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Old 03-16-2013, 10:02 PM
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Sculpt Sculpt is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: USA, IL
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Straker View Post
Well, of course, its a personal opinion and I don't want to get drawn too far down the rabbit hole because everyone has to draw their own line. That said, the fact that it has horror elements no more qualify it as a horror than Casper, theres a ghost and a haunted mansion, right? Horror elements don't make a horror movie.

Seven follows a very obvious crime drama/ thriller structure and throws in a few elements of horror to disturb the audiance, but for me that isnt enough. Its about the detectives, their drives, their lives their ability to uncover a crime. We are following those guys on a journey as they try to keep pace with a criminal mastermind. That's a crime drama, not a horror movie. Now, if you switch the focus to Spacey and make a movie that follows his motivations, his actions, his crimes (Think Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer) then you are starting to bridge the gap to horror.

It's largely a gut feeling and instinct for me rather than some set of rules I refer to and all the above probably happens in movies I would happily class as horror. But for me, Seven really doesnt 'deal with a crazy serial killer' in the same way Psycho does.
Well, I have to say, you have a very good reason there. You're right, Se7en is about the detectives, not John Doe. Psycho, was about the women who stole a bank roll, but then was switched to being about Norman Bates the killer. So yea, I could see that as a very reasonable dividing line.

Since you're pretty good at this, what would you say about these movies? Horror or not, and why?

Evil Dead 2
Young Frankenstein
Shawn of the Dead
Pan's Labyrinth

Last edited by Sculpt; 03-17-2013 at 11:42 AM.
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