MovieChat Forums > Eden Lake (2008) Discussion > How can anyone call this 'Horror'?

How can anyone call this 'Horror'?

posted 13 years ago by midnight_muse
94 replies | jump to latest

This is a crime thriller. But I see it classified as Horror over and over on the IMDb.com boards. [Edited to add: Thanks for your comments. That was a poor word choice on my part; I should have said 'violent thriller' instead. What I meant was a thriller where violent crimes are committed, not a police investigation film of course, since there are no police in Eden Lake.]

I really wish some god or other would step down from Olympus and define Horror for good and all. ;) [<------I think some of you missed the winky face...?]

I define 'horror' not merely by violent or horrifying content, but by the presence of the paranormal, the supernatural, the uncanny. [Edited to add: The latter is the broadest concept;, it need not involve the supernatural per se, but the eerie/unknown/inexplicable].

Thus, Eden Lake, Inside, Funny Games, Ils, serial killer films, etc. are NOT Horror films. But The Descent is. And Picnic at Hanging Rock. And Spoorloos... because although *technically* a thriller, there is enough metaphysical and metaphorical foreshadowing to be considered precognitive; therefore paranormal; therefore it's horror. That's how I'd classify them, anyway.

Just wondering about the thoughts of thoughtful fans who may read this board. [Edited to add: and thanks for the great discussions so far!]

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I don't come from hell. I came from the forest.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] 12 years ago

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[–] auke-dijk 12 years ago

picnic at hanging rock? the descent? spoorloos? Thats your number one example for horror movies?

[–] midnight_muse 12 years ago

Actually, no. Those were all examples of films that could be considered part of the larger horror genre (even if two of them just barely) by the theoretical definition of horror I was working out in my head and on this discussion board, a definition encompassing not just the monstrous but also the subtly eerie.

In short, I think you misread my post. I wasn't listing what I consider the most clear-cut examples of horror, or necessarily remarking on their quality as films; I was naming different types of horror(ish) films, ranging from mysterious/supernatural (Picnic) to death/gore/boogeyman (The Descent) to a tragic thriller with just a mere hint of the uncanny (Spoorloos), with the purpose of broadening the discussion.

My personal favorite most-people-would-call-this-horror film is Jacob's Ladder.

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I don't come from hell. I came from the forest.

[–] sebastian111 11 years ago

The problem here is that people are different.
And some consider stuff grounded in reality horrifying, while others consider ghosts and unexplained dangers way more terrifying than serial killers or men with guns.

You can perhaps reason with a gunman, but you can't reason with a ghost.

[–] luvkittys7 12 years ago

"How can anyone call this 'Horror'? "

Because it's Horrifying?

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Thanx for playing... please drive thru.

[–] coacks 11 years ago

I don't consider any movies with zombies/vampires/ghosts horrifying......but I still call them horrors.

This is a horrific situation...and thusly this is horror movie.

[–] creepysammich 11 years ago

Wikipedia, which as everybody knows, is the ultimate recipient of global human knowledge; infinitely wise and ultimately infaillible, has this to say about horror films: "Horror is a film genre seeking to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's primal fears. Horror films often feature scenes that startle the viewer; the macabre and the supernatural are frequent themes. Thus they may overlap with the fantasy, supernatural, and thriller genres."

Jokes aside, that definition's pretty accurate, although I'd say it can overlap with more genres than they say. Alien is a horror movie in a science fiction setting. In short, horror doesn't need the paranormal to be horror.

[–] Ixnatifual 10 years ago

In my experience, horror and thriller are sometimes used interchangeably in films. So this isn't really wrong as there are other examples. However I will say that there is a tendency to use "horror" to describe thrillers with supernatural aspects or significant gore, but there's no hard and fast rules. Personally I wouldn't categorize this as a horror movie if it was up to me. I really enjoyed it and the description of the movie hinted at its nature.

[–] Dinosaw 10 years ago

I'd say it's a violent, gritty, disturbing thriller film. Yes, it's unpleasant and stomach-churning, but does it creep you out or spook you? No. At least not me.

Horror is The Strangers, The Ring, Saw, Halloween, Hostel, The Grudge, Friday the 13th, Paranormal Activity...

If horror is meant to disgust then The Passion of the Christ & Saving Private Ryan are horrors now, no? Oh, let's not forget other violent war movies and historical films (300).

Life is like a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up.

[–] midnight_muse 10 years ago

Dinosaw: I'd say it's a violent, gritty, disturbing thriller film. Yes, it's unpleasant and stomach-churning, but does it creep you out or spook you? No. At least not me.

Thank you, that's the kind of thing I'm trying to get at/define/express. Creep you out or spook you... exactly. IMO, with horror films, there's a certain breath of inexplicable darkness and strangeness that creeps up your spine and into your hair. (In my case, literally/physically.)

Eden Lake depicted godawful events; it was tense, terrifying, horrific... but to me, also entirely explicable, therefore lacking that enigmatic dark breath. It did not make me afraid to go down a dark hallway in my house, or sleep with the light on. Maybe I read too much true crime, but for me the events (disturbingly) are not at all outside the realm of possibility. They may be out of the ordinary, but not out of the ordinary, if that makes any sense to anyone. I realize those italics, so crucial to me, will probably convey nothing to most people... it may just be that this whole thing is impossible for me to explain. But that's my own fault, not the fault of the concept.

One of the most horrifying films I've ever seen, the last 15 minutes of which I'd prefer to un-see, is often classified as horror: Megan is Missing. It's a dark, dark, dark thriller. Amateurish during the first part as it may be (opinions differ), towards the end, it goes somewhere that I've seen few films go. It goes there in real time and without any "You're watching a movie!" embellishment to separate you from what you're seeing. Everything looks, sounds, and plays out as realistically as if you were there.

Horrified, shaking, disturbed and sick as I was by the end of it, I call MiM a thriller rather than horror because it is so starkly and horrifyingly realistic. It not only has occurred in the past, but is probably occurring somewhere right now. And no one knows who the hidden psychopaths among us are.

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I don't come from hell. I came from the forest.