Quote:
Originally Posted by Straker
This pretty much sums up the reality of genres better than I could....
Evil Dead 2: Healthy doses of slapstick comedy where blood and gore replace the custard pies, but still at the heart of it, its a horror movie. The first movie is more serious in tone (Campbell pretty much plays it straight in the first movie or at least is more down the line).
Shawn of the Dead: It's about as much 'horror-comedy' as any film can be. It's a pastiche of the genre but is still rooted in horror, more specifically a zombie apocolypse. The zombies are as real and dangerous as Dawn of the Dead and the situation is just as bleak.
Pan's Labyrinth: Fantasy Drama with a big slice of horror? :confused: I think the tone and atmosphere are what helps it sit inside the horror genre without too many raised eyebrows, but its a fantasy drama first for sure.
All this shit is totally subjective and open to opinion and I wouldnt argue with anyone that disagrees, thats just my take on it.... As for Young Frankenstein? It's one of my favourite comedies but I'll let you decide whether it qualifies as a horror movie;
I only said all that so I had an excuse to post that video... |
Well said. I agree completely. Genres are helpful for us to categorize and group things, and for very brief description, but most things don't fall 100% into a single genre or subgenre. However, often there's a need to choose a single category -- for instance, in a video store -- so IMO there's nothing wrong with attempting to categorize things that way.
ED2 and Shaun of the Dead are pure horror if you take away the funny parts. Their stories are told from the prspective of skilled horror storytellers. The plots are horror, the production techniques are horror, and if you're not a fan of horror, you won't like them. Just because they have comedy mixed in doesn't take away the horror.
Pan's Labyrinth is harder to categorize, but I agree, it's rooted in fantasy, and the story is told as a drama. The violent scenes make it appealing to horror fans, and also we know del Toro to be a horror director and producer. A few scenes cross over into a more horror-like perspective, where the girl is exploring and doesn't know "what's around the corner." But if I were putting it on a shelf in the video store, I'd put it in fantasy.
Young Frankenstein does a stellar job of utilizing horror techniques in its parody, but I would root it in comedy. Much like the Scary Movie franchise, but perhaps with more respect to the horror genre. The setting and characters are well aligned with the movies it is lampooning. But, unlike ED2 and Shaun, I think if you take away the comedy, you don't have a movie.