Last updated on 2025-06-05

Horror: the genre that taught us it’s totally normal to run towards the noise in the basement. It’s the art of making people pay good money to experience the worst day of someone else’s life from the comfort of a theater seat. But horror isn’t just one big lumbering monster. It’s a Frankenstein’s creature of sub genres, stitched together with blood, screams, and lots of questionable life choices.

Now, I get it. When most people think ‘horror’, they think of being outright scared, and more importantly, jump scares. But you have plenty of different ways to do horror, with a lot of horror films belonging in more than one horror genre, and even non-horror genres too, because as you know, films can be more than one genre….Shocker, right?

And ‘scary’ is incredibly subjective anyway, but I could go on about that for ages…

Slasher Horror – The Holy Grail of Dumb Teenagers and Sharp Objects

Where would horror be without a good ol’ masked psycho with a knife and zero chill? Slashers really came into their own in the 1970s and ‘80s, with the likes of Halloween setting the gold standard for stab-happy cinema. Inspired by giallo films from Italy, these films often feature a masked killer and American high schoolers making terrible decisions.

Key Ingredients:

• A killer with a grudge and a love for theatrical murder setups
• Horny, clueless teens
• A Final Girl who somehow develops survival instincts just in time
• A complete lack of cell service or any adult supervision

Why It Works: It plays on our primal fears – being hunted, isolated, and punished for your sins (especially lust, because horror logic). Plus, it’s a practical FX bonanza.

Notable Examples: Halloween, Friday the 13th, Scream, A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Psychological Horror – Where the Monster Is Probably Your Own Brain

From Repulsion to The Shining, psychological horror has always aimed higher – or at least deeper. Influenced heavily by Gothic literature and the postwar existential dread of the mid-20th century, these films try and explore the human mind as a haunted house of its own.

Key Ingredients:

• Hallucinations
• Repressed trauma
• Is-it-real-or-is-it-in-your-head vibes
• Sad piano music and a slow descent into madness

Why It Works: It’s horror that lingers. These films aim to unsettle you, gnawing at the our sense of reality and empathy. They’re also a critical darling, proving horror can be “serious.”

Notable Examples: Rosemary’s Baby, Jacob’s Ladder, Hereditary, The Shining.

Supernatural Horror – Boo! Ghosts, Demons, and Other Freeloading Entities

Tracing back to Gothic novels like The Turn of the Screw, supernatural horror is a genre that never really dies – much like its antagonists. From Victorian seances to The Warrens’ cursed object museum, this sub genre is probably the most popular sub genre of horror….I think?

Key Ingredients:

• Flickering lights
• Something moving just offscreen
• Religious symbols and rituals
• Ghosts who can’t take a hint

Why It Works: The unknown is terrifying, and nothing’s more unknown than what happens after death.

Notable Examples: The Conjuring, Poltergeist, The Exorcist, A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Found Footage Horror – Why Are You Still Filming?

Spawned in earnest by Cannibal Holocaust and made mainstream popular by The Blair Witch Project, found footage turns horror into voyeurism. It was horror’s response to the digital age: grainy, intimate, and cheaper than therapy.

Key Ingredients:

• Shaky cam
• Endless night vision shots
• Poor decision-making under duress
• Heavy breathing

Why It Works: The DIY aesthetic makes the horror feel more authentic, like you stumbled onto something you shouldn’t have. Perfect for viral marketing and low-budget film students.

Notable Examples: REC, Paranormal Activity, The Blair Witch Project, Hell House LLC

Body Horror – My Flesh Is Betraying Me

Body horror oozed into cinematic consciousness in the 1980s, with directors like David Cronenberg leading the grotesque charge. It was influenced by anxieties around disease, mutation, and technology – basically the Cold War in a petri dish.

Key Ingredients:

• Ooze
• Unwanted extra limbs
• “What is happening to my body?!”
• Cronenberg’s entire filmography

Why It Works: It’s about losing control over the one thing you should be able to trust: your body. The horror here is both physical and existential.

Notable Examples: The Fly, Videodrome, Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Possessor

Creature Feature Horror – It Has Teeth and We Are Screwed

The creature feature has always mirrored society’s big fears with even bigger jaws. It’s also a celebration of practical effects and monster makeup wizardry.

Key Ingredients:

• A thing with claws, teeth, tentacles, or all three
• Scientists who definitely shouldn’t have done that
• Destruction on a cinematic scale
• Helicopters, always helicopters

Why It Works: There’s a primal thrill in watching humanity get humbled by nature – especially when that nature is the size of a small skyscraper.

Notable Examples: Jaws, The Descent, Tremors, The Host

Folk Horror – Cults, Corn, and Poor Life Choices

Folk horror crept out of the woods in the 1970s with the British “Unholy Trinity” (Witchfinder General, The Blood on Satan’s Claw, The Wicker Man). It’s recently seen a resurgence thanks to A24 and your local occult Pinterest board.

Key Ingredients:

• Pagan rituals
• People who say “you wouldn’t understand, outsider”
• No cell towers
• Nature being deeply unsettling

Why It Works: It’s all about the fear of the “Other” – the outsider walking into a community with very old, very weird rules. Also: flower crowns have never been so terrifying.

Notable Examples: Midsommar, Witchfinder General, A Field in England, The Wicker Man

Horror-Comedy – Laugh While You Scream

Comedy and horror have always been kissing cousins. From Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein to Shaun of the Dead, horror-comedy delights in meta-commentary and outrageous gore.

Key Ingredients:

• Gore with a punchline
• Meta references
• Characters you actually like
• Evil that’s somehow hilarious

Why It Works: The emotional whiplash between laughter and fear creates a unique tension – one minute you’re howling with laughter, the next you’re hiding under a blanket.

Notable Examples: Shaun of the Dead, Tucker & Dale vs Evil, The Cabin in the Woods, Evil Dead 2

Sci-Fi Horror – Space: The Final Place to Die Screaming

Sci-fi horror has been freaking people out since Frankenstein, which technically was the first science-gone-wrong tale. But it really exploded in the late 20th century, thanks to advancements in both science and our paranoia surrounding it all.

Key Ingredients:

• Aliens
• AI gone rogue
• Science projects that should’ve stayed in the lab
• Existential dread cranked to 11

Why It Works: It taps into fear of progress – that maybe our reach exceeds our grasp. Also, space is cold, empty, and wants you dead.

Notable Examples: Alien, Event Horizon, The Thing, Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Splatter Horror – Why Are You Still Screaming?

Splatter is horror turned up to 11 and then drowned in gore. It doesn’t want to scare you – it wants to assault you. It’s the cinematic equivalent of a butcher shop explosion.

Splatter doesn’t whisper terror in your ear. It screams it while ripping out its own intestines for emphasis. Art? Maybe. Subtle? Never.

Key Ingredients:

• Buckets of blood (and I do mean buckets)
• Exaggerated, cartoonishly graphic violence
• Zero concern for realism
• Exploding heads, severed limbs, and full-body meltdowns

Why It Works: Splatter thrives on excess. The gore is the point. It’s a playground for practical effects, where creativity is measured in entrails. There’s a sick joy in watching filmmakers push bodily destruction to absurd limits – and the best ones do it with a wink.

Notable Examples: Dead Alive, Tokyo Gore Police, Tag, The Sadness

Survival Horror – Every Person for Themselves

Somewhere between horror and thrillers lies survival horror – a brutal, grounded cousin with no supernatural safety nets. Think Deliverance, but with worse luck.

Key Ingredients:

• Isolation
• No help coming
• Nature, other humans, or both trying to kill you
• One character who says, “We have to keep moving” way too much

Why It Works: It’s raw, primal, and often uncomfortably realistic. The fear is rooted in situations anyone could fall into – especially with bad GPS.

Notable Examples: The Ritual, Backcountry, The Descent, A Quiet Place

Elevated Horror – Because Regular Horror Wasn’t Pretentious Enough

The term “elevated horror” may make your eyes roll, but it reflects horror’s migration from grindhouses to arthouse. While not a new invention (hi, Rosemary’s Baby), the label gained traction with indie distributors like A24 pushing stories of grief, trauma, and stylish slow-burn dread.

Key Ingredients:

• A24 logo
• Symbolism all over the place
• Minimalism, mood, and misery
• Credits that look like they won an Oscar

Why It Works: It treats horror as serious drama – complex, character-driven, and psychologically rich. If you’ve ever wanted to cry and scream, this is your lane.

Notable Examples: Hereditary, The Witch, It Follows, The Lighthouse, The Night House

J-Horror – Ghosts, Guilt, and Grudges from Japan

Where Western ghosts whisper “boo,” J-Horror spirits scream vengeance while crawling out of your TV. Born from Japanese folklore and urban legends, this sub genre specializes in long-haired ghosts, psychological dread, and curses that stick harder than super glue.

Key Ingredients:

• Vengeful female spirits (yūrei)
• Technology as a conduit for horror
• Guilt-fueled curses
• Slow and a nightmarish atmosphere

Why It Works: J-Horror doesn’t rely on jump scares so much as it burrows under your skin. These stories linger – like the curse you forgot to forward to seven friends.

Notable Examples: Ringu, Ju-On: The Grudge, Pulse, Noroi: The Curse

Giallo Horror – Blood, Glamour, and Italian Sleaze

Before slashers, there was Giallo – Italy’s neon-drenched cocktail of murder mysteries, black-gloved killers, and synth-heavy soundtracks. Equal parts fashion show and stabbing spree, Giallo walked so Michael Myers could run. (Well, actually, he doesn’t run, but you know what I mean).

Key Ingredients:

• Elaborate murder set pieces
• Stylized violence and vibrant color palettes
• Mystery with a capital “what-the-hell?”
• Screaming women in fabulous coats

Why It Works: Giallo is horror at its most stylish and surreal. You’re not just scared – you’re confused, seduced, and possibly in love with the killer.

Notable Examples: Deep Red, Blood and Black Lace, Tenebrae, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage

Gothic Horror – Why Is the House Breathing?

Born from crumbling castles, fog-choked moors, and the pages of Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker, gothic horror is the brooding grandfather of the genre. It’s less jump scare, more slow, creeping dread that wants to haunt your bloodline forever.

Where some horror screams, gothic horror whispers through candlelight under the weight of centuries of regret.

Key Ingredients:

• Decaying architecture with too many locked doors
• Ghosts, curses, or both – usually tragic, sometimes vengeful
• Flickering lights and suspicious drafts
• Melancholy protagonists with very repressed trauma

Why It Works: Atmosphere is everything. Gothic horror doesn’t need gore to unsettle – it thrives on mood, mystery, and the uncanny. It’s beautiful and terrible at once, a haunted oil painting brought to life.

Notable Examples: The Others, Crimson Peak, Nosferatu, The Haunting

Eco-Horror – Nature Hates You and She’s Right

When the Earth gets fed up with our nonsense, eco-horror shows up with killer trees, mutant animals, and fungal nightmares. It’s environmental guilt with teeth.

Key Ingredients:

• Nature turning hostile
• Warnings about human hubris
• Creeping dread with a side of rot
• No one recycles in time

Why It Works: Eco-horror taps into yet more real-world anxieties – climate change, pollution, invasive species — and then makes them literal. Also: plants that eat people.

Notable Examples: The Ruins, Long Weekend, Annihilation, The Bay

Techno-Horror – You Shouldn’t Have Updated the App

When your gadgets go from glitchy to demonic, you’re in techno-horror. It’s a sub genre that screams, “what if Black Mirror was… even worse?”

Key Ingredients:

• Evil apps, rogue AIs, cursed livestreams
• Isolation in a hyperconnected world
• Technology used exactly as intended… with horrifying results
• The slow realization that you can’t log out

Why It Works: Our dependency on tech is terrifying enough. Techno-horror just hits “enhance” on your worst digital fears.

Notable Examples: M3GAN, Companion, Pulse, The Den

There’s Horror for Everyone (Yes, Even You)

Horror isn’t just one thing. It’s a thousand phobias with a production budget. From demon dolls to repressed grief monsters to that one guy who just won’t stay dead, the genre’s diversity is part of its power, and why I love the genre so much.

Just remember, don’t be a gatekeeping asshole. Films can be more than one thing, and just because something doesn’t fit your definition, doesn’t mean it isn’t still technically a horror film. (And maybe other genres, too).

Simon Leasher

A lover of cinema for over 35 years, I have watched many films from around the world in many different genres, yet I still normally always come back to trashy slasher horror films when in doubt. More

And yes, The Godfather 2 is better than The Godfather.