Movie Genres All Film Buffs Should Know

Genres provide a way to sort films into categories that feature similar elements, including setting, narrative, theme, tone, and aesthetic approach. Above all, they’re defined by the emotional response they elicit. 

That said, not all movies fit within a single genre. Take the Star Wars franchise: Though it’s primarily classified as science fiction, it could arguably fit the mold of fantasy, action, and/or adventure. The same goes for Dean Parisot’s Galaxy Quest (1999). Though it’s a sci-fi flick set in outer space, film buffs typically characterise it as a comedy, since it’s primarily concerned with provoking laughter.

• To provide creative guidelines: Movies of the same genre contain common elements that help everyone from production designers to actors know what to expect. 
• To help with marketing and distribution: The people responsible for sending a film out into the world need to know what product they’re selling, who might like it, and how and where it should be released.
• To attract a particular audience: Fans of a given genre may be less likely to take a chance on a movie if they can’t tell what category it falls under.

Drama 

Typically serious in tone, dramas tend to revolve around realistic characters. The stakes are often personally high or take place at a formative moment in the protagonist’s life. Social and political issues are often at play, and biopics draw from real-life events.

Subgenres 

• Political: All the President’s Men (1976) 
• Legal: A Few Good Men (1992)
• Biopic: Malcolm X (1992)
• Teen: Lady Bird (2017)
• Historical: 1917 (2019)

Famous examples 

• Citizen Kane (1941)
• The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
• The Hours (2002) 
• Million Dollar Baby (2004) 

Thriller 

These films seek to generate suspense and excitement; it’s all about getting viewers’ hearts racing. Directors ramp up the tension as the protagonist embarks on a mission or confronts a problem, often without a clear idea of how to succeed. Pacing is crucial to maintaining the audience’s anxiety, and important information is often kept from viewers to ensure they aren’t ahead of the protagonist. Common tropes include conspiracies, mysteries, chases, and political maneuvering. 

Subgenres 

• Political: All The President’s Men (1976) 
• Supernatural: The Sixth Sense (1999) 
• Psychological: The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
• Espionage: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

Famous examples 

• North by Northwest (1959)
• The Firm (1993) 
• Mulholland Drive (2001)
• The Girl on the Train (2016)

Comedy 

Most movies include humorous elements, but what sets a true comedy apart is that its primary goal is to make the audience laugh. Characters are typically placed in difficult or uncomfortable situations, and viewers root for them to triumph in the end. That said, it’s fun to watch them get brought down a peg, change their ways, or slip on a few banana peels along the way.

Though often light-hearted, comedies can also be macabre – or, in the case of satire, comment on political, cultural, or social issues. 

Subgenres

• Screwball: Bringing Up Baby (1938) 
• Satire: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
• Spoof: Airplane! (1980)
• Teen: Clueless (1995) 
• Dark comedy: Fargo (1996)
• Mockumentary: Best in Show (2000) 
• Slapstick: Mr. Bean’s Holiday (2007)

Famous examples 

• Duck Soup (1933) 
• Friday (1995)
• Zoolander (2001)
• Joy Ride (2023)

Fantasy 

Characterised by epic settings, magic, and mythical creatures, fantasy transcends natural laws and lets viewers lose themselves in heightened worlds. These movies are meant to evoke wonder, whether through sweeping storytelling or putting an imaginative twist on the everyday.

“For me, fantasy has always been a means of exploring reality,” Tim Burton told the Telegraph. “It explores the fact that your internal life, your dreams, and the weird images and the things that come to you are things that are actually important tools for dealing with real issues.”

Subgenres

• Swords and sorcery: Conan the Barbarian (1982) 
• Dark fantasy: Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
• Contemporary: Harry Potter (2001–2011) 
• High fantasy: The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003) 

Famous examples  

• The Wizard of Oz (1939)
• Big Fish (2003) 
• Labyrinth (1986) 
• The Princess Bride (1987)

Romance 

While love affairs exist in almost every genre, these types of films center on the relationship between a given couple. Audiences come to romantic films seeking passion, strong emotions, and well-defined characters overcoming the obstacles standing between them, be it opposing worldviews, other entanglements, or societal expectations. 

Common tropes include love at first sight, forbidden romance, love triangles, and opposites attracting. Happy endings aren’t a sure thing – many end in heartbreak or tragedy. 

Subgenres

• Drama: The Bridges of Madison County (1995) 
• Historical: The English Patient (1996) 
• Rom-com: Notting Hill (1999)
• Paranormal: The Shape of Water (2017)

Famous examples 

• It Happened One Night (1934)
• Casablanca (1942)
• Brokeback Mountain (2005) 
• 500 Days of Summer (2009) 

Science fiction 

Sci-fi blends speculation and science. While fantasy tends to lean on the impossible, sci-fi imagines the future of technology and innovation in areas such as space exploration, biology, environmentalism, and time travel.

Stories may inspire and awe, but fictionalised futures often comment on current issues. “Science fiction loves to warn,” Steven Spielberg told the BBC in an interview about his 2002 film Minority Report. “Every science fiction movie I have ever seen – any one that’s worth its weight in celluloid – warns us about things that ultimately come true.”

Subgenres

• Cyberpunk: Blade Runner (1982)
• Alien: E.T. the Extraterrestrial (1982) 
• Space opera: The Last Starfighter (1984) 
• Military: Starship Troopers (1997) 
• Snowpiercer (2013)

Famous examples 

• Metropolis (1927)
• The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
• Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977) 
• Arrival (2016) 

Action 

Action movies are explosive – often literally. Defined by elaborate chases, shootouts, explosions, and physical fights, these films emphasise spectacle and excitement. The pace tends to be fast and the violence visceral, and classic hero-versus-villain narratives are common. These movies are often broken up into distinct action sequences.

Subgenres

• Martial arts: Enter the Dragon (1973) 
• Espionage: Mission: Impossible (1996–present) 
• Disaster: Volcano (1997) 
• War: Black Hawk Down (2001) 
• Superhero: Wonder Woman (2017) 

Famous examples 

• Seven Samurai (1954) 
• Mad Max (1979)
• Die Hard (1988) 
• Kill Bill (2003–2004) 

Adventure

Often set in exotic or mythical locations, adventure flicks feature travel, quests, harrowing escapes, and epic romance. Violence may be present, but it’s typically less realistic and bloody than in action movies. Adventure is often more light-hearted and family-friendly than its more brutal cousin. 

Subgenres

• Swashbuckler: The Mask of Zorro (1998)
• Historical: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) 
• Exploration: The Lost City of Z (2016)
• Person vs. nature: Wild (2014) 

Famous examples 

• King Solomon’s Mines (1950)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
• The Mummy (1999)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Horror 

Horror movies are designed to provoke fear or revulsion. Aficionados are generally in it less for the plot or character work than for the adrenaline rush that comes with all that dread and gore. “Horror is a reaction; it’s not a genre,” John Carpenter, the auteur behind classics like Halloween and The Thing, told Interview Magazine. 

Horror films play on viewers’ anxieties and nightmares, from the fear of death to grief, isolation, and the unknown. Modern directors have broken new ground by exploring issues like racism and trauma through the conventions of the genre; Jordan Peele’s Get Out and Ari Aster’s Midsommar are two sterling examples. “I wanted to make a film that acknowledges neglect and inaction in the face of the real race monster,” Peele told the New York Times.

Subgenres

• Monster: An American Werewolf in London (1981) 
• Slasher: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
• Found footage: The Blair Witch Project (1999) 
• Paranormal: The Others (2001)
• Gothic: Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
• Comedy: Shaun of the Dead (2004) 
• Folk: Midsommar (2019) 

Famous examples 

• Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922)
• The Exorcist (1973)
• The Descent (2005)
• Us (2019) 

Musicals 

Often based on Broadway shows, musicals incorporate songs into the narrative, sometimes with intricately choreographed dance sequences. These numbers sometimes advance the plot or offer insights into how a character is feeling. In other cases, songs provide an occasion for splashy production numbers that exist to break up the narrative. 

These movies are usually joyous affairs that allow audiences to escape the mundanity of the real world. Film critic Pamela Hutchinson describes musicals as “shimmering spectacles that defy the logic of space, time, and narrative.”

Subgenres

• Classic: Singin’ in the Rain (1952) 
• Cult: The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
• Animated: The Lion King (1994)
• Rock: Rent (2005) 
• Jukebox: Mamma Mia! (2008)
• Biopic: Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

Famous examples 

• The Sound of Music (1965) 
• Funny Girl (1968)
• Grease (1978) 
• Pitch Perfect (2012)
• La La Land (2016)

Mystery 

Mystery movies revolve around baffling crimes or events that must be solved by a detective, expert, or gifted amateur through investigation, deduction, and deciphering clues. 

While the tension partly comes from watching the protagonist piece things together, the pleasure of mystery movies derives from viewers trying to solve the mystery for themselves. They may even be privy to information the detective doesn’t know. 

Subgenres

• Noir: Chinatown (1974)
• Whodunit: Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
• Psychological: Memento (2000)
• True crime: Zodiac (2007)

Famous examples 

• Rear Window (1954)
• Se7en (1995)
• Knives Out (2019)
• Enola Holmes (2020)