Poll of the Day > Alien is not horror.

(+) Yeah! (+)

That shit don't scare anyone
It's a sci-fi thriller
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i like it when ripley fights the alien in her panties

How did the alien get in her panties?
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I agree with TC. I think too many movies are classified as horror when they shouldn't be. I'd go as far as saying post-apocalyptic undead movies aren't horror either. 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead, etc. are interesting movies but shouldn't be considered horror.
Horror needs to make you feel scared.
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LaggnFragnLarry posted...

i like ripley her panties

It's pretty scary.

The stomach scene is terrifying. Just because it doesn't scare you doesn't mean it's not horror
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Alien is definitely horror.

Aliens is not.



Ferarri619 posted...

I agree with TC. I think too many movies are classified as horror when they shouldn't be. I'd go as far as saying post-apocalyptic undead movies aren't horror either. 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead, etc. are interesting movies but shouldn't be considered horror.
Horror needs to make you feel scared.

The problem there is that different people are scared by different things. Things you don't find scary may terrify the shit out of other people, and things that leave you a gibbering wreck might leave me bored and calling you a pussy. And that's not even getting into arguments about whether or not bullshit jumpscares count, since they don't really make you "scared" as much as they just startle you.

By the strict interpretation of your definition, horror movies don't actually exist.


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Alien is literally a slasher movie in space.
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It's all about context. Alien may not be that scary by today's (i.e. 2018's) standards, but it was scary by 1979's standards when the movie first came out.

It is just that there have been a lot of changes to the horror genre since 1979, so Alien doesn't seem as scary now as it did back then.

Same thing with the classic horror monster movies like Dracula and Frankenstein from the 1930s. They were scary for their time, but they seem really tame by today's standards.

"Its not horror its thriller" people are literally worse than Hitler.

I've heard every major horror movie in history has that label thrown at it.
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Blightzkrieg posted...

"Its not horror its thriller" people are literally worse than Hitler.

I've heard every major horror movie in history has that label thrown at it.

Comparing people like me to Hitler? Marked for moderation.
OK, Alien is horror but it doesn't scare me one bit.
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Eyshan posted...

OK, Alien is horror but it doesn't scare me one bit.

It's almost 40 years old, of course it doesn't.
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So thriller movies where the killer is a fictional creature don't count as horror now?

shadowsword87 posted...

Eyshan posted...

OK, Alien is horror but it doesn't scare me one bit.

It's almost 40 years old, of course it doesn't.

When Jaws came out it terrified multiple people into refusing to swim in the ocean for fear of sharks, and legitimately set off a wave of people hunting sharks as a threat.

Now imagine people watching Jaws today and having that sort of visceral reaction.

Hell, most people today would complain it's too slow and boring and doesn't have enough jump scares.


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Low-tier troll topic.

Eyshan posted...

That shit don't scare anyone

By the time you hit the age of 12, horror movies generally stop really scaring you. That doesn't change the fact that Alien is a monster movie in a scifi setting.

Ferarri619 posted...

I agree with TC. I think too many movies are classified as horror when they shouldn't be. I'd go as far as saying post-apocalyptic undead movies aren't horror either. 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead, etc. are interesting movies but shouldn't be considered horror.
Horror needs to make you feel scared.

Which is a stupid opinion, but you're free to have it.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Alien is definitely horror.

Aliens is not.

I understand the argument, I just have never been 100% on board with it. I think the concept is more true of something like Terminator (which basically features a robot Michael Myers) vs Terminator 2, although horror is such a wide umbrella that it can fit a lot of stuff under it.

Blightzkrieg posted...

I've heard every major horror movie in history has that label thrown at it.

And thriller in general is a label so prevalent as to be meaningless.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Hell, most people today would complain it's too slow and boring and doesn't have enough jump scares.

tbh, even by the standard of other horror films of its day, Jaws was kinda slow-paced. And yeah, people really don't find Jaws scary these days despite simultaneously being universally recognized as both a horror movie and for its social impact.

And, of course, it's worth remembering that a lot of horror movies are less scary today because so many films drew inspiration from these older movies and built upon them. So what was once shocking has been used and re-used so many times (often to a much greater extent) as to diminish the original. Consequently, what was groundbreaking often winds up feeling trite because viewers have already seen it used elsewhere.
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The original Dawn of the Dead is definitely horror.
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Zeus posted...

I think the concept is more true of something like Terminator (which basically features a robot Michael Myers)

http://derekwinnert.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/114.jpg


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She was a fembot all along, baby.
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Alien is horror. Aliens is garbage. Alien 3 is action.
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

The problem there is that different people are scared by different things. Things you don't find scary may terrify the shit out of other people, and things that leave you a gibbering wreck might leave me bored and calling you a pussy. And that's not even getting into arguments about whether or not bullshit jumpscares count, since they don't really make you "scared" as much as they just startle you.

This.

I havent watched any of the Jurassic World movies since I couldnt watch them growing up because I was terrified of the movies. I havent watched them now because I cant be bothered to watch the movies and face the possibility of getting freaked out.

Same with a bunch of horror movies like Saw, Halloween, Scream, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the Thirteenth, Jaws, Alien, Aliens, etc.

there have been like 2, maybe 3 decent horror movies in the past 15 years. sorry it's not some shitty gorn garbage filled with comical amounts of violence and no subtlety at all.
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

shadowsword87 posted...

Eyshan posted...

OK, Alien is horror but it doesn't scare me one bit.

It's almost 40 years old, of course it doesn't.

When Jaws came out it terrified multiple people into refusing to swim in the ocean for fear of sharks, and legitimately set off a wave of people hunting sharks as a threat.

Now imagine people watching Jaws today and having that sort of visceral reaction.

Hell, most people today would complain it's too slow and boring and doesn't have enough jump scares.

Another thing is that there have been tons and tons of killer shark movies since Jaws. Most of them are pretty bad too. Jaws was an amazing horror movie, but once killer shark movies become too common, then it kind of diminishes the effect. Then there are all those stupid Sharknado movies on Sy-fy that have made killer shark movies a complete joke.

Sonicplys posted...

Alien is horror. Aliens is garbage. Alien 3 is action.

What? Aliens is NOT garbage.

Alien and Aliens are classics.
Alien 3 is merely okay at best.
Alien Resurrection and the AVP movies are horrible.
Prometheus was okay, but I thought the origin of the aliens was best left to the imagination. It really didn't need fleshed out at all. Most prequel/origin movies kind of tarnish the character for the worse.
I haven't seen Alien Covenant, so I can't comment on that one. I didn't particularly care for Prometheus though, so I can't imagine I would care much for Alien Covenant either.

It's horror through atmosphere.

"Horror" isn't about tons of jump scares. That's cheap horror.
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You are wrong, it is definitely a Horror movie, and my personal favorite as well.

Eyshan posted...

Blightzkrieg posted...

"Its not horror its thriller" people are literally worse than Hitler.

I've heard every major horror movie in history has that label thrown at it.

Comparing people like me to Hitler? Marked for moderation.
OK, Alien is horror but it doesn't scare me one bit.

He didn't compare you to hitler. He said you were worse than hitler. Which is true.
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I liked Prometheus.
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