The Nature of Genre

The term “genre” (French for “kind” or “type”) refers to types or categories into which works of art are grouped.

Genre can be typed into categories based on form and technique, e.g., novel, short story, poem, play. Genre can also be typed into categories according to form and subject matter (mystery, romance, chicklit, etc.)

To discuss a type or genre of film we must first be able to identify the films that belong to that genre. Fantasy and science fiction films belong to a larger genre of the fantastic which also includes horror.

Fantasy is a conscious breaking free from reality; it applies to a work which takes place in a non-existent and unreal world, a world that is imaginary but not possible.

Science fiction relies on extrapolation, the process of imagining relatively probable worlds of the future by utilizing logical extensions of scientific and cultural curves and trends.

It is a common science fiction convention that authors should not contradict known scientific fact (e.g., the boiling point of water at sea level on Earth), but may do what they wish with commonly-accepted scientific theory (e.g., theoretical barriers to moving matter faster than the speed of light). The author of fantasy does not feel such restraints.

Science fantasy is a hybrid or sub genre that uses the iconography of science fiction but doesn’t bother to try to anchor it in any sort of realistic extrapolation. Star Wars is the most prominent example of this genre.

Science fiction is generally perceived to be rooted in reason, fantasy to be rooted in imagination. Perhaps one can perceive of horror to be rooted in the irrational. Horror deals with the incursion of the unnatural into an apparently calm and normal environment; its world view encompasses paranoia.

Horror as a genre is generally described not by its content but by its effect.  Thus it merges and overlaps with other genres most notably science fiction and fantasy.

Most horror includes some aspects of fantasy; much horror also uses the trappings of science fiction.

J.P. Telotte cites Bruce Kawin on the difference between science fiction and horror:

Horror "'addresses' the unconscious" and "'seeks to close the door on the unknown.'"
Science fiction deals with "'the conscious--if not exactly the scientist in us, then certainly the part of the brain that enjoys speculating on technology, gimmicks, and the perfectible future.'" Science fiction embraces curiosity as "an opportunity for intellectual growth." (Telotte 9)

Horror films deal with an individual in conflict, scifi more often with the planet.  Horror deals with moral chaos, scifi with civil or social chaos (Sobchack 30).

Vivian Sobchack sees science fiction and horror as parts of a spectrum: "If the horror film is infrared (with its moral passions, its magical and religious motifs) then the SF film is ultraviolet (cool and intellectual, empirically oriented)" (Sobchack 58).

Fantasy film is even less easy to define. For the most part fantasy films will overlap in genre with science fiction and horror films. One could also put animated films in the fantasy category.

There are also many films such as ghost stories and other films with supernatural aspects that contain elements of the fantastic but do not present a separate and coherent fantasy world. For example, films like Field of Dreams or Ghost or The Sixth Sense feature characters who see people who aren't really there; however, there is no attempt to explore wherever these apparitions come from.