What's the definition of a "horror" movie?

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You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
There is a difference and it s quite easy:
For example: "the others" is a horror thriller
The excorcist is a horror thriller while interview with the vampire is a drama horror
Horror thriller is the movie genre you are looking at here,because any other genre is not a horror movie

IMDB lists all three of the movies that you listed as "horror" movies.

I'm just trying to figure out how to include some actual horror movies on my list, rather than submitting a list of all goofy horror comedies. There are very few actual horror movies that I like, but if I can find a few that I think deserve a place on my list, I'd like to try to include them.
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You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust. + a story or event recorded by a camera as a set of moving images and shown in a theater or on television; a motion picture.

We all don't feel the same things, so the definition is clearly subjective. The same would go for the comedy genre. I think the uncertainty of having a clear-cut definition is what makes the discussions about certain movies so much fun. It gives you a chance to champion a movie you feel deserves the honor of being called horror.

As I read through all of these replies, it sounds like most people seem to agree that fear and shock are what makes a movie a "horror" movie, so I guess that my confusion is about why some of these movies are NOT considered "horror" movies.

I guess part of the problem for me is that some of the movies that I was sure were horror movies are not tagged as "horror" on IMDB, so they're not eligible to "champion a movie you feel deserves the honor of being called horror".



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
That's a pretty good response. Besides: 'fear, shock, or disgust', I'd also add the word, anxiety as to the defining characteristic of a horror film.

It seems like I felt fear, shock, disgust, and anxious while watching Jaws, Jurassic Park, Silence of the Lambs, etc., but none of these movies are eligible.

So does anyone have an explanation for why these movies are NOT considered horror movies, but movies like Disney's The Black Cauldron and Scared Stiff (1953) with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis are considered horror movies, and animated movies like Scooby-Doo, Casper, and Looney Tunes are eligible?



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
Some guidelines:
- Villain is the protagonist or movie scenes unifying character;
- Good guys are underdogs;
- Concentration on graphic violence almost for it's own sake;
- Villain can be serial killer or alien creature or malevolent supernatural force manifesting in unnatural occurrences;
- Unsettling images and sounds.

Most of these make a lot of sense. The one that I'm trying to avoid is "Concentration on graphic violence almost for it's own sake".



It seems like I felt fear, shock, disgust, and anxious while watching Jaws, Jurassic Park, Silence of the Lambs, etc., but none of these movies are eligible.

So does anyone have an explanation for why these movies are NOT considered horror movies, but movies like Disney's The Black Cauldron and Scared Stiff (1953) with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis are considered horror movies, and animated movies like Scooby-Doo, Casper, and Looney Tunes are eligible?
Chyp said it best, IMDB tags are iffy and fraught with inaccuracies. To that I'd add, IMDB tags aren't there as a definite guide, they are there for search engines like Google and IMDB's own internal search to pick up those tags. The more tags a movie has the more it can be found by a search engine. You can't expect absolutes from such a system, all that matters is Nostro has said if it's tagged horror you can include it on your list.



IMDB lists all three of the movies that you listed as "horror" movies.

I'm just trying to figure out how to include some actual horror movies on my list, rather than submitting a list of all goofy horror comedies. There are very few actual horror movies that I like, but if I can find a few that I think deserve a place on my list, I'd like to try to include them.
i ve not seen a horror comedy in a long time, but Ghostbusters could be at the top of that list, aswell as gremlins if im not mistaken



I don't think there's any set definition for a horror movie so everyone will have their own way of looking at it. That's why we're using imdb even though that's faulty. They seem to try to list every genre that the movie has a taste of. I think of movies by what is the dominant genre, if I had to label it as one. Can I show the movie to someone, tell them it's a horror movie only, and be sincere about it? If I have to add caveats that it's a blank horror or a horror blank, then to me it's probably not a horror movie. I could call The Shining a psychological horror movie, but I don't have to. I can just say hey we're watching a horror movie. I cannot bring Jurassic Park home to my wife and say I got a horror movie without being misleading. You cannot get Ghostbusters and tell someone we're watching a horror movie, but you can say it's a comedy and nobody will question you. Very few movies hit two genres equally. Much of it is common sense. I consider Manhunter and Silence of the Lambs thrillers, and we will have a thriller countdown at some point. I think thriller is the dominant characteristic of those movies. It seems, after thinking about it, the difference with movies like that, is that the focus is the pursuit of the killer by law enforcement. In horror movies, the focus is usually the pursuit of victims by a killer, or some supernatural force or monster. There are several movies listed as horror that I will not be voting for because it's not right in my head. Vote for movies that qualify and that you believe in as horror.



Not according to IMDB. They have it tagged as "Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller", but not horror.

According to IMDB, none of the sequels are horror movies either.
Jurassic park is an adventure it has nothing to do with horror whatsoever



Jurassic Park is horror. Hope that helps
Jurassic park has nothing to do with horror movies,it s an out and out adventure film



And remember, don't make the mistake of sending in your favorite 25 movies that are eligible. Nobody should want to do that. Instead, make a list of your favorite 25 horror movies, and THEN check their eligibility. It should be a list of movies that you believe in to be horror, forget imdb tags.*



I was about to say any movie that scares you until I read this post

Jurassic Park is horror. Hope that helps
Buy my own definition Larry is right but I don't feel that that's right because Jurassic Park just comes across to me as a adventure action film. Why? Why wouldn't I consider Jurassic Park horror? So I guess it's not just whatever scares me.

So I couldn't even say it's Gore either, because then every Saturday morning cartoon we watched as kids would be considered gory. I think more likely Horror is about something that's completely evil, with gore, AND scares you.



Ultimately, you're going to have to come up with your own personal definition of the genre to work with when compiling your ballot. It would have been best, IMO, if Nostro had allowed us to vote on the eligibility of certain non-tagged films like The Silence of the Lambs and Jaws, but it is what it is.



To me, horror tends to be the most primal and visceral (there's that word again) genre, emphasizing deep-rooted fears and horrifying subject matter. I think it can bleed into the subjective, but on a very basic level we all kind of know what it is.

Except, apparently, IMDb. They don't seem to know horror at all!



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IMDB has Cape Fear (1991) as a crime thriller, but damn that movie freaks me out.
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Not according to IMDB. They have it tagged as "Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller", but not horror.

According to IMDB, none of the sequels are horror movies either.
Jurassic park is an adventure it has nothing to do with horror whatsoever
Lol. Dinosaurs going wild, hunting/stalking/eating people. It’s at least a semi horror.



To me, horror tends to be the most primal and visceral (there's that word again) genre, emphasizing deep-rooted fears and horrifying subject matter. I think it can bleed into the subjective, but on a very basic level we all kind of know what it is.

Except, apparently, IMDb. They don't seem to know horror at all!
Horror movie is the movie genre called: horror-thriller, end of story



Ultimately, you're going to have to come up with your own personal definition of the genre to work with when compiling your ballot. It would have been best, IMO, if Nostro had allowed us to vote on the eligibility of certain non-tagged films like The Silence of the Lambs and Jaws, but it is what it is.
Silence of the lambs has nothing to do with horror, it s an and out crime thriller, it goes in the same territory as: seven, kiss the girls, zodiac, copycat etc....



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I would have to disagree and say that Silence of the Lambs is a horror thriller, because it has all these mad scientist body experimentation elements in, that you see in other horror stories, involving a serial killer villain.