Horror Sub-genres

The horror genre is usually broken down into a set of recurring sub‑genres (slasher, supernatural, psychological, body horror) and then a large family of hybrids where horror is combined with another major genre (horror‑comedy, sci‑fi horror, horror‑western).

HORROR SUB-GENRES

Supernatural horror: Ghosts, demons, curses, religious or occult forces, events beyond rational explanation.

Psychological horror: Emphasis on unstable perception, guilt, trauma, madness, unreliable reality; horror comes from interior states rather than monsters.

Slasher: Psychopathic killer stalking and graphically murdering a series of victims, often teens; frequently overlaps with mystery/crime.

Body horror: Fear is generated by transformation, mutilation or corruption of the body, including disease, infection, parasites, mutation.

Splatter/gore/torture horror: Focus on explicit bodily harm, gore, torture, captivity; often called “torture porn” in contemporary discourse.

Monster/creature feature: Threat is a non‑human entity (vampire, werewolf, giant animal, original creature, etc.).

Zombie horror: Reanimated corpses or infected, mindless humans; often combined with apocalypse or survival narratives.

Vampire/werewolf horror: Sometimes treated as part of “monster” or “gothic,” but often listed separately because of distinctive iconography and folklore.

Gothic horror: Old dark houses/castles, secrets, family curses, romance or melodrama, strong atmosphere and period or pseudo‑period settings.

Haunted house/possession: Subtype of the supernatural in which space (a house, hotel, etc.) is itself the locus of horror, or a character is possessed.

Folk/rural horror: Isolated communities, pagan rites, countryside or village settings, often about clashes between “modern” protagonists and old beliefs.

Survival/siege horror: Characters besieged by a threat (creatures, hostile humans, environment) and focused on endurance rather than solving a mystery.

Natural/eco‑horror: Nature, animals or the environment (plagues, weather, plants) turn hostile; often linked to ecological anxieties.

Found footage/mockumentary horror: Defined by form: supposedly discovered recordings, documentary or pseudo‑doc style, cameras within the diegesis.

Teen horror: Aimed at/centred on adolescents; often overlaps with slasher, supernatural and high‑school melodrama.

Holiday horror: Horror set around holidays (Christmas, Halloween, Valentine’s Day), often playing off festive iconography.