Choose a theme for your horror film fest. Pick a few movies by subgenre, by actor, or by franchise.
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By Subgenre By Actor By Franchise
Subgenre
Slasher
Happy Death Child's Play Scream Maniac
Day
The slasher film is a horror subgenre which involves a killer murdering a group of people (often teenagers), usually by use of bladed tools.
Sleepaway Camp Halloween Friday the 13th
These films usually revolve around three properties: unique social settings (campgrounds, schools, holidays) a crime from the past committed (an accidental drowning, infidelity, a scorned lover) and a ready made group of victims (camp counselors, students, wedding parties).
Gore/Splatter
Wrong Turn Texas Chainsaw The Hills Terrifier
Massacre Have Eyes
Also known as the 'splatter' subgenre, gore is all about the portrayal of graphic violence. Blood, guts and body trauma are classic elements in gore movies. Films in this category rely heavily on special effects to disfigure body parts.
Cabin Fever The Evil Dead House of Saw
1000 Corpses
This genre is the most gratuitous of all horror films when it comes to violence and the dismemberment of characters.
Body Horror
The Blob The Fly Shivers The Thing
A genre that emerged in the 1970s, body horror films focus on the process of a bodily transformation. In these films, the body is either engulfed by some larger process or heading towards fragmentation and collapse.
Aliens Infected Invasion of the Scanners
Body Snatchers
The focus can be on apocalyptic implication of an entire society being overtaken, but the focus is generally upon an individual and their sense of identity, primarily them watching their own body change.
Creature Features
Frankenstein Predator Godzilla King-Kong
Also known as the natural horror film subgenre, "features nature running amok in the form of mutated beasts, carnivorous insects, and normally harmless animals or plants turned into cold-blooded killers.
A Quiet Place Gremlins The Descent Tremors
Eight Legged The Birds Creature from Bug
Freaks the Black Lagoon
Mind Twisters
Triangle The Matrix The Game Memento
Mind twisters deliberately target the audience’s brain, either by making us work through abstract mysteries, pulling the rug from underneath us in the final moments, or taking us on a spiraling dream-like journey.
Requiem for Jacob's Ladder Inception Shutter Island
a Dream
Common mind-bending concepts include time travel and unreliable narrators with mental health conditions.
A Beautiful Fight Club Timecrimes Se7en
Mind
These films often confuse and challenge viewers, but also provide enjoyment in solving their intricacies
Psychological Horror/Thriller
The Sixth The Shinning Silence of Psycho
Sense the Lambs
Psychological horror is not about what we see on the screen but how it makes us feel. This genre plays tricks on the viewers’ mind by creating paranoia.
Changing Lanes Fatal Attraction
The main characters in these types of horror movies are mentally unstable or emotionally disturbed to the point of being violent.
Comedic
Comedic horror is possibly the most fun of all horror movies out there. It’s a subgrene that is equally funny as it is scary. It takes the viewer to complete opposite ends of the horror spectrum resulting in a rollercoaster of emotions. Classic examples of comedy-horror films include "Scream", "Shaun of the Dead", and "The Cabin in the Woods"
Vampire
English literature popularized vampire stories, which were basically just ghost stories of the dead returning to haunt the living. It wasn’t until the slowburn success of "Dracula" that helped launch vampire stories into the mainstream. There have been countless low-budget Dracula movies throughout the years including "Horror of Dracula", "The Brides of Dracula", "Dracula’s Dog". One of the more successful vampire movies (besides, the Twilight Series) is Neil Jordan’s adaptation of the 1976 novel "Interview with a Vampire".
Witches
Witches have a long history of mischief in folklore. They use the power of magic to cast spells on their victims turning them into all kinds of tortured beings. Similar to the paranormal genre, witchcraft uses supernatural elements to create fear. Movies like "The Witch" and "Suspiria" are great examples of the terror caused by witches.
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