Meaning & use
horror movie
Last updated
UK/ˈhɒrə ˌmuːvi/
US/ˈhɔːrər ˌmuːvi/
Meaning
nouncountable
A film made to frighten the audience with scary events, monsters, ghosts or violence.
Grammar: Can take an or be plural: a horror movie; two horror movies.
Patterns
- watch a horror movie
- a horror movie about something
We watched a horror movie at Halloween and left the lights on.
She does not enjoy any horror movie that has ghosts.
That old horror movie scared me as a child.
Word forms
| plural | horror movies |
|---|
Common combinations
- classic horror movie
- The film is a classic horror movie from the 1970s.
- watch a horror movie
- They watch a horror movie every October.
- scary horror movie
- It is the scariest horror movie I have seen.
- low-budget horror movie
- The director began with a low-budget horror movie.
- horror movie fan
- My brother is a big horror movie fan.
Synonyms and how they differ
- horror film
- Horror film is the same thing, but it is the more usual British phrase.
- scary movie
- Scary movie is looser and can include mild films for children.
- thriller
- A thriller builds suspense and danger but does not always include supernatural or gory elements.
- slasher
- A slasher is a narrow type of horror movie about a killer attacking victims.
Opposites
Word family
- horror noun
- great fear or shock
- horrify verb
- to shock and frighten
- horrific adjective
- extremely shocking
- horrifying adjective
- causing horror
Commonly confused: horror movie or horrible?
horror movie vs horrible
Horrible describes anything very unpleasant, not just frightening films.
Practice
Which kind of film is most likely to include ghosts and jump scares?
Choose one answer.
A horror movie is designed to frighten. The other types rarely rely on ghosts and scares.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “horror movie”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.
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