‘Tis the Season: the Horror Adjacent
There are films that are often lumped under the “horror” label that, from my perspective, aren’t necessarily “horror”. A big one is Silence of the Lambs . Yes, yes, Hannibal Lecter is a bogeyman, of sorts, but if we’re honest, the film is more than that, if only because Lecter is a fully fleshed-out (too on the nose description?) character and because we are much more invested in Clarice’s journey and development. The Grand Guignol aspects are the least interesting elements and let’s be sure that the suspense Jonathan Demme bakes into the film is genuine and amplifies the stakes accordingly (and exponentially). But is it a horror movie? Similarly, other titles that come to mind are Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer , two of Fincher’s ( Zodiac and Se7en ), Psycho , and for good measure, Les Yeux sans Visage/Eyes Without a Face . All of these present us with horrible events and people, but I cannot call them “horror movies” without some qua...