First, let’s start with a little poll.

Photo by Global Panorama on Flickr

Alright, so why is Halloween a horror movie but Batman isn’t?

One initial thought might be that Halloween is a horror movie because it scares people and Batman isn’t a horror movie because it doesn’t scare people.

The list of things that can scare us is seemingly endless. The horror genre employs beasts, ghosts, aliens, seemingly unstoppable murderers, and inconceivable horrors of the Lovecraftian style all in the effort to drum up a good scare. In fact, “scaring the audience” is arguably the mission of the horror genre.

However, there is no one-size fits all when it comes to fear. Some people are afraid of Cthulhu while others have nightmares about Freddy Krueger. Still others wouldn’t so much as blink at those two, but cower in terror at the thought of Samara from The Ring.

How scary a movie is makes for a poor indicator of whether or not a movie is horror. Creature from the Black Lagoon is a horror movie even if it doesn’t scare a single soul in 2022.

Photo by James Vaughan on Flickr

A better definition of horror is that it is the genre that intends to scare (or disgust) us, regardless of whether or not it is effective. I think this is a pretty decent definition, but raises at least one problem: it isn’t always obvious if a movie’s purpose is to frighten us. Many movies have jump scares or frightening scenes without the point of the story being to frighten the audience. The scene in The Dark Knight where the dead, imposter Batman slams into the window is a great jump scare, but The Dark Knight isn’t a horror movie.

What if Christopher Nolan said that he intended for The Dark Knight to scare people. Would that make it a horror movie?

A definition of horror that is dependent upon whether or not a movie intends to scare people can be a bit wishy-washy.

Instead, what if horror is defined by the antagonist?

The best definition of horror that I’ve come up with is that horror is the genre where the antagonist is significantly more powerful than the protagonist.

There aren’t many new ideas under the sun, so others may have made this argument in the past. I haven’t read it anywhere, though, so please share if you see it somewhere else!

Halloween (1978) is a horror movie because Michael Myers is seemingly invincible and Laurie is a normal person. Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) is a horror movie because Leatherface is far more powerful than the group of young adults he chases. Dracula (1931) is a horror movie because Count Dracula is superhuman and Mina Harker and Professor Van Helsing are human.

Horror is the genre where the antagonist is significantly more powerful than the protagonist.

The Dark Knight isn’t a horror movie because Joker isn’t significantly more powerful than Batman. The same holds for other action-type movies with overtly evil or powerful villains. When a protagonist defeats the villain in a superhero movie, it’s because the protagonist is an equal to the villain. When a protagonist survives or defeats the villain in a horror movie, it’s due to luck or a massive group effort.

I like this definition of horror, but it’s not without its issues. Saw is clearly a horror movie, but John Kramer isn’t a particularly powerful man. In fact, he’s pretty weak. Perhaps there’s an argument to be made that the protagonist is helpless in movies like Saw or Hostel and that puts the antagonist at a significant advantage, making them significantly more powerful.

There are a number of movies that live on the border of horror/not horror and are the topic of debate amongst the horror community. One of those films is Jaws. From my definition, Jaws is a horror movie because the shark is freakishly large. Jaws is horror for the same reason Godzilla (1954) or King Kong (1933) are horror.

Perhaps the most well-known debate is over The Silence of the Lambs. It’s a frightening movie, and Hannibal Lecter makes for a formidable foe (though Buffalo Bill is arguably the real antagonist of the film). However, it’s not clear that Lecter or Bill have any significant power or advantage over the FBI. They’re awful, terrible killers. But they’re human and the protagonist is human. To me, that makes The Silence of the Lambs… not a horror movie. It’s not a horror movie because the antagonist isn’t significantly more powerful than the protagonist.

But it’s still an amazing and terrifying film.

I’m open to changing my mind here, so I’m opening up the comments to everyone for this post. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Morbidly Curious

Why Halloween is a horror movie but Batman is…