MovieChat Forums > Picnic at Hanging Rock (1979) Discussion > How do some consider this a horror movie...

How do some consider this a horror movie???

posted 14 years ago by Fellini_Fiend87
44 replies | jump to latest

I don't really understand how many consider Picnic At Hanging Rock a horror movie. I mean it's very atmospheric and haunting but it doesn't seem right to call it a horror movie. I've only seen the director's cut which cuts about 7 minutes from the original, are there any horror elements that make it so? If not, then why call it a horror film? I was just wondering because to me there is nothing in the director's cut that can call it a horror movie.

[–] Squirrel-5 13 years ago

I saw this described as a horror film and the one making the description, said that most people can only associate a horror film as one with a monster, ghost, or serial killer or some other villain in it and that a film like this shows that horror films can have no villain too.

[–] sigmundfreud79 12 years ago

I wouldn't describe this as a horror film but when you think about the implications (of which there are so many) of the girls going missing, it really is quite horrifying. When you stop looking for rational explanations and tune in to the symbolism of the story -- as Weir intended -- it really gets under your skin and is pretty damn scary.

[–] nephihaha 11 years ago

As some have said, there is something not quite right going on. Incidentally, you might want to think of the low level unpleasantness beginning BEFORE the girls leave the school for the rock. There may be something not right in the school itself.

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It's not "sci-fi", it's SF!

[–] nephihaha 11 years ago

This is one of the most frightening films I've ever seen. It's subtle, and in complete contrast to Hollywood horror which is unsubtle, or American underground horror which concentrates on disgusting people.

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It's not "sci-fi", it's SF!

[–] cihanhaspolati 11 years ago

It's not a damn horror movie in any sense, as simple as that.

[–] SteverB 11 years ago

Thanks so much for your OPINION.

[–] nephihaha 11 years ago

It may not have any spurting blood and guts or reanimated corpses, but it is creepy, which makes it a horror film.

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It's not "sci-fi", it's SF!

[–] asktheages 11 years ago

Unfortunately for some people, if a movie doesn't personally scare them, then of course it can't be a horror movie somehow.

[–] kincaid-5 11 years ago

But PAHR doesn't scare anyone and isn't meant to.

http://redkincaid.com

[–] asktheages 11 years ago

Your first claim is just plain wrong (as many posts and reviews here attest to), and your second is irrelevant.

[–] kincaid-5 11 years ago

Seems like only one person claims to have been "scared," and they saw it as a child. Being "disturbed," "unsettled," or "creeped out" are not the same thing. An uncertain ending does not make something a "horror movie." L'Avventura and Mulholland Drive are not horror movies.

http://redkincaid.com

[–] midnight_muse 11 years ago

People don't have to use the specific word "scared" to legitimately express one of the many types or gradations of fear.

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I don't come from hell. I came from the forest.

[–] nephihaha 11 years ago

"But PAHR doesn't scare anyone and isn't meant to. "

Not in the sense of soiling your breeks, but it's definitely supposed to make you feel unsettled (no pun intended*) and it works in that regard. I consider it horror. The horror is very subliminal.

In fact, I think it's one of the most frightening films I've seen, and not in the usual stereotypical way. I've seen plenty of the driller killer variety of horror by the way.

I can't say I've really been bothered by that many horror films, but PAHR definitely made sure I couldn't sleep that night, and it wasn't because the girls were pretty!

* Appropriate since the film is partly about colonisation.

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It's not "sci-fi", it's SF!

[–] midnight_muse 9 years ago

Thank you. Exactly.

_____________

I don't come from hell. I came from the forest.

[–] midnight_muse 9 years ago

It's a horror movie. In as simple of terms as I can probably relay to you.

So, wtf. Okay then...?

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I don't come from hell. I came from the forest.

[–] watergarden 11 years ago

I agree that it is not s horror movies in the classic mode, but it is definitely a classy horror movie. It's eerie enough. Mrs. Appleyard makes a perfect monster. Girls disappear and never come back. The pan flute music sends chills up my spine. No need for blood and gore. It is probably the most artistically beautiful horror movie I have ever seen. Not the scariest but enough so.

[–] yajji 10 years ago

Here's a great quote on Picnic at Hanging Rock and why it doesn't have to contain standard genre cliches to be scary:

Horror need not always be a long-fanged gentleman in evening clothes or a dismembered corpse or a doctor who keeps a brain in his gold fish bowl. It may be a warm sunny day, the innocence of girlhood and hints of unexplored sexuality that combine to produce a euphoria so intense it becomes transporting, a state beyond life or death. Such horror is unspeakable not because it is gruesome but because it remains outside the realm of things that can be easily defined or explained in conventional ways.”

[–] furienna 10 years ago

It is true that my experience with horror movies is very small, as I come from a family where no one is a horror fan. So I never really moved beyond Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and "Ghosts", which I guess is kiddy stuff compared to what you can find out there. And when I know so little about the genre, I guess I'm not the best person to judge what qualifies as a horror movie. But as we can see from several replies in this thread, I think "only" being creeped out is enough for many of the viewers. And I must say that this movie does exactly that! The horror is of a more eerie and subtle kind. And if you think about it, who knows what really happened to the missing people? We never got to know, and in my opinion, that makes it just as creepy as if we had gotten to see something supernatural or some crazy murderer.

Intelligence and purity.

[–] ElectricWarlock 10 years ago

It is kind of creepy to think people could fall off the face of the Earth without any explanation and it could be for supernatural reasons (the red cloud makes it seem more possible), but I think this movie is more about how people in the community react to the disappearance than the disappearance itself. Therefore it feels closer to the drama side than the horror side to me.

[–] Eyebrows 10 years ago

It's not a genre horror.

That doesn't mean it doesn't have elements of horror in it. There's a pervasive sense of dread throughout the film which is intentionally designed to make the audience feel uneasy.

PAHR is unlike anything else I've ever seen but if I did have to make a comparison I'd say I had a similar feeling watch The Wicker Man (original). A feeling of being unsettled but without genre-horrors codes and conventions.