I have an unending fascination with the films that may not qualify for this list. If you put this list in Letterboxd and filter out the ones they classify as Horror or Thriller, 56 films remain. Mostly comedies like Ghostbusters and Beetlejuice, and Halloween treats like The Addams Family, Jurassic Park and The Nightmare Before Christmas. IMDB filters give you a different list. Most genre tags come from how the studio decided to promote the film when it was released. I keep another list with 349 titles currently, of films that were classified as Horror, but are actually not. Titles like Donnie Darko, Twilight and Beau is Afraid.
They Shoot Zombies includes 30 titles I don’t believe qualify as a Horror or a Thriller. The highest-ranking is Peter Weir’s enigmatic Picnic at Hanging Rock, and the one that comes up most in their data is Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, a highly-symbolic fantasy from 1970. Both are similar to Tigers Are Not Afraid. So, is Pan’s Labyrinth, and also City of God. It’s a crime story with magical realism that never tips all the way into Dark Fantasy. Like the other titles, this is a coming-of-age story. The very real terror these kids are forced to grow up in are portrayed as living nightmares. Supernatural events aren’t meant to shield the children, but give a small amount of sense to this world full of unreal situations.
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