What Is Horror?

One of the things that annoys me most is when a film studios try to pass off other genre movies as Horror when they are not.

There is a myriad of thrillers that have been incorrectly labelled as Horror.  One of the first would have to be the classic Hitchcock movie "Psycho".  I will not argue this is a great film, expertly crafted from a well written Ira Levin novel, and sporting an innovative soundtrack.  But it so clearly not Horror.

The one Hitchcock movie that would fall into the Horror genre is the fantastic Tippi Hedren and Rod Taylor film "The Birds".  The one thing making this a Horror film is the concept of the birds attacking the human population, worldwide.  Hitchcock left the explanation for this incident vague; by doing this it makes the occurrence a supernatural event, making the story fall squarely into the Horror genre.

In more recent times the classic John Carpenter movie "Halloween" and Rob Zombies Re-Boot is another example.  In Carpenters superlative version you get a proper Horror / Slasher movie.  With his creation and characterisation of Michael Myers being purposely left vague, even the psychologist (portrayed brilliantly by Donald Pleasance) isn't sure if darker entities are at play within Michael, it makes the audience think that maybe Michael isn't altogether human.

Whereas, Zombie decided to go down the more realistic route and explain exactly why Michael is the way he is.  Just by doing this he removed the supernatural / paranormal element which made the movie a Horror film.  So what you get in the reboot is a Slasher / Thriller with gory and horrific images.  Just because a film contains gore or graphic scenes does not make it a horror.

So why are some Science Fiction movies classed as Horror?

Alien and The Thing are two great examples of this.  Both are of a sound Sci-Fi base, Aliens found in space, Aliens found on Earth:  However, because the "Aliens" have been created in a writer's imagination, they are not real, and therefore can fall into the Supernatural / Paranormal category.  The directors in both movies, Ridley Scott and John Carpenter, chose to film the story so as to heighten the audience's feelings of nervousness and tension.  This combined with the grizzly scenes make these two Horror movies.

Through direction alone you can alter a genre.  Take James Cameron's sequel "Aliens" which is just an action movie.  Most of the Sci-Fi and Horror elements have been removed in favour a "Us against Them" type of action film...  Rambo in space...

So in this Blog, I will only review movies, books, graphic novels, and comics that fall into my definition of the Horror genre.  Do not worry, though, as other genres will have their own Blogs.