History Main / ActionHorror

* ''Film/TheGhostAndTheDarkness'', is about a big-game hunter/engineer tasked with building a railway through Uganda. He must contend with two man-eating lions who begin preying on his work force shortly after his arrival and whose ability to elude all attempts bring them down borders on the supernatural. Did we mention the lions are real and are confirmed to have eaten at least forty people.

** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' started the trend by having Leon Kennedy [[TookALevelInBadass graduate]] from an outgunned rookie cop in games where AmmunitionConservation is paramount to survival to a Secret Service agent using MoreDakka.
** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'' then put players in the role of soldiers, mercenaries, and government agents in combat zones where assorted zombies and mutants are running loose, all while moving to an over-the-shoulder camera and aiming system that proved hugely influential on the ThirdPersonShooter genre.
** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6'' followed on the trend of the fifth. With ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard'' however , the series started to back away from the genre and return to the SurvivalHorror of the earlier entries.

** The protagonist Torque begins the game as a death row inmate who's just arrived at Abbott State Penitentiary, a maximum security facility on Carnate Island off the coast of Maryland for monsters like him. It turns out that the other murderers and violent criminals are the least of Torque's problems, as an earthquake causes hundreds of strange, violent creatures called Malefactors based on various historical execution methods to descend on the island, slaughtering the convicts and guards alike. Sound like a SurvivalHorror game? Nope. Torque starts the game with nothing but a prison shiv and spends the game using revolvers, tommy guns, and even an improvised flamethrower to send the misbegotten creatures back to hell. Oh, and that bit about Torque being a monster? It's literal. He fills up a meter when he attacks, and when it's full, he can turn on his SuperpoweredEvilSide to rip enemies apart with his bare hands.

* ''VideoGame/UnchartedDrakesFortune'', after spending most of its campaign as an ActionAdventure game with a prodigious arsenal of guns, dips heavily into this during its final act after TheReveal of the true nature of the treasure the main characters have been searching for. [[spoiler:El Dorado is actually a golden sarcophagus containing a corpse infected with a [[TheVirus zombie plague]]. The entire time, the characters have been stalked by the zombified remnants of the Spanish colonists who discovered El Dorado, and while their presence had been {{foreshadow|ing}}ed throughout the game, it's here where they make their grand entrance and force Nathan and Eddy to [[EnemyMine work together]] to survive, escape the island, and make sure [[ZombieApocalypse the curse of El Dorado]] doesn't escape with them. The main villain Navarro also knew about the plague the entire time, and was searching for El Dorado in hopes of selling it as a bioweapon.]]

* ''VideoGame/SilverFallsGhoulBusters'' is a PlatformHell about a couple of '90s elementary school kids having to escape a [[EldritchLocation forest teeming with Lovecraftian monsters]]. Aside from sub weapons, all they have are a hockey stick, slingshot, and a [[{{Toys/Tamagotchi}} Tamagotchi]].

* ''Videogame/TheSuffering'' runs on this trope. The game's designer Richard Rouse III explicitly described it as this trope in order to distinguish it from survival horror games like ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'', ''Franchise/SilentHill'', and ''VideoGame/FatalFrame''.

* Some of the films of Wrestling/ElSanto edge into this, pitting the famous MaskedLuchador against [[MonsterMash classic movie monsters]]. Of these, ''Santo Contra Las Mujeres Vampiros'' (or, as it's known in the English dub, ''Film/SamsonVsTheVampireWomen'') is probably the best-known outside of Mexico. Imagine a Franchise/UniversalHorror movie punched up by occasional wrestling matches.

* ''Film/{{VFW}}'', which can be described as ''Assault on Precinct 13'' [-[[RecycledInSpace IN A VFW POST!]]-] A young woman, seeking revenge on the gang leader who killed her sister, steals a massive shipment of drugs from his safe and flees into a VFW post where a group of aging [[TheVietnamVet Vietnam veterans]] (and one [[UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar Korea]] vet) are celebrating the birthday of one of their own. The gang leader responds by commanding an army of junkies to besiege the post with the promise of drugs in return, forcing the veterans to once more fight for their lives against TheHorde.

* ''Film/TheGhostAndTheDarkness'', is about an big-game hunter/engineer tasked with building a railway through Uganda who must contend with two man-eating lions preying on his work force. Did we mention this is a true story and the lions killed and ate at least 40 people.

The combination of horror aesthetics with action scenes and gameplay leads to a lot of overlap with LovecraftLite and DarkFantasy, especially in those stories where the protagonists stand a fighting chance. Often the result of an ActionizedSequel to a horror story. Many SuperheroHorror stories overlap with this subgenre in their mix of superhero action with horror tropes, as do many WeirdWest stories that do the same with Wild West [[TheGunslinger gunslinging]].

** ''Film/JohnCarpentersVampires'', an adaptation of Creator/JohnSteakley's novel ''[[Literature/{{Vampires}} Vampire$]]''. Carpenter said that his goal was to specifically do a horror [[TheWestern Western]], while also mocking the more humanized depictions of vampires in contemporary fiction.

* Some of the films of Wrestling/ElSanto edge into this, pitting the famous MaskedLuchador against [[MonsterMash classic movie monsters]]. Of these, ''Santo Contra Las Mujeres Vampiros'' (or, as it's known in the English dub, ''Film/SamsonVsTheVampireWomen'') is probably the best-known outside of Mexico. Imagine a Franchise/UniversalHorror movie punched up by occasional wrestle fights.

* ''Film/TheSeventhCurse'', a Hong Kong film based on the ''Wisely'' and ''Dr. Yuen'' series of pulp novels, have the hero, Dr. Yuen, uncovering an evil cult whose HighPriest practices HumanSacrifice and regularly has hundreds of children ground alive in rituals to maintain his power. There's plenty of shootouts and action sequences (including an IndyEscape in a cavern), but also plenty of supernatural elements, jump scares, zombies, and a final battle against a powerful flying demon. There's also a heavy dose of HorrorComedy.

* ''Film/TheSeventhCurse'', a Hong Kong film based on the ''Wisely'' and ''Dr. Yuen'' series of pulp novels, have the hero, Wisely, uncovering an evil cult whose HighPriest practices HumanSacrifice and regularly has hundreds of children ground alive in rituals to maintain his power. There's plenty of shootouts and action sequences (including an IndyEscape in a cavern), but also plenty of supernatural elements, jump scares, zombies, and a final battle against a powerful flying demon. There's also a heavy dose of HorrorComedy.

* ''VideoGame/ReturnToCastleWolfenstein'': ThoseWackyNazis have awakened legions of undead and created mutant abominations and it's up to the Allied protagonist to kill them all in-between classic UsefulNotes/WorldWarII sabotage missions.

* ''VideoGame/EvilDeadRegeneration'' starts from the premise that, instead of [[TimeTravel travelling back in time]] at the end of ''Film/EvilDead2'', Ash was instead apprehended by the police for killing all his friends, and committed to an insane asylum when he tried telling them about the Deadites and the [[TomeOfEldritchLore Necronomicon Ex Mortis]]. While he's there, [[HerrDoktor Dr. Reinhardt]] reads from the Necronomicon and ends up unleashing [[HereWeGoAgain another horde of Deadites that Ash has to kill]] with naught but his chainsaw and boomstick, while receiving assistance in the form of a half-Deadite named Sam.

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* The ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' games in the '00s and early '10s veered in this direction. ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' started the trend by having Leon Kennedy [[TookALevelInBadass graduate]] from an outgunned rookie cop in games where AmmunitionConservation is paramount to survival to a Secret Service agent using MoreDakka, then ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvil5 RE5]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvil6 RE6]]'' put players in the role of soldiers, mercenaries, and government agents in combat zones where assorted zombies and mutants are running loose, all while moving to an over-the-shoulder camera and aiming system that proved hugely influential on the ThirdPersonShooter genre. Starting with ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard'', however, the series started to back away from the genre and return to the SurvivalHorror of the earlier entries.

** ComicBook/GhostRider is, in most of his incarnations, a motorcycle stuntman who [[DealWithTheDevil sold his soul to the devil]], resulting in him being fused with a demon [[spoiler:(or sometimes a fallen angel)]] with a flaming skeleton appearance tasked with hunting down the Devil's bounties, including other demons and monsters. The character and his exploits deal heavily with the horrors of HollywoodSatanism, all while fighting evil with chains, guns and {{Hellfire}}.

* ''Film/TheSeventhCurse'', a Hong Kong film based on the ''Wisely'' and ''Dr. Yuen'' series of pulp novels, have the hero, Wisely, uncovering an evil cult whose HighPriest practices HumanSacrifice and regularly has hundreds of children ground alive in rituals to maintain his power. There's plenty of shootouts and action sequences (including an IndyEscape in a cavern), but also plenty of supernatural elements, jump scares, zombies, and a final battle against a powerful flying demon.

** ''Film/DraculaUntold'', an OriginStory for {{Dracula}} in which he embraces vampirism to fight back against the invading Ottoman Empire.

* ''VideoGame/SilverFallsGhoulBusters'' is PlatformHell about a couple of '90s elementary school kids having to escape a [[EldritchLocation forest teeming with Lovecraftian monsters]]. Aside from sub weapons, all they have are a hockey stick, slingshot, and a [[{{Toys/Tamagotchi}} Tamagotchi]].

* The ''Blood'' franchise (''Anime/BloodTheLastVampire'', ''Anime/BloodPlus'' and ''Anime/BloodC'') features an ActionGirl named Saya who usually wears a SailorFuku and wields a katana that can kill vampires.
* ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'': The story deals with the Hellsing Organization and their mission to protect humanity from monsters like vampires and werewolves. There is blood, gore, nightmarish imagery, and gun fights, often courtesy of Alucard, who is literally Count {{Dracula}} himself as a NinetiesAntiHero.
* ''Manga/HighschoolOfTheDead'' has a group of high school students and a nurse who are all capable of fighting against zombies. While it looked like a SurvivalHorror at first, the series leans to more action once the main cast armed themselves with CoolGuns, courtesy of the nurse's friend who is a police officer.