argh...

I'm at this point of moving most of my DVD collection to digital format. I've created different folders for different genre's and I've run into the following...

Is Alien a horror or sci-fi?

What about its sequels?

When is a horror movie a sci-fi?

In our collections they can be both, but under these circumstances, no.

What say you?

Horror should be monsters and terrors first,, sci fi is machinery and futuristic ideas .

I tend to agree with Addicted in the case of the Alien movies, they are primarily a Horror movie first with a SciiFi story line. But that's just my opinion.

Rory

Quoting Dan W:

Quote:
For what it's worth, the alien movies are Sci-Fi in my collection.

Mine too.  The word 'alien' just screams Sci-Fi to me.

I think Alien (and therefore by default its sequels) is generally considered horror.  The sci-fi isn't a driving force.  It's a movie to creep you out first, the sci-fi is pretty much a plot device.  The trouble with following this line of logic is that you can probably assign most sci-fi to a different genre based on the same principle.

At the end of the day, put it in the folder where you are most likely to look for it.  It's a personal choice that won't impact others (for the OP's purposes).

Quoting W0m6at:

Quote:
I think Alien (and therefore by default its sequels) is generally considered horror.  The sci-fi isn't a driving force.  It's a movie to creep you out first, the sci-fi is pretty much a plot device.  The trouble with following this line of logic is that you can probably assign most sci-fi to a different genre based on the same principle.

At the end of the day, put it in the folder where you are most likely to look for it.  It's a personal choice that won't impact others (for the OP's purposes).

For me I would say "Alien" has to be SciFi.  It was set in the future when it was made originally.  They had devices that we do not have presently that are steeped in fiction but based in science.  Now, if tomorrow morning we found the creatures from the film, then it would be fiction.

To me its definately scifi.

In my collection first comes the "medium" genre (animation, anime, television (which i dont use though) etc), then the "setting/theme" genre (scifi, historical, war etc) and then comes the regular genres (comedy, drama, action etc). That is the system i use, always.

Genres are mostly meaningless, and sorting art leads to awkward Venn diagrams.