LogFAQs > #965278350

plasmabeam posted...

What specific elements?

I mean the main idea of a horror film, at least in my eyes, is to be frightening. Whether you achieve that that through tension building, unsettling mood or setting, jump scares or a presence of some sort that's an antagonist I really feel it has to be there in some way. The closest The Lighthouse really comes to that is with the isolation factor in the setting, but that doesn't necessarily make a horror film. Castaway isn't a horror film.

I know Wikipedia is obviously subject to public edits and I haven't gone through all the films individually, but checking out The Lighthouse's page it isn't even listed as a horror film completely. There's even some debate whether or not it's actually just a thriller or perhaps a survival film, or a character study as it says there. But yeah, I mean that's the main element of horror to me; to be frightened by it. If it's not going to do that then I'm not sure how it can really classify itself as part of the genre.