .................discuss!!

According to Merriam-Webster OnLine:

horror [noun]
1 a: painful and intense fear, dread, or dismay
b: intense aversion or repugnance
2 a: the quality of inspiring horror : repulsive, horrible, or dismal quality or character
b: something that inspires horror

horror [adjective]
calculated to inspire feelings of dread or horror

This would suggest that a horror movie should be very frightening or terrifying. In this respect, many ghost movies would not be horror movies. However, I would think that it depends on the producers intent. Just as some "funny" movies are not really funny, a "horror" movie may not really be horrifying. Many are not.

I would agree that the ones you mentioned should be categorized as thrillers or suspense movies.

Horror changes definition, then, as classic horror was terrifying when it came out and is now not terrifying- but still works on the psychological archetype level.

I feel horror is an umbrella term for many variations on a theme about what is in the realm of 'darker' things, the shadows, what is in the dark, what reveals the subconscious longings and fear of humanity that most people are not willing to face head on and in the light, so to speak. Hence monsters, psychos, slashers, and spooks.

Otherwise to some only torture and slasher films would be horror- those things I don't find scary in the least. Just, on occasion, gross. Gross does not a horror movie make.

If we go by fear alone, then the only thing that is horror to some is reality.

Originally Posted by nightbeasties

If we go by fear alone, then the only thing that is horror to some is reality.

I'll be danged if THAT isn't one of the most profound statements I've read in a while!.....

Originally Posted by nightbeasties

If we go by fear alone, then the only thing that is horror to some is reality.

I fall right into this category. I don't watch horror movies because they just
don't scare me. So, whenever I do watch one, I just sort of pick the special effects apart and get on my wife's nerves.

The only things that DO unnerve me are real threats of natural disaster, terrorism, etc.


OH, AND SPIDERS!!!! I'm terrified of spiders.

The Sixth Sense not a horror movie??? I'm a grown man and that movie gave me chills.Horror movies have branched out into so many things you just can't put one simple label on them. You have movies like Saw and Hostel that are very different from The Excorcist and The Omen. I see them all as horror.

El Diablo, to me the Sixth Sense isn't a horror movie. I'd more put it in the "Supernatural drama" as Succub'Oz defined in a very good way.

Well I would define Horror Movies as a film why a disturbing topic, with a disturbing plot, something you don't really want to see nor want to experience in your real life. The slasher movie is the most explicit example I guess. The experience as to be a physical and a psychological "torture" in a both way. Anyway it's an interesting question...

Sixth Sense definately gave me chills, but oh lord, can't believe I'm admitting this, there's times in that movie I just sobbed. I felt more empathy for the troubled spirits and Cole's mother than I felt fear.

I have a soft spot for the ghosties.

It's all eye of the beholder.
What is horror for me is a total sleeping pill for you. And what you need in a horror film I might not even be able to put up with.
But I can't think of one blanket description that would work for everyone
When I was a kid, the scariest movie was Laurel and Hardy DANCE OF THE TOY SOLDIERS. The nasty old geek would just FREAK me.
Now..lucky to stay away through it all..
WIZARD OF OZ is scary...to this day..but I can't call it a horror...
Are the Mondo movies from the 60's? And I'm not being rhetorical...I really don't know.
SHADOWS AND FOG a legit doc is totally eerie...and totally true...
It sort of reminds me of a legal decision from Boston regarding blue movies..the judge on the bench decided to qualify there had to be BOTH high heels and fish net stockings.
I'm thinking any attempt to define the genre in anything more then the broadest terms is going to come with the same stuff

I guess maybe I didn't make my point clearly. What I was trying to say is there are very many types of movies,but in the end they all fall under horror. Your not going to find a "Supernatural Drama" section at the Blockbuster.