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Ergocinema / Movie Genres / Horror

Writing Horror Movies

Horrorfilme schreiben

Horror is probably the oldest genre and appeals to our basic instincts. It belongs to the genre family of Speculative Fiction, i.e. Horror, Fantasy and Science-Fiction. The main character’s want is to overcome a monster. Writing good Horror Stories is hard, because most of them hit the same note over and over again: FEAR. This could be the reason why ignorant people often put them on the same level as pornography. However, just because there are many Horror Movies that rely on the greatest possible spectacle without any substance, that doesn’t mean that you can’t create a great movie in this genre. On the contrary, Horror Movies are able to deal with the question of what is human and what is inhuman – a profound theme to explore.

The main subgenres of horror films.

The Anatomy of the Horror Movie

There are basically two ways to lose your humanity: either you become a machine or you become an animal. That means you either lose your feelings and become a cold, unscrupulous robot, or you lose yourself in your feelings and are overwhelmed by them and can no longer control them. The vast majority of movie monsters are machines (Frankenstein, The Mummy, Jason Voorhees etc.).

Here are a few examples of Horror Movie subgenres:

Horror Slasher

  • ANATOMY
  • PSYCHO
  • HALLOWEEN
  • FRIDAY THE 13TH

Dystopian Horror Movies

  • LIGHT
  • 28 DAYS LATER
  • ZOMBIELAND
  • THE DAY

Horror Comedies

  • CONDOM OF THE GRAY
  • DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES
  • SLEEPY HOLLOW
  • SHAUN OF THE DEAD

Horror Mysteries

  • LAURIN
  • ROSEMARY’S BABY
  • THE SHINING
  • THE RING

Top Horror Movies 2022

To wrap things up, I’d like to refer to my top horror picks from 2022.
Maybe you’ve already seen one or the other:

THE BLACK PHONE
HALLOWEEN ENDS
DARK GLASSES