A horror film is one that seeks to elicit fear in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films additionally aim to evoke viewers' nightmares, fears, revulsions and terror of the unknown or the macabre. Initially inspired by literature from authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, and Mary Shelley, horror has existed as a film genre for more than a century. Horror may also overlap with the fantasy, supernatural fiction, and thriller genres.
Psychological horror is a subgenre of horror and psychological fiction with a particular focus on mental, emotional, and psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle its audience. The subgenre frequently overlaps with the related subgenre of psychological thriller, and it often uses mystery elements and characters with unstable, unreliable, or disturbed psychological states to enhance the suspense, drama, action, and paranoia of the setting and plot and to provide an overall unpleasant, unsettling, or distressing atmosphere.
Brad Anderson is an American film director, producer and writer. A director of thriller and horror films and television projects, he is best known for having directed The Machinist (2004), starring Christian Bale, psychological horror film Session 9 (2001) and The Call (2013), starring Halle Berry. He also produced and directed several installments of the Fox science fiction television series Fringe.
Psychological thriller is a genre combining the thriller and psychological fiction genres. It is commonly used to describe movies and books that deal with psychological narratives in a thriller or thrilling setting.
Cameron Joslin Gigandet is an American actor whose credits include a recurring role on The O.C. and appearances in feature films Twilight, Pandorum, Never Back Down, Burlesque, Easy A, Priest and The Magnificent Seven. He also starred in the CBS legal drama series Reckless. From 2016 to 2018, Gigandet starred in the Audience Network drama series Ice.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan is an American actor and producer of film and television. He is known for his roles as John Winchester in the fantasy horror series Supernatural, Denny Duquette in the medical drama series Grey's Anatomy (2006–2009), the Comedian in the superhero film Watchmen (2009), Jason Crouse in the political drama series The Good Wife (2015–2016), Negan in the horror drama series The Walking Dead (2016–present), and Harvey Russell in Rampage (2018).
Michael Eklund is a Canadian television and film actor who is known for playing the role of the villain or antihero. His characters are often described as being "creepy".
Stuart Hazeldine is a British screenwriter, film producer and director. He is best known for his 2009 psychological thriller Exam, for which he was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer. He also directed the 2017 film adaptation of William P. Young's novel The Shack. He currently resides in London.
William Brent Bell is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is known for his work on horror films such as Stay Alive (2006), The Devil Inside (2012), Wer (2013), The Boy (2016), and Brahms: The Boy II (2020).
Supernatural horror film is a film genre that combines aspects of horror film and supernatural film. Supernatural occurrences in such films often include ghosts and demons, and many supernatural horror films have elements of religion. Common themes in the genre are the afterlife, the Devil, and demonic possession. Not all supernatural horror films focus on religion, and they can have "more vivid and gruesome violence".
The Legend of Bloody Mary is a 2008 American horror-thriller film written by John Stecenko and Dominick R. Domingo, directed by Stecenko and starring Paul Preiss, Nicole Aiken and Caitlin Wachs. The film has an R rating for its violence, language and sexuality/nudity.
Oculus is a 2013 American supernatural psychological horror film co-written, edited, and directed by Mike Flanagan. It is based on his short film Oculus: Chapter 3 – The Man with the Plan, and stars Karen Gillan as a young woman who is convinced that an antique mirror is responsible for the death and misfortune that her family suffered.
The Quiet Ones is a 2014 British supernatural horror film directed by John Pogue, loosely based on the Philip experiment, a 1972 parapsychology experiment conducted in Toronto. It stars Jared Harris as a university professor attempting to prove poltergeists are manifestations of the human psyche and not supernatural beings. The film was released on April 10th, 2014, in the United Kingdom and April 25th, 2014, in the United States.
Shadow People is a 2013 American supernatural horror thriller film written and directed by Matthew Arnold in his feature directorial debut. It stars Dallas Roberts, Alison Eastwood, Anne Dudek, and Mattie Liptak.
Luke Massey was born 12 June 1984, is a British screenwriter and film director, known for making movies such as Armistice (2011) and 500 Miles North (2014).
James Cullen Bressack is an American film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is the son of Emmy Award-winning writer Gordon Bressack and voice actress Ellen Gerstell.
The Appearing is a 2014 American supernatural horror film directed by Daric Gates and starring Will Wallace, Dean Cain, Don Swayze, Quinton Aaron, Emily Brooks and Wolfgang Bodison.
Matt Eskandari is an Iranian-American film director and screenwriter. His films include Victim, The Gauntlet, and 12 Feet Deep. He was also a contestant on the Fox Studios and Steven Spielberg filmmaker competition On the Lot.
A social thriller is a film genre using elements of suspense and horror to augment instances of oppression in society. The genre gained attention in 2017 with the release of Jordan Peele's Get Out, a film highlighting occurrences of racial alienation, which veil a plot to abduct young African-Americans. Prior to Peele, other film actors, directors and critics had used the term to describe an emerging genre of cinema with examples from all over the globe. Many social thrillers focus on issues of race, class, gender, sexuality or nationhood, often within the format of genre films more broadly categorized as black comedy, film noir, drama, horror cinema, or Bollywood musicals, among others.
