TalkHorror - Horror Talk For All Horror Fans

With apologies to Caroline's "Not Horror" thread, this is a question my editor and I have kicked around for the last couple of weeks. Now, I haven't seen Oldboy to know for myself, but I know that many consider this to be "Asian Horror" while my editor contends that it is really only a thriller with violent elements. And what of other movies like it?

Is it horror or isn't it?
Discuss.

Well, I went to the holy source of movie knowledge, IMDb, and it's listed as a drama, mystery, & thriller.

I have not seen the movie, but gore & violence do not always = horror. To me, a movie must produce a scare/jump in order to be horror. That's the whole purpose of horror.

Horror isnt just jump out of your seat scary-----Oldboy is horror-true horror--the kind that makes your skin crawl

Nope. Not even close. It's a crime drama. It's sort of like a revenge flick.

You didnt feel crawly when If that's not horror I dont know what is

Sorry guys... I don't know what Oldboy is?

It's a Korean horror film and has some very twisted moments-if you like revenge movies check it out!!!

hmm I guess I will then

You wont forget that's for sure

FreddysFingers Wrote:Nope. Not even close. It's a crime drama. It's sort of like a revenge flick.

So what separates that from a movie like "I Spit On Your Grave"?

Im not entirely sure-both portray horrific situations and horrific revenge sequences-maybe because Oldboy has a scene involving tooth extraction and Im sure if you've read other posts
ive made you know how that makes me cringe. I Spit On Your Grave is a horror movie for sure-the attacks on Camille Keaton were horrific and the castration scene probably horrified some of the guys.

But there are other movies with rape and castration that aren't horror movies - where are we drawing the line?

Im not sure -there are horrific scenes in movies that arent classified as "horror' --I suppose it lies in the person viewing it -if you watch it and you cringe in horror then for you it's horror

And that's kinda the quandry. In the case of movies like "Oldboy" or something like "The Silence of the Lambs", those movies could both be called thrillers or crime dramas, but there are plenty of genre folks who would call them both horror movies.

Is there a right or wrong here?

I say nay. Movies are an art form, and art is left for one's own interpretation.

There's a fine line between pleasure and pain

Horror excitement evokes the same chemical feeling as sexual pleasure exdev:

mytee Wrote:You didnt feel crawly when

Spoiler

he found out he was screwing his own daughter ?

If that's not horror I dont know what is

I cringed but that doesn't necessarily mean it's horror. I cringed when the T-Rex at the lawyer on Jurassic Park but does that mean it's a horror? Hell, I cringed when Johnny Knoxville dumped snakes on Bam in Jackass but that wasn't horror.

TerrorScribe Wrote:So what separates that from a movie like "I Spit On Your Grave"?

I don't consider that a horror movie either.

Just because you get scared at certain scenes doesn't necessarily mean that the film should be horror. I believe a horror movie is where the film bases it's actions on the notion of scaring you, where as thrillers are a cross between horror and drama. Seven, Silence of the Lambs, Oldboy and American Psycho are all non-horror movies but they are classified as horror.

TerrorScribe Wrote:And that's kinda the quandry. In the case of movies like "Oldboy" or something like "The Silence of the Lambs", those movies could both be called thrillers or crime dramas, but there are plenty of genre folks who would call them both horror movies.

Is there a right or wrong here?

I don't consider them horror but the genre folks are either A) just thinking it's either one or the other and no compromises B) they want to credit more films to the horror genre. Some people would consider the remake of The Mummy a horror movie when it's obvious that it's action/adventure. Pirates of the Caribbean has gotten the horror thing as well.

IDK fred...The Mummy had some scarey CGI skeletons that scared the poop outta me and the mummy was grotesque & frightening at times...