Sub-genres of a Horror Film

Action Horror

It combines the intrusion of an evil force, event, or supernatural celebrity of horror movies with the gunfights and frantic chases of the action genre. Themes or elements often included in typical action-horror films include gore, demons, vicious animals, vampires and, most commonly, zombies. This category also fuses the fantasy genre.

Examples include Resident Evil, Ghost Rider, Planet Terror, Undead, Doomsday, Underworld, Constantine, Priest, Dawn of the Dead, Deep Rising, From Dusk till Dawn, Blade, Legion and End of Days.

Slasher horror

Slasher films often revolve around a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, usually with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe. Slasher films often overlap with the crime, mystery and thriller genre, and they are not the entire horror genre. A Slasher film will devote more screen time to portray murder and mayhem than a traditional Horror film. Examples of this genre include Psycho, Black Christmas, Halloween, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Prom Night, Scream, Pieces, Hatchet, Friday the 13th, Child's Play, Candyman, and A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Comedy horror

It combines the elements of comedy and horror fiction. The comedy horror genre almost always certainly crosses over with the black comedy genre. The short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving is named as "the first great comedy-horror story".

Examples include An American Werewolf in London, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Gremlins, Bad Taste, Braindead, Beetlejuice, Arachnophobia, Terror Firmer, Eight Legged Freaks, Shaun of the Dead, Evil Dead II, Tucker & Dale vs Evil, and Slither.

Psychological horror

It relies on characters' fears, guilt, beliefs, eerie sound effects, relevant music, emotional instability and at times, the supernatural and ghosts which build tension and further the plot.

Examples include A Tale of Two Sisters, Dark Water, Gothika, Ring, Ju-on: The Grudge, The Exorcist, Session 9, Silent Hill, The Others, The Mothman Prophecies, The Blair Witch Project, 1408, The Shining, Stir of Echoes, The Innocents, Frailty, Sinister (film) The Changeling, The Sixth Sense, and Key.