Horror Films: Categorised

Film Categories – My Response and Opinion

Psycho – Mad, serial killers, twisted minds.

Human Centipede, Saw Films, Scream, The Sixth Sense, Sorority Row, Red Riding Hood, Sweeney Todd, Blair Witch Project, The Hostel.

Demonic – Devils, vampires, possessed.

Paranormal Activity Series, Final Destination Series, Red Riding Hood, The exorcist, The Descent, The Hostel, The Wolfman, Blade series, The Haunting of Connecticut.

Armageddon – Destroying the world, harm to loads of people.

Contagion, Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, Piranha, Clover Field, 2012, The Day After Tomorrow, Jaws, Deep Blue Sea.

These are the three main categories which Horror is split up into, and as you can see I have quite an even spread over the three categories in what films I have watched, but personally I would say I have watched more demonic films. These types of films scare me the most as they build suspense effectively and I believe it is the fear of the unknown which scares me in this category. Here are a few films which I have seen and how they differ between each other.

The Human Centipede – Psycho/Personality Horror

Like many of these psycho films, they re very disturbing because of what the killer or mass murderer does in this film for instance, attaching humans in a line by sowing their heads to other persons end. Personally, it doesn’t make me scared but it is very disturbing because of his actions and more importantly this category is the most realistic and likely to happen so people do get freaked out by this. In my opinion it is not the greatest of horror films as they fight to kill the man who did this to them, and there are also many better psycho films such as, Silence of the Lamb or the Hostel.

Zombieland – Armageddon

Zombieland is almost a comedy version of Dawn of the Dead where survivors battle for survival against mutated zombies, but they do this in a very humorous way with 4 main characters, which which they all survive. Although there are places where suspense is created to make you jump, it is mostly humour and there are many other realistic Armageddon which demonstrate what it would be like in a Zombie outbreak, for instance Dawn of the Dead. The humour in which this contains is very similar to Shaun of the Dead wear they have to defend their local pub, the Winchester from Zombies.

Final Destination: 1,2,3,4, 5 & 3D – Demonic

Some people may class this in the Armageddon category but in all of the films there is a force from the unknown which possess one of the characters who can tell what is going to happen in the future. Then the next thing you know is that they are re-living what the character has dreamt and they somehow have to avoid death. The first two movies in the series were quite scary with suspense building and made you shriek and cringe at the gory thing which happened to some of the characters but after the third, four, fifth and 3D it has become quite hilarious as you know when things are going to happen and you end up laughing at them. This is apparent for me in the 3D film as I went to the cinema to see it and it just made the people laugh as blood and guts were flying at the screen and you didn’t really care what was happening to them. Personally I believe this is a series of films which has gone on too long as the scariness and surprise of the film has faded from it.

Contagion – Armageddon

I recently saw this film at the cinema and it was not your typical horror, as it didn’t scare me at all but it worried me due to the fact of how realistic it was. It is about and epidemic which spreads across the world killings over millions of people. It was scary in the sense of how easily it could happen as at the end it reveals that this disease which was unknown to begin with came from a banana chunk which a bat took and dropped into a pig farm, where the pig ate it and then was killed and cooked to which it then spread. It also illustrated how easy enough a disease was to spread as it focused on the small details such as touching coffee mugs or door handles. Not your typical horror but it fits into this category perfectly and I would highly recommend this to anyone.

Paranormal Activity 1, 2 & 3 – Demonic

This series of demonic horror is the reason why I find this category the most scary and horrifying as it is the fear of the unknown and being possessed. Each one of these gets better and better due to the fact that being possessed is shown through people being dragged down stairs and thrown into the air, or lights going off and doors slamming. This is all created by the suspense and no non – diegetic sounds as everything is filmed on handheld cameras which intensify this experience further. This was a very freaky film which made me jump mostly but also creep me out in the sense of someone being possessed and turning evil, again returning back to the point of the fear of the unknown. These are movies which I would recommend if you want to be frightened and demonic horror is your type.