HORROR MOVIES 101

Is "Planet Of The Apes" a Horror Movie?

   For MY money, it IS...   You all know the story by now...   EVEN those of you who have not yet seen the movie!

   There seems to be some dissention on the home front...   FroggyBabe does NOT think that this should classify as a Horror Film...   I say it DOES!   I would appreciate any input from all you 'horrorphiles'...

Re: Is "Planet Of The Apes" a Horror Movie?

Froggy, I hate to say this because I think us girls have to stick together on some issues, but in my mind, Planet of the Apes has always been a horror movie.  It is pretty terrifying (it might be because I saw this movie as a child and I will NEVER forget that ending and how I worried about it for weeks).  Of course I would put it in the Science Fiction/Horror category not just straight out horror.  But the whole concept is pretty horrible and scary. 

I don't know if that really qualifies as a "true" horror movie but in my book, it has always been that way, even now when I watch it my heart still speeds up and I want to put the covers over my head in certain parts (maybe it's just talking monkeys in general that I think is so scary)...

Re: Is "Planet Of The Apes" a Horror Movie?

Re: Is "Planet Of The Apes" a Horror Movie?

Risselada:

It certainly has horiffic elements.  If I went into a video story that sorted films by genre, I wouldn't expect to find it in the horror section though.  I'd probably go to the Sci-Fi area first.

Re: Is "Planet Of The Apes" a Horror Movie?

Re: Is "Planet Of The Apes" a Horror Movie?

Re: Is "Planet Of The Apes" a Horror Movie?

Re: Is "Planet Of The Apes" a Horror Movie?

I'd say the remake is sort of a comedy. Especially the gorillas.

(Watched "Perfume" tonight. There's a horror story for you.

SPOILERS.......... Nah, I better not say.

But I would love to have seen the casting call for the scene in the town square where hundreds of extras strip down and do the bad thing en masse.)

Re: Is "Planet Of The Apes" a Horror Movie?

sonofkinski:

I hestitated in answering the movie quote that Gor posted earlier ("Damn you all to Hell!, etc.) because of this very reason.  Another good topic on this is in the "Differentiation of Horror" thread from a while back.  Risselada is right about the "genre location" in a video/online store, too.

Anyway, I see the horrific elements of a 'Planet of the Apes' movie...but it's certainly more sci-fi than horror if we're splitting hairs.  Other scary sci-fi films (suggested by Dr. Gor)?  I'm thinking (off the top of my head) and drinking, but how about 'Hardware'?  Low budget Richard Stanley movie from the early '90s, but with a pretty effective robots-run-amok theme and a badass soundtrack featuring PiL and Ministry. 

Any others?

   "Any others?" ...   hmmm, let's see...   "Hardware" was a good one and I have that in my collection somewhere...   but are there ANY other 'sci-fi' movies that might also be considered 'horror'?

   How about EVERY SINGLE 'sci-fi' movie made from the late 40's through the 50's?    Including ALL of the 'giant bug' movies (THEM!, The Deadly Mantis, TARANTULA, Earth vs The Spider, The Black Scorpion, etc.) ....   As well as ALL of the 'alien invasion' movies from that era (Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, Invasion Of The Saucermen, Earth vs The Flying Saucers, THE BLOB, The Thing From Another World) ...

   The entire 'ALIEN' series, up to, and including 'Alien vs Predator'...   'The Terminator' ,  'Event Horizon' ,  'War Of The Worlds' ,  'The Abyss' ,  '2001' and '2010' ,  'A Clockwork Orange'  ....   the list goes on and on...  as I said before, I can think of only a very FEW 'sci-fi' movies that are NOT also 'horror'!

Re: Is "Planet Of The Apes" a Horror Movie?

Dr_Gor:

Anyhow, I got to thinking about it and I could not think of ONE 'sci-fi' movie that could not be also classified as 'horror'! Not ONE! Tell me if I am wrong...

I tried thinking about it and I think you are right.  At least in regards to your broad definition of horror, almost all sci-fi films will have some distinctly horrific elements.

The closest one I could think of that doesn't really is Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.

I've never seen the movie Dark Star but I've heard it essentially called a stoner comedy in space.  Then again it would be hard for me to expect something Carpenter did to not have horrific elements.