11 Frightening Films That Aren’t Considered Part of the Genre

John Carpenter's film "Assault on Precinct 13" is considered an action movie and a thriller and is patterned on the western "Rio Bravo." It is filled with horrifying scenes, like the scene at the ice cream truck, when the police station loses power and the final confrontation with the gang members. Horror films have adopted the idea of the officers at a decommissioned or mostly empty police station to make horror films since the film's release, like "The Last Shift" and "Christmas Bloody Christmas," which advances the idea that "Assault on Precinct 13" is a horror film.

While "8MM" is very much a mainstream movie, it has all the trappings of a horror film. Directed by Joel Schumacher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker, who also wrote "Se7en", it stars Nicolas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, James Gandolfini, and Peter Stormare. It is the tale of a private investigator on the trail of the makers of an alleged "snuff" film. It's got the dark subject matter and is technically considered a thriller, but people seem to agree that it is more of a horror film.

"Uncut Gems" is a film about a jeweler worried about paying a debt to a loan shark. What makes it a horror movie is the unbearable level of tension that the Safdie Brothers built into the narrative. Rob Jabbaz, the director of the incredible zombie horror film "The Sadness," told of a conversation he had with other filmmakers at a film festival in Portugal. One suggested that "Uncut Gems" was a horror film, and after a bit of thought, Jabbaz and the others agreed.

Elem Klimov's film "Come and See" is one of the most devastating films ever made. It is more of a surrealistic horror movie about the Nazi occupation of Belarus during World War II. You will not leave the theater without being terrified by this film. It is considered an anti-war film but contains some of humankind's worst impulses. For terrifying moments, the scene in the bog and the scene where the Nazis punish an entire village for two people's actions are horror without question.

"The Night of the Hunter" is considered a noir thriller. Still, the chilling shot of Shelley Winters in her watery grave and the presence of the evil and false preacher, a serial killer played by Robert Mitchum, marks it as a horror film. It was not well received when it was released, and director Charles Laughton never made another film because of the unkind reviews, but it has been reappraised as one of the finest films ever made. It's terrifying.

Steven Spielberg, the revered film director who started his career making horror movies and television shows, definitely made a horror film with the original "Jurassic Park." After the unsettling opening sequence, the film goes into the wonder of the island and the ability to bring dinosaurs back to life. The film turns into fright when carnivorous dinosaurs pursue the workers on the island, the scientists, and two children. A movie must work hard to be scarier than the scenes in "Jurassic Park," where raptors chase people.

Ostensibly an art film and a thriller, 1989's The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, directed by Peter Greenaway, includes cannibalism and a horrifying character who frightens almost everyone in his path, Michael Gambon as the abusive gangster Albert. Every day, his wife, Georgina, played by Helen Mirren, is filled with fright as she tries to stay alive and keep him from visiting torture upon her for doing anything that displeases him. Albert's violence can raise its head at any time without warning, so the level of tension is always high for everyone in the film.

Yorgos Lanthimos' third film, "Dogtooth," is another unnerving thriller. In it, parents keep their children captive in the home, and any infraction is punished with violence. There's more, but I should probably not describe it on a family-oriented website. Fans have mentioned that most of Lanthimos' films could probably fit on this list, and it's true. Lanthimos makes films filled with creepy characters doing horrible things to other people.

"Parasite," the Academy Award-winning black comedy, has several things in common with many horror movies. Bong Joon-ho did make a horror film, 2006's "The Host," so he's not a stranger to the genre. It is the story of a low-income family, the Kim family, that runs a con game on a wealthy family, the Park family, and involves the husband, Geun-sae, of the previous housekeeper hiding in the house's secret bunker. We've all seen those horror movies where someone hides inside the house. In addition, the hidden husband has frightened the family's son, who believes he is a ghost. The family birthday party turns into a bloodbath when the people locked in the bunker by the Kims escape and attack members of both families.

"Greenland" is considered a disaster film, and disaster films, for some reason, are not classified as horror films. There are tons of films like it where civilization as we know it is destroyed, but no one ever wants to call it horror. If the situation were a zombie apocalypse, it would be considered horror without question. I think a case can be made to include disaster films as horror films.

Dan Gilroy's film "Nightcrawler" is another movie with similar beats and situations that you would find in a horror film. Jake Gyllenhall's character, Lou Bloom, who was a petty thief, seemingly has no line he would not cross to get the story as a stringer, a freelance journalist specializing in getting footage for news stories at night. There seems to be something left out of him, and he tries to manufacture human emotions that seem normal, which is disconcerting. How he holds the camera in many scenes looks like a serial killer would carry a weapon. It's chilling.