Scary Movie Glossary Index
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TOO SCARY TO WATCH Scary Movie Glossary Index
Welcome to the Too Scary To Watch "Horror Movie Genre Guide" ... (Slashers, Monsters, Zombies, Ghosts and more) ...
Categorizing Horror Movies
Nowadays, just referring to a movie as being a scary movie, is something that might not be descriptive enough for most folks. "What kind of scary movie is it?" This will inevitably be the question that follows!
Slashers, Monsters, Zombies, Ghosts and more ...
Many types of scary movies come to mind when you think about the horror genre ... slashers, monsters, zombies, ghosts, and the list goes one. There's no doubt that over the years, the horror film genre has given birth to many different sub-genres ... and where there's a lot of different sub-genres, there's also a lot of different options for categorizing them. Some horror movies are easier to categorize, and some horror movies are a bit more challenging to place ... some fall into one sub-genre, while others tend to be a cross between two or more sub-genres.
In going forward, it's important to keep in mind that, categorizing movies can be a highly subjective process. No one person has all the answers. Different people will obviously have different classification systems. The objective in creating this "Scary Movie Glossary Index" was to provide a means in which to clarify how each horror genre (or sub-genre) will be interpreted here on this blog. I want you to know what I mean when I call a movie a slasher or supernatural thriller.
We've listed 30+ categories to get you started, which can be used as a basic horror movie genre guide. There are definitely more genres of horror than those outlined below, but we've decided to emphasize the genres that we plan to refer to the most. Over the next few months or so, this list may grow (or perhaps be condense) for the sake of keeping things simply.
Scary Movie Glossary Index
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Alien Movie / Alien Abduction or Invasion: - Are movies about aliens -- alien life form, alien abductions and/or alien invasions.
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Anthology: - Horror anthologies combine several short stories, (typically 3-5) into one movie, and often tend to be connected by a single theme.
Anthology Horror Movie List
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Asian Horror Film: - Asian horror films (which set a trend back in the late 90's with movies such as Ringu and Whispering Corridors) are what we will refer to as being supernatural style ghost films (from Japan, South Korea, Thailand, China), typically involving creepy children or girls in white dresses with long dark hair. It's important to note that not all Asian horror films follow the ghost formula, but more times than not, the supernatural/ghost format is what we will mean when we refer to a movie as being an Asian Horror Film.
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Breakdown / Backwoods: - Are movies typically involving city folks, who end up running into danger, while traveling through rural, secluded "backwoods" areas. Their vehicle breaks down, they end up stranded -- you know the formula (Inbreeds, cannibals ... etc).
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Classic Horror: - Classic horror films are typically referred to as being the great, staple, influential movies of the 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's (though here, I may also include some of the classic horror films of the 70's and 80's).
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Cult Film: Cult films are often considered to be movies that have acquired a devoted cult following from a specific group of fans over time, after initially failing to achieve fame/popular status. These films typically lack fame and popularity outside of their cult following. Some cult films have since, gone on to gain classic recognition.
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Comedy Horror: - Are movies that combine horror with humor (basically, horror movies attempting to also be funny).
Creature Feature (Monster Movie): - Are movies with monsters or any type of mutant creature (excluding creatures such as werewolves, vampires, zombies and frankenstein). I've decided to include "other worldly monsters" in this category as well, when it doesn't involve alien abduction or alien invasion (or the little green men with big heads and black eyes).
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Crime Thrillers (aka Serial Killer Drama): - Drama style movies, typically involving detectives (or FBI agents), in a race against time to catch a notorious serial killer (a calculating and evasion individual who's always one step ahead), often in the gloom and rain of a major city.
Crime Thriller / Serial Killer Drama Movie List
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Dolls & Puppets: - Are movies involving eerie dolls and/or puppets (really any type of "evil" toy).
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Epidemic Horror (Zombie Movie): - Movies involving some form of an outbreak, that spreads from person to person affecting many people at the same time, i.e zombie movies, and all of the other zombie-like movies (all movies involving "infected-mindless-rageful" human beings).
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Zombie Movie List
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Exploitation Film: - Are typically (but not always) lower budget, B-Movie films that feature explicit sex and/or sensational violence.
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Found Footage: - Are movies that are presented as actual (recovered) video recordings. The events on screen are typically seen through the camera of one or more of the characters involved. Most of the Filming may be done by the actors themselves and shaky camera work is often employed for realism (i.e; Cannibal Holocaust 1980, The Blair Witch Project 1999, Paranormal Activity 2007, Cloverfield 2008).
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Gothic Horror: - Are movies (usually classic films) that combine horror with elements of romance. (Think Frankenstein, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and gothic architectures such as creepy castles).
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Home Invasion: - Are movies involving families (or couples) who are held hostage, and terrorized in the comforts of their own home. These movies help remind us to lock our doors!
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Home Invasion Movie List
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Killer Animals / Eco-Horror: - Are movies typically involving animals and insects (sometimes plants), attacking humans. (sharks, alligators, dogs, piranha's ... etc).
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Killer Kid: - Are movies where a child (or group of children) is the main antagonist.
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Occult Film: - Are movies involving the occult. (i.e witchcraft, voodoo, paganism ... etc). Even though we've chosen to make a distinction between Religious horror movies (such as films centered around Christ, Satan and the Church) and occult films, we acknowledge the fact that there are some movies that combine the two.
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Psychological Thriller: - Are movies that emphasize psychological and emotional conflict rather than physical conflict. As wikipedia puts it; "These are the movies in which (until the often violent resolution) the conflict between the main characters is mental and emotional, rather than physical." Although psychological thrillers tend to be based on reality, sort of speak (meaning, a scenario that's not too fare fetched from something that could actually occur) there are some psychological thrillers that can make it difficult to determine whether the characters are experiencing real events, or supernatural events ... which in turn, could keep you guessing 'til the very end of the movie (is it a person doing this, or a ghost ... is he doing this to himself or is someone/something doing this to him).
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Religious Horror / Religious Thriller: - Movies involving religious, supernatural content. (The Church, exorcisms, Angels, the Anti-Christ ... etc). Some people tend to place religious horror films in the "Supernatural Thriller" category (and by definition, that would be correct), but here, we've chosen to keep Satan and Demons, separate from ghost, and other creepy unexplained phenomena not centered around the church.
Religious Horror Movie List
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Slasher: - Are films in which victims (usually a group of young adults) are stalked and brutally murdered one by one, by a deranged psychopath wearing a mask (sometimes a mask, sometimes a hat, sometimes disfigured and deformed, sometimes from the mental asylum). In a typical old-school style slasher, most of the time, the characters (or main character) are clueless to the fact that people are being murdered until almost everyone is already dead.
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Slasher Movie List
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Teen Slasher / Neo-Slasher: - Are contemporary whodunit style slasher movies, centered around a group of teens being killed off one by one. These films tend to make suspects out of everyone, leaving us with the unsettling feeling that anyone (who hasn't already been killed off) may be the killer. The killers "true" identity typically isn't unveiled until the end of the movie ... and when the killer is finally revealed, there's usually (but not always) a well thought out, long drawn out explanation as to why he or she is doing the killing. Most neo-slashers have a "whodunit" element to them (everyone's a suspect) while the typical slasher tends to be more centered around a completely anonymous murderer or psychopath the audience already knows the identity of.
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Teen "Whodunit" Neo-Slasher Movie List
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Giallo Slasher: - Are italian slashers that were most prevalent in the 60's and 70's (Mario Bavo's 1963 film "The Girl Who Knew Too Much" is generally regarded as the first Giallo film). Giallo killers typically wore black gloves and killed with knives. The Giallo genre is also said to have greatly influenced the american slasher genre.
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Serial Killer: - Not to be confused with crime thrillers or serial killer dramas like "The Silence of the Lambs", serial killer movies (as the title suggests) are films about serial killers. They tend to get confused with slashers because like slashers, they typically involve a psychopath, killing and/or torturing victims one by one (and sometimes, serial killer movies are indeed slasher hybrids). The main difference is, serial killer movies tend to be movies centered around the killer, from the viewpoint of the antagonist (think Maniac 1980, Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer 1986, American Psycho 2000, Natural Born Killers 1994), while slashers usually have a scream queen or a whodunit, guess who the killer is, factor.
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Splatter Film: - Are movies that strongly emphasize sadism, and graphic violence, such as gore, guts, physical brutality, and body mutilation. If you don't have a strong stomach, these can be hard to sit through.
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Supernatural Thriller: - Although the term "supernatural horror" can refer to many different things (ghost, Angels, vampires, demons ... etc) here, I'm choosing to define supernatural thrillers as being, movies involving ghostly content and/or unexplained paranormal phenomena (i.e; The Sixth Sense 1999, Stir of Echoes 1999, The Ring 2002, The Grudge 2004).
** we're excluding religious supernatural content and the occult because we've given them categories of their own **
These movies tend to build tension and suspense at a slower pace, relying heavily on jump scare tactics. The supernatural thriller genre may also contain some possession (i.e Paranormal Activity) ... though I'm choosing to place strong demonic "religious" possession (typically accompanied by a Christian exorcism) in the "Religious Horror" category.
Ghost Movie List
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Survival: - (not to be confused with survival horror) - Are what I consider to be the movies where the protagonist must overcome and fight against the forces of nature to survive. (i.e bad weather, water, snow, and even some wildlife)
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Teen Scream: - Teen Screams (aka teen horror films) are horror movies geared more towards teens or young adult audiences. They typically involve high school or college students (classrooms, dorm rooms, proms, parties ... stuff young people do), who find themselves in nightmarish situations.
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Torture Movie (also known as Torture Porn): - Are modern day horror films (influenced by the splatter genre) that contain graphic depictions of extreme violence, torture, nudity, mutilation and sadism. If you don't have a strong stomach, these can be hard to sit through.
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Vampire Movie: - Movies involving Vampires.
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Werewolf Movie: - Movies involving Werewolves.
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Scary Video Game Glossary Index
Survival Horror: - Survival horror refers to a sub-genre of action-adventure video games which draws heavily upon the conventions of horror. The player/character is vulnerable and under-armed, which puts emphasis on puzzle-solving and evasion, rather than combat. Survival Horror games commonly challenge the player to manage their inventory and ration scarce resources such as ammunition. Another major theme throughout the genre is that of isolation.
Typically, these games contain relatively few non-player characters and, as a result, frequently tell much of their story second-hand through the use of journals, texts, or audio logs. While many action games feature lone protagonists versus swarms of enemies in a suspenseful environment, survival horror games are distinct from otherwise horror-themed action games. Rather, they de-emphasize combat in favor of challenges such as hiding or running from enemies and solving puzzles. Still, it is not unusual for survival horror games to draw upon elements from first-person shooters, action-adventure games, or even role-playing games. "Survival horror is different from typical game genres in that it is not defined strictly by specific mechanics, but subject matter, tone, pacing, and design philosophy." (i.e; Alone in the Dark, Fatal Frame, Resident Evil, Silent Hill).
Survivor Horror Definition - Taken From Wikipedia:
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