[Stingy Jack]

I watched King of the Ants last night, which categorizes itself as a horror film. But it's not. Sure, it has some fucked up hallucination scene, a severed head, a nasty murder, a corpse in the freezer, and a hideous torture ... but is it horror? It's a crime and restitution film, albeit a dark one. There are many films that call themselves horror, but are not ... particularly science fiction films. I mean, Alien is certainly horrific ... but it's really sci-fi. Where's the line drawn? When does a film become a "horror film" and not some really dark, nasty thriller?

At first I thought that a horror film must have an element of the supernatural in it to be truly horror. But then I realized that was all bullshit. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is undoubtedly a horror film, but does not have any supernatural elements.

Finally, I came up with this: A film becomes a horror film when it's main intent is to induce fear in its audience. But this is bullshit as well. Dead Alive is a horror film, but it's main intent is to make the audience laugh, and then gross us out. And Army of Darkness is neither scary nor gory.

So help me out, here, peeps. This is basic stuff every horror fan should know, but I suppose I think about it too much and get myself mired down in the details.