MY TOP 5 HORROR SUB-GENRES

I don’t know about you guys but I LOVE Horror movies. With Halloween looming, and so many Horror movies out there to see, I started to think about what kind of Horror movies I like the best. Here are my Top 5 (in order):

5. SLASHER FILMS.

Examples: Prom Night, Black Christmas, Scream

I don’t know about you but, aside from burning alive and drowning, being stabbed has always seemed like the worst way to go out. I’ve often said I could die a happy man if I could just manage to avoid being stabbed in my life. While the Slasher Film has lost a lot of what made it so popular in the 70’s and 80’s the films featuring mad men lurking in the shadows with a large butcher’s knife still get my goat!

4. MOVIE MONSTERS.

Examples: A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Friday the 13th, Child’s Play

I touched on this in our Top 15 Horror Movie Baddies post. There’s something great about a Horror movie that is set around an interesting villain with a rich mythology. In a way, by creating a deep back story for these movie maniacs, we feel compelled not only to root for their victims but for the baddies themselves. Plus, it makes everything they do seem justifiable in a twisted way and all the more creepy. 

3. TORTURE PORN.

Examples: Hostel, Wrong Turn, Midnight Meat Train, Saw

Gorefests like these aren’t for everyone but for someone as tainted as me they are pure bloody candy! I must admit that they have begun to grow a bit wearisome. I still don’t mind the more mainstream gorefests out there but the secondary market on these films has gotten really bad. The fact that someone is having their arm sawed off or their eye removed in a slow and arduous manner is not what makes these films fun. It’s the story surrounding why. Still, I love seeing some limbs unnecessarily amputated in interesting new ways!

2. “REAL-LIFE” FOOTAGE FILMS.

Examples: The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity

Films like these are hard to do. The 2 above are the only 2 I can think of that have completely got it right. When these films fail, you feel like you’re watching a movie the second the first image hits the screen. When it mildly succeeds, you get  something like the 4th Kind. However, when a filmmaker nails it, you get some of the most terrifying images ever caught on film. The realism is what makes these films work and if it’s done right, well, good luck sleeping tonite.

1. END OF THE WORLD SCENARIOS.

Examples: Night of the Living Dead, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, [REC], 28 Weeks Later

I don’t know if these are the scariest films out there but I still LOVE any film that grapples with the topic of humans trying to survive in a world they have lost control of and that is slowly trying to consume them. Be it an alien invasion, an infectious outbreak, Zombies or pod people, these movies are money in my book!

What about you guys? What are your favorite types of Horror films?