Horror Subgenres

[summerofhorrorexchange]

Horror subgenres often overlap, and many works fit into more than one. Think about your additional tag offers and requests as a way of indicating your preferred directions, tones, and focal points.

We owe a lot of thanks to the mod of multifandomhorrorexchange! This is basically their list of subgenres with some tweaks and additions.

Body Horror

• Distorted or violated bodies, especially via unnatural or extraordinary means
  
• Focus on mutation, mutilation, physical corruption; impossible or extremely unlikely/rare physical changes
  
• Detailed descriptions of things going wrong in the human body, from disease to grotesque transformation
  
• Extreme surgical procedures
  
• Examples: Annihilation, The Fly, Tusk, Videodrome

Comedic Horror

• Horror situations played for laughs
  
• Characters recognize and lampoon/criticize horror tropes around them
  
• Typical genre inconsistencies pointed out and deconstructed, resulting in the ridiculous
  
• Focus on characters maintaining a sense of humor throughout the horror
  
• Humorous contrast between the ordinary and the horrifying
  
• Examples: Ready or Not, Happy Death Day, Zombieland, The Final Girls

Cosmic Horror

• Sudden perception that the comprehensible part of reality is only superficial; focus on the depth and strangeness of the unknown
  
• Strange and terrifying gods; cosmos is vast and uncaring; characters and humanity in general are insignificant to larger forces
  
• Horror comes from the alien nature of the universe
  
• Troubling, impossible-to-forget epiphanies about the nature of reality; reason and rationality destroyed or irrevocably damaged by a revelation
  
• Examples: Event Horizon, The Endless, The Ritual

Dark Fantasy

• Often quieter and less visceral than pure horror
  
• May focus on the intersection or combination of beauty and horror; sometimes uses a lusher prose or art style
  
• Dark magical realism; fantasy genre elements like secondary worlds, fairy tales, or magic/sorcery utilized but infused with greater darkness, edgineess, dread, tragedy, or gloom
  
• Supernatural elements may be presented sympathetically or with a sense of wonder
  
• Examples: Pan's Labyrinth, Coraline, Maleficent

Folk Horror

• Horror is specific to its setting, related to landmarks, artifacts, local history, or nature
  
• Folklore, urban legends, and myths
  
• Isolated communities with secrets, traditions, and rituals that are normal to them but disturbing to outsiders
  
• Profound impact of the past on the present; past may be more powerful and overwhelm the present
  
• May feature outsider(s) entering hostile and unfamiliar location that may initially seem friendly
  
• Legends and folk traditions are an accepted part of the characters' lives and reality
  
• Examples: The Wicker Man, Midsommar, The Witch, Candyman

Gothic Horror

• Horror blended with romance, mystery, or adventure
  
• Apparent supernatural elements may be revealed to be fake
  
• Heightened emotions, dreams and visions, symbols
  
• Dark opulence, decadence, erotic elements
  
• Tangled family histories featuring dark secrets
  
• Examples: Sleepy Hollow, Crimson Peak, Interview with the Vampire

Institutional Horror

• Individuals potentially powerless against larger institutions and societal forces
  
• Governments, corporations, academic institutions, military, police, and other societal organizations are sinister or secretive; conspiracies; paranoia
  
• Abuse of power; malign influence of institutions on individuals
  
• Horror managed by impersonal and uncaring bureaucracy
  
• Institutional societal forces like sexism, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, etc. used as horror or forces behind the horror
  
• Examples: Unsane, The Cabin in the Woods, elements of films like Get Out and The Stepford Wives

Killer Horror

• Dark or grotesque crimes, serial killers, slashers, backwoods killings
  
• Characters may act as professionals trying to solve the killings
  
• Focus is usually on suspense or fear of death/harm, may or may not feature gore
  
• Stalked by a killer, menaced by an unknown assailant
  
• Examples: Seven, Halloween, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Medical Horror

• Patient is helpless to control their own medical or surgical care, may experience unwanted or unnecessary surgeries or medications
  
• Emphasis on disturbing medical equipment: claustrophobic MRI machines, needles, saws, lobotomy tools, drills
  
• Doctors or surgeons misusing their power as a source of horror
  
• Loss of bodily autonomy; drugging, sedating, restraints
  
• Experimental medical procedures have terrifying effects
  
• Examples: American Mary, Coma, Flatliners, A Cure for Wellness

Monster Horror

• Character encountering, transforming into, or being hunted by a creature
  
• Physical, tangible creature(s) as source of horror; terrifying physical features
  
• Legendary or fictional creatures like werewolves, zombies, or kaiju
  
• Animals as source of horror: powerful predators like bears or sharks, ordinarily harmless animals supersized into dangers, suddenly super-smart or super-organized animals
  
• Monsters attempting to eat or mate with human characters
  
• Examples: The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Cloverfield, The Mist, Jaws, Phase IV

Paranormal Horror

• Psychic powers, telekinesis, telepathy, wild talents
  
• Supernatural events or forces (like ghosts or haunted houses) investigated via scientific means: paranormal investigators, "ghost hunters," EVPs, residual hauntings, etc.
  
• Potentially possible to comprehend or combat horror via rationality
  
• Paranormal elements or creatures like vampires and werewolves may be an accepted part of reality or society
  
• More casual intersection of the ordinary and the paranormal
  
• Examples: Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Carrie

Psychological Horror

• Delusions, disturbed psychology, fear of own mind, paranoia, unreliable perceptions
  
• May focus on the POV of character with dark or troubled psychology
  
• Mysteries with a focus on insight into a killer's mind, blurred lines between killer and investigator
  
• Sociopaths, psychopaths, intrusive urges, multiple personalities, etc. Mental conditions may not be treated realistically
  
• Examples: The Lighthouse, American Psycho, Misery

Religious Horror

• Religious traditions or beliefs treated as facts; may be source of horror or way of combating and opposing it
  
• Spirits, deities, devils, angels, demons, or other figures as menacing or malicious forces
  
• Possession, exorcism, cleansing
  
• Cults, disturbing religious beliefs, secret religions, splinter sects, eldritch worship, human sacrifice
  
• Hell, purgatory, grim or painful afterlifes, "heavens" that turn out to have troubling secrets
  
• Examples: Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, Hereditary

Science Fiction Horror

• Setting in space or the future is crucial to horror
  
• Aliens, AI, robots, scientific experiments or advancements as source of horror
  
• Techno-horror; technology produces, enables, or hosts ghosts or dark forces
  
• Technology makes characters more vulnerable to sources of horror
  
• Examples: Alien, The Thing, The Invisible Man, Cube

Supernatural Horror

• Ghosts, haunted houses, witchcraft, spiritualism, séances, curses, possessed or evil objects
  
• Horror elements difficult or impossible to understand or combat via rational means
  
• May be eerie, chilling, spooky, haunting; can produce shivers or lingering sense of dread
  
• Focus is on sources of horror generally considered nonexistent or unreal
  
• Examples: The Haunting, The Ring, Poltergeist, The Autopsy of Jane Doe

Survival Horror

• Character strives to survive in a dangerous situation
  
• Being overwhelmed, outnumbered, or overpowered
  
• May feature challenges of surviving in a difficult, unfamiliar, or extreme natural environment like caves, deserts, or the ocean
  
• Hunted, pursued, ambushed, deliberately endangered
  
• May have action-heavy elements and focus on physical combat and evasion
  
• Examples: The Descent, Open Water, Deliverance

Violent Horror

• Graphic gore, splatterpunk, detailed violence
  
• Torture, mutilation, disfigurement, slow death, physical agony
  
• Violence tends to come from human sources
  
• Physical threats to characters' safety, danger of death or injury; suspense is present, but characters have graphic examples of the kind of violence they're trying to avoid
  
• Extreme violence, i.e., disemboweling, flaying, dismemberment, eye trauma
  
• Examples: Saw, Hostel, Martyrs, Inside