If you had to put Alien into ONE genre, what would you choose: Horror or Sci-Fi?

[Norman Khabib]

Film snobs are a cruel bunch.

so film snobs if we don't agree with him, but professional movie critics if we do? <45>

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

so film snobs if we don't agree with him, but professional movie critics if we do? <45>

Nope. Just we're all just film snobs here.

 

[Thai Domi]

Horrific sci-fi.

 

[Strange King]

STAR WARS is space opera; SHINING is horror/thriller.

Back before the franchise Bob would have been more or less correct putting ALIEN in horror (even though the horror elements are pretty tame, especially compared to present-day). What throws a monkey into the wrench is the sequel, which isn't sci-fi either but war/action film, because a store can't have two films from the same series not be next to each other. That's asinine.

Sci-fi/Fantasy was the catch-all here, but honestly stores could probably have split that genre into Action/Adventure, Horror/Thriller, Drama -- and then used FRANCHISES as a catch-all. There aren't too many "pure" science fiction films; it doesn't really work as a category, just like "alternative" doesn't really encapsulate the spectrum of such music.

I determine genre as the major reason you're going to see the film. With sci-fi, the reason is discovering a world like ours that's got a scientific launchpoint and objective, meaning it's both gotta start with a weird sci-fi conceit and the film is about how that conceit makes a different world. MATRIX is sci-fi, but what's confusing is that most people like it for the kung-fu and gun-fu, not as much its core themes and ideas. In which case even I would call MATRIX an action/adventure film.

And Debbie does dallas is just a romantic comedy

 

[Strange King]

I've seen a lot of people lately making the argument that Star Wars isn't sci-fi at all but is properly categorized as fantasy.

I think we get these arguments because video stores arent around. The category of a film is very simple.

I feel like were talking about if people are boys and girls now, just disecting every little thing.

some movies have elements from different genres but if you go into a movie store you got to know your genres.

drama
horror
scifi
comedy
anime
foreign
kids
and new releases

 

[minute bull]

And Debbie does dallas is just a romantic comedy

 

[Norman Khabib]

And Debbie does dallas is just a romantic comedy

I have a copy of that but I've never sat down and watched it so I can't back you up on this

 

[Norman Khabib]

Bullshit. Just because you put it there doesnt mean anything. I worked at hollywood video during highschool. It was in scifi. Never have I seen in any section other than scifi.

This is not a hard debate. Its a scifi movie.

Is star wars now just an action film?

Is the shining just a drama?

the shining is a rom com

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

I think we get these arguments because video stores arent around. The category of a film is very simple.

I feel like were talking about if people are boys and girls now, just disecting every little thing.

some movies have elements from different genres but if you go into a movie store you got to know your genres.

drama
horror
scifi
comedy
anime
foreign
kids
and new releases

No action? And don't forget the room behind the curtain!

 

[Strange King]

No action? And don't forget the room behind the curtain!

shit forgot action

and lol

 

[Ikuza]

Horror.

If you removed the sci-fi elements, the movie still works.

If you remove the horror elements, the movie is completely different.

 

[sleepwalk]

Horror.

At virtually no point do we explore the ramifications of extra-terrestrial colonization or even the dynamic of invasive species.

We do, however, spend a considerable amount of time anxious about where the fuck that thing is and if Sigourney lives or not.

 

[Guestx]

Horror.

If you removed the sci-fi elements, the movie still works.

If you remove the horror elements, the movie is completely different.

I get what you're saying but I'm trying to imagine our characters thrown into a forest with a psycho bear instead of on a spaceship with an alien entity and it does not feel like the same movie to me.

 

[Brazilian HKD]

Alien is a tragedy about the death of God and mankind's creation being its doom.

 

[Ikuza]

I get what you're saying but I'm trying to imagine our characters thrown into a forest with a psycho bear instead of on a spaceship with an alien entity and it does not feel like the same movie to me.

What about a psycho wolf aboard a ship in the middle of the Pacific?

 

[Guestx]

What about a psycho wolf aboard a ship in the middle of the Pacific?

That's closer.

But I feel like the sci-fi trappings of the film are essential to creating the vibe and atmosphere of the story.

 

[aus101]

Well I used to work at the Big B

I think we put all the Alien movies into the horror section even Aliens

The reasoning is that we wanted to keep all the Alien films next to each other so customers could find them easiler

Yeah if I remember correctly they were always in the horror section of my local video store too. I’d put them in sci fi but don’t think the store even had a sci fi section...

 

[aus101]

Its horror in a sci-fi setting. There is more than one genre at work there. If anything I would consider it a Sci-Fi/Horror.

Other examples of Sci-Fi/Horror

Pandorum

Event Horizon

War of the worlds, the original alien invasion story, the novel and movies/rock opera, was sci fi/horror from the very beginning.

 

[ThinkGreen]

Sci-fi

 

[Osculater]

Futurist Terror-Core