| 1 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1648008333058323900 |
| 2 | %% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread. |
| 3 | %% |
| 4 | [[quoteright:350:[[Film/DogSoldiers https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/action_horror_dog_soldiers_2.png]]]] |
| 5 | [[caption-width-right:350:''Film/{{Jaws}}'', ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', and ''Film/{{Predator}}'' with a werewolf twist.]] |
| 6 | %% |
| 7 | Oh, no! Monsters are attacking! The shadows are filled with creatures that want to drink your blood and consume your flesh! TheVirus has transformed most of humanity into ravenous creatures! Malicious spirits and demons want to [[DemonicPossession take control of your body]] and feast on your soul! What do you do in a situation like this? Run for your life? Cower in fear and pray they don't find you? |
| 8 | |
| 9 | '''''Hell''''' ''no.'' You run to the gun rack and fight back with everything you've got. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | Action Horror is a subgenre of {{Horror}} that, as the name suggests, adds very strong elements of the ActionGenre. The NightmareFuel is real, and the monsters are extremely potent and would be absolutely terrifying in a straightforward horror story, but the difference is, instead of the protagonists being [[TheEveryman ordinary people]] in way over their heads, they are prepared to fight back. Oftentimes, though not always, they'll be police officers, soldiers, [[HunterOfMonsters Hunters of Monsters]], or others trained in the use of weapons and capable of taking down the monsters in front of them. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | This is still horror, however, and so, to keep things scary, the [[SlidingScaleOfVillainThreat monster threat level]] will often be adjusted accordingly. Instead of one bad guy, it may be a horde of them that the protagonists, as capable as they are, may be overwhelmed by through sheer numbers. Or, it might be an EldritchAbomination or a {{kaiju}} that the protagonists face, a monster where just guns and explosives probably won't cut it. Oftentimes, the villain will be capable of ending the world, or at least a large portion of it. Either way, expect the bad guys in action horror to be ''very'' tough. The {{gorn}}, too, will often be spectacular as a way of demonstrating just how dangerous and lethal the villains are. A good guide here would be to compare ''Film/{{Alien}}'' to ''Film/{{Aliens}}'': the {{Space Marine}}s in the latter film likely could've easily triumphed over the lone xenomorph in the first film, but against ''an entire hive'' of xenomorphs, they found themselves struggling to survive. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | The combination of horror aesthetics with action scenes and gameplay leads to a lot of overlap with ScifiHorror, 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]]. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Compare and contrast with SurvivalHorror. It's important to note that while some survival horror works include combat, there's rarely an emphasis on action sequences and the protagonist will usually be better off running, hiding and sparing ammunition (in some cases they can't fight back at all). The Survival Horror page has some detailed guidelines on the distinction between that subgenre and this one. |
| 18 | ---- |
| 19 | !!Examples: |
| 20 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 21 | |
| 22 | [[folder:Anime and Manga]] |
| 23 | * ''Manga/{{Akira}}'' is a {{cyberpunk}} action film combining elements of BodyHorror, in which a psychic teenager goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge which eventually causes his former friend to try and put a stop to him. |
| 24 | * 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. |
| 25 | * Anime/ChainsawMan is set in a world infested by Devils, which are demonic entities created and powered by the collective fears of humanity. The titular protagonist is a professional Devil hunter who was turned into a [[HalfHumanHybrid Half-Devil Hybrid]], using his new powers to slice his way through enemies. |
| 26 | * ''Anime/DigimonGhostGame'': The show is an action series like all previous entries. However, ''Ghost Game'' also plays the concept of Digimon attacking humans for horror, with all manners of terrifying imagery and situations. |
| 27 | * ''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 Count {{Dracula}} himself reinterpreted as a NinetiesAntiHero. |
| 28 | * ''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 guns, courtesy of the nurse's friend who is a police officer. |
| 29 | * ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'': The first two parts, ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventurePhantomBlood Phantom Blood]]'' and ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency Battle Tendency]]'', are {{Shonen}} action stories with strong horror elements as the antagonists are [[OurVampiresAreDifferent extremely powerful vampires]]. Thankfully, the heroes use a {{Supernatural Martial Art|s}} which lets them wield ThePowerOfTheSun against their undead foes, but it's made very clear how helpless and outmatched the {{Innocent Bystander}}s and {{Red Shirt}}s are against them. This is topped with a hefty dose of BodyHorror, especially when the Pillar Men are involved. Horror elements are much rarer in the later parts, however. |
| 30 | * ''Manga/SummerTimeRendering'' starts off as a supernatural thriller with eldritch shapeshifters and SurvivalHorror elements, but the action ramps up significantly at the halfway mark of the story when [[spoiler: the main antagonists become aware of the time loops and start actively hunting down the main cast.]] Fortunately, by this point the heroes have obtained the means to rally enough allies together and start fighting back. |
| 31 | [[/folder]] |
| 32 | |
| 33 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 34 | * ''ComicBook/HackSlash'': The main premise of the series is about the former FinalGirl turned ActionGirl Cassie Hack and her partner [[GentleGiant Vlad]] going around the country and [[SerialKillerKiller taking down any and all]] [[OurSlashersAreDifferent Slashers]] that they can find. |
| 35 | * Creator/MarvelComics: |
| 36 | ** ComicBook/{{Blade}} is a {{dhampyr}} who seeks to exterminate vampires. All of the bloody, creepy aspects of vampires are still here, with Blade throwing in swords and gunplay to fight the undead menace. |
| 37 | ** This is what the story becomes whenever ComicBook/{{Carnage}} enters the scene. As a nigh-immortal SerialKiller with {{Lovecraftian Superpower}}s, Carnage ''is'' the horror. And he's more than willing to take on any ActionHero brave enough to try and stop him. |
| 38 | ** 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, which may or may not be the same thing)]] 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}}. |
| 39 | * ''ComicBook/{{Vampirella}}'': The titular character is a FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire who defends humans from other monsters, similar to ComicBook/{{Blade}}. Many if not most stories have a great deal of action in them, with the '90s comics being very big on fight scenes. |
| 40 | * ''ComicBook/{{Hillbilly}}'' is about a WitchHunter wandering through a DarkFantasy / FantasyAmericana version of rural Appalachia. The [[WickedWitch witches are wicked]], the FearsomeCritters are fearsome, and there's a whole host of nightmarish monsters around every corner, but Rondel the Wandering Hillbilly is always up to the challenge. |
| 41 | [[/folder]] |
| 42 | |
| 43 | [[folder:Films - Live-Action]] |
| 44 | * As noted above, ''Film/{{Aliens}}''. The increased combat capabilities of the protagonists are met in kind with a lot more xenomorphs to fight. The ''Film/AlienVsPredator'' films did the same. |
| 45 | * ''Film/ArmyOfTheDead'' is about a group of armed mercenaries infiltrating a zombie-infested and walled-off UsefulNotes/LasVegas to break into a casino's vault and recover the money inside for its owner, who lost his casino when Vegas was overrun. Their enemies also include [[EliteZombie Alpha Zombies]] who are smarter, faster, stronger, and more brutal than the common variety. |
| 46 | * The ''Film/BladeTrilogy'' follows a {{Dhampyr}} played by actor/martial artist Creator/WesleySnipes who fights and kills vampires. |
| 47 | * Creator/JohnCarpenter, a filmmaker known for working in both action and horror, has mixed the two genres in the past. |
| 48 | ** ''Film/AssaultOnPrecinct131976'' is an example that goes in the opposite direction from most: instead of action heroes battling horror movie monsters, it's the basic plot of ''Film/RioBravo'' (a group of lawmen besieged by a heavily armed gang) PlayedForHorror. |
| 49 | ** ''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 [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire more humanized depictions of vampires]] in contemporary fiction. |
| 50 | ** ''Film/GhostsOfMars'', in which SpacePolice and the dangerous criminal in their custody battle Martian colonists possessed by the spirits of the aliens who lived there. |
| 51 | * ''Film/{{Cloverfield}}'' is what happens when you do a {{kaiju}} movie as a straightforward horror movie. The [[MonumentalDamage destruction]] of New York landmarks like the Statue of Liberty, the Woolworth Building, and the Brooklyn Bridge is paired with the giant monster being kept in the shadows and only seen in brief glimpses until the end. |
| 52 | * ''Film/{{Cobra}}'' was, according to its star and writer Creator/SylvesterStallone, an attempt to combine a police action movie with a SlasherMovie. The protagonist Marion "Cobra" Cobretti is a CowboyCop protecting a model named Ingrid from a SerialKiller known as the Night Slasher, whose attacks are often staged like something right out of a slasher flick as he stalks his prey with a signature customized knife, and who is also leading a [[UsefulNotes/CharlesManson Manson]]-inspired [[ReligionOfEvil cult]] of serial killers with a [[TheSocialDarwinist social Darwinist]] worldview. |
| 53 | * ''Film/DayShift'' follows vampire hunters in the San Fernando Valley tracking down vampires while they sleep in a manner straight out of ''Film/JohnWick'' (which some of the film's producers previously worked on), complete with wooden bullets and buckshot, silver razor wire, garlic gas grenades, and a [[GatlingGood minigun]] along with bounties for each one they kill. |
| 54 | * ''Film/DeepRising'' has a group of mercenaries board a luxury ocean liner with the intent of robbing the passengers, only to find themselves in a pitched battle against a swarm of giant worm-like creatures [[spoiler:(actually the feeding tentacles of a single monster)]] that have already eaten most of the people on board. |
| 55 | * ''Film/DemonKnight'' is about a group of people at a boarding house in a [[NewOldWest small, dusty New Mexico town]] who find themselves besieged by the Collector, a demonic BountyHunter who's after one of the people inside and unleashes a horde of demons to kill them, forcing them to fight back with everything they have on hand. |
| 56 | * ''Film/DogSoldiers'' pits a squad of British soldiers on a training mission against a pack of werewolves. |
| 57 | * ''Film/{{Doomsday}}'' (from the same director as ''Dog Soldiers'') is ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork'' [[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace in Scotland]], while adding a lot more horror elements like cannibal gangs, a DarkFantasy motif (albeit more sci-fi/post-apocalyptic) with the ex-scientist turned warlord/king Marcus Kane, and tons of {{gorn}}. |
| 58 | * 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. |
| 59 | * The ''Franchise/EvilDead'' series starting with [[Film/EvilDead2 the second film]], an ActionizedSequel to and loose remake of the first that combined this trope with DenserAndWackier to turn its protagonist Ash into a snarky, wiseass ActionHero. The third film, ''Film/ArmyOfDarkness'', combined this with medieval fantasy action on top of it. |
| 60 | * The first half of ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn'' is a crime thriller about two outlaw brothers who kidnap a father and his two teenage kids on a family road trip in order to RunForTheBorder. The ''[[HalfwayPlotSwitch second]]'' half turns into this once the main characters reach the bar in Mexico where the outlaws plan to meet their rendezvous, only to find that the place is run by vampires, forcing the outlaws and the family to [[EnemyMine team up]] to survive the night and kill a horde of vampires... in true Creator/RobertRodriguez HeroicBloodshed fashion. |
| 61 | * ''Film/TheGhostAndTheDarkness'', based on the true story of John Henry Patterson and the Tsavo maneaters (a pair of lions who killed 28 people), 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 to bring them down borders on the supernatural. |
| 62 | * The DarkerAndEdgier installments in the ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' franchise often veer into this territory from the action side, depicting a {{kaiju}} attack as a horrifying event comparable to [[UsefulNotes/AtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki an atomic bomb]] or a natural disaster and emphasizing the sheer body count and national trauma that such a thing would cause. The [[Film/Godzilla1954 original 1954 film]], of course, was the trendsetter here, portraying the titular monster as an apocalyptic force of nature that most human weapons are [[TheWorfBarrage completely useless against]]. While most later films would focus on action spectacle and {{Behemoth Battle}}s, a number of films (especially reboots) would return to the 1954 film's grim, horrifying tone, most notably ''Film/TheReturnOfGodzilla'', the [[Film/Godzilla2014 2014 American adaptation]], ''Film/ShinGodzilla'', and ''Film/GodzillaMinusOne''. |
| 63 | * ''Film/JurassicPark1993'' is a SciFiHorror movie combined with an ActionAdventure film, in which the dinosaurs are first used to leave viewers awestruck before they break out and start attacking people in scenes staged in a manner straight out of an old-fashioned monster movie on a much bigger budget. The sequels, meanwhile, [[ActionizedSequel swung towards straightforward action]], with a focus on fights between large dinosaurs as well as dino rampage scenes inspired by {{kaiju}} films. |
| 64 | * ''Film/LittleDeadRottingHood'': The movie is about the people of a small town dealing with constant wolf attacks. There's also guns, [[spoiler:and an epic battle at the end against the Denmother]]. |
| 65 | * ''Film/{{Malignant}}'' goes from a supernatural horror film to this in the second half once the villain Gabriel's true nature is revealed. A scene set in a police station has Gabriel [[CurbStompBattle singlehandedly demolish]] everybody in the station lockup followed by the entire police force, shot in such a manner that makes it clear that director Creator/JamesWan was putting his experience making blockbuster action flicks to use even as he returned to the horror genre. |
| 66 | * ''Film/ManiacCop2'' is an ActionizedSequel to [[Film/ManiacCop the first movie]] that combines a SlasherMovie plot with numerous action scenes, including car chases and a scene where the titular villain storms the police station ''Terminator''-style. |
| 67 | * ''Film/Overlord2018'': During UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, a group of Allied paratroopers infiltrate enemy lines on the night before D-Day. What follows is a standard war movie until it is revealed that the Nazis have developed a serum to produce [[NaziZombies undead super soldiers]]. The film balances the gunfire and explosions with both sci-fi BodyHorror and the very real horror of Nazi occupation and experimentation. |
| 68 | * ''Film/PitchBlack'', at first glance, is a simple ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' riff, but with one key difference: the protagonist Richard B. Riddick, a ProudWarriorRaceGuy with superhuman night vision played by Creator/VinDiesel at the height of his early '00s ActionHero fame. The sequel ''Film/TheChroniclesOfRiddick2004'' was a full-blown SpaceOpera, though the subsequent film, titled simply ''Film/{{Riddick}}'', returned to this one's action-horror roots. |
| 69 | * In the ''Franchise/{{Predator}}'' series, the titular aliens are a ProudHunterRace who specifically target humanity's elite warriors to fight. The result: mercenaries in Central America in [[Film/{{Predator}} the first film]], LAPD cops and gangsters in [[Film/Predator2 the second]], a motley crew of soldiers and criminals in [[Film/{{Predators}} the third]], the US military in [[Film/ThePredator the fourth]], and a group of Comanche warriors in [[Film/Prey2022 the fifth]] all thrust into a HuntingTheMostDangerousGame scenario against aliens who hunt like SlasherMovie killers, saving the laser blasters for emergencies in favor of blades that make the fight more fair and interesting. |
| 70 | * ''Film/ThePurge'' entered this with its sequels. While [[Film/ThePurge1 the first film]] was contained to a single house and played out like a conventional [[ProtectThisHouse home invasion movie]], later films and [[Series/ThePurge2018 the TV series]] more fully explored the premise of there being one night a year where all crime was legal, and focused on people fighting to survive amidst the [[AnarchyIsChaos urban anarchy and mayhem]] that characterized the titular holiday. |
| 71 | * ''Film/RaceWithTheDevil'' is a mix of a '70s ReligiousHorror film and a '70s car chase movie, in which two couples on a road trip in an RV encounter a [[HollywoodSatanism Satanic cult]] carrying out a HumanSacrifice, who proceed to chase them across the state of Texas in order to kill them. |
| 72 | * ''Film/Renfield2023'' is an action / horror / comedy that follows Dracula's servant as he fights cops and criminals in the modern day while trying to find a way out of his toxic relationship with his master. |
| 73 | * The ''Film/ResidentEvilFilmSeries'' veered heavily in this direction. The protagonists in [[Film/ResidentEvil2002 the first film]] are commandos hired by the Umbrella Corporation to put down a T-Virus outbreak in their lab, along with an amnesiac woman named Alice who turns out to have been a badass ActionGirl. In the sequels, Alice is made explicitly superhuman while the threat is turned up to apocalyptic levels. |
| 74 | * ''Film/{{Robowar}}'' is a cheap Italian knockoff of the original ''Film/{{Predator}}'', with a team of commandos in an [[ClassifiedInformation unspecified]] island location fighting an elusive but very clunky robot. |
| 75 | * ''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. |
| 76 | * ''Film/SnakesOnAPlane'', the entire marketing hook for which was Creator/SamuelLJackson in full BAMF mode fighting a horde of venomous snakes aboard a passenger jet. |
| 77 | * ''Film/TheTerminator'' was a SlasherMovie in which the killer was a robot who used guns as his weapons of choice. The sequels, however, were straightforward action films. |
| 78 | * ''Film/{{Tremors}}'' is a GenreThrowback to '50s monster movies whose main standout feature is its recurring supporting character Burt Gummer, a ProperlyParanoid CrazySurvivalist who, over the course of the series, slaughters scores of Graboids with his massive assortment of weapons to the point that he becomes an expert on them. |
| 79 | * The ''Film/{{Underworld|2003}}'' films took the UrbanFantasy genre in this direction, using the supernatural powers attributed to vampires and werewolves in folklore to stage superhuman fight scenes between them. |
| 80 | * ''Franchise/UniversalHorror'': |
| 81 | ** The [[Film/TheMummy1999 1999]] and [[Film/TheMummy2017 2017]] remakes of ''Film/{{The Mummy|1932}}''. The former was a TwoFistedTales ActionAdventure flick that happened to feature Imhotep as the BigBad wielding the CurseOfThePharaoh, while the latter featured a CreatureHunterOrganization called Prodigium as major supporting characters. |
| 82 | ** ''Film/VanHelsing'' features the legendary monster hunter as he battles the classic Universal monsters throughout the world, using various {{steampunk}} gadgets and weapons. |
| 83 | ** ''Film/DraculaUntold'', an origin story for {{Dracula}} in which he embraces vampirism to fight back against the invading Ottoman Empire. |
| 84 | * ''Film/{{VFW}}'', which can be described as ''Assault on Precinct 13'' [-[[JustForFun/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. |
| 85 | * ''Film/WarOfTheWorlds2005'' is a DisasterMovie take on the idea, one that takes the basic AlienInvasion premise of Creator/HGWells' [[Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds1898 original novel]] and [[PlayedForHorror plays it for horror]]. Scenes of aliens destroying a city, battling the Army, and attacking a ferry boat are all depicted from the perspective of [[PunyHumans an ordinary father and his kids trying to survive]], who find themselves helpless and terrified in a manner [[Post911TerrorismMovie evocative of the 9/11 attacks]]. |
| 86 | * ''Film/WeHaveAGhost'' is largely a HorrorComedy. However, the second half adds elements of gunplay and chases as government agents and [[spoiler:the ghost's killers]] become involved. |
| 87 | * ''Film/WillysWonderland'' is a film heavily inspired by ''Franchise/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' in which a night janitor at a SuckECheeses joint must fight off the restaurant's HostileAnimatronics when they try to kill him. The main difference from ''Five Nights at Freddy's'' is that he's played here by Creator/NicolasCage as a laconic drifter whose response to the animatronics isn't to hide in the security office, but to singlehandedly demolish them with anything he can get his hands on. |
| 88 | * The film adaptation of ''Film/WorldWarZ'' used this to showcase the global scale of the ZombieApocalypse, with scenes of zombies overrunning Philadelphia, Newark, Manhattan, the DMZ in South Korea, Jerusalem, and an airliner fleeing Jerusalem. The original ending was supposed to revolve around a BigBadassBattleSequence where the Russian military retook Moscow from the zombie hordes that had overrun the city, but this was removed from the final edit in favor of a smaller-scale, more horror-focused third act at a lab in Cardiff. |
| 89 | * ''Film/YakuzaApocalypse'': The film is about a Yakuza group whos leader is a vampire, and passes his Vampirism on to his most loyal enforcer upon his death. There's a lot of martial arts and fighting in the movie. |
| 90 | [[/folder]] |
| 91 | |
| 92 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 93 | * In the first ''[[Literature/TheHungerGames Hunger Games]]'' book, Katniss, who has been established as an experienced hunter, is attacked by tracker jackers in the arena. She is able to fight them off, but not without severe struggling and [[spoiler: a couple of stings which lead to her having incredibly realistic hallucinations.]] |
| 94 | * ''Literature/MonsterHunterInternational'', a series of novels in which [[HunterOfMonsters monster hunters]] battle vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness with [[GunPorn the biggest guns and explosives they can get their hands on]]. The series' author Creator/LarryCorreia, who [[WriteWhatYouKnow owns a gun store]], stated that his goal with the series was to do an homage to classic [[BMovie B-movies]] in which the protagonists weren't complete idiots. |
| 95 | [[/folder]] |
| 96 | |
| 97 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 98 | * Franchise/{{Buffyverse}}: |
| 99 | ** ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' is about a California ValleyGirl who learns that she is the latest in a long line of [[ActionGirl warrior women]] [[TheChosenOne chosen to fight supernatural evils]]. As such, the show focuses heavily on Buffy and her friends (especially Willow once she becomes a witch) fighting demons, vampires, and other paranormal monsters. Creator/JossWhedon said that he wanted to take the stereotypical DumbBlonde horror movie victim and make her an ActionHero who turns the tables on the monsters trying to kill her. |
| 100 | ** Likewise for its spinoff ''Series/{{Angel}}'', whose titular protagonist is a vampire who regains his human soul and resolves to [[TheAtoner atone for his crimes as a monster]] by kicking the butts of the other, more evil monsters. |
| 101 | * While the first season of ''Series/StrangerThings'' is closer to straightforward SciFiHorror, the show's genre-blending being more with the coming-of-age films of The80s, its BigBudgetBeefUp in subsequent seasons saw it turn increasingly action-heavy, with growing numbers of shootouts and monster battles. Among other things, season two had a secret government lab being overrun by monsters in scenes straight out of ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', season three introduced [[UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre the KGB]] as villains and climaxed with a battle against a giant monster in a shopping mall, and season four has a character escaping a Siberian [[TheGulag gulag]] in a scene filled with explosions, shootouts, and a getaway on a snowmobile. |
| 102 | * ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': The protagonists Sam and Dean Winchester are [[HunterOfMonsters monster hunters]] who came into the business as a family tradition, [[WalkingTheEarth criss-crossing the country]] battling monsters out of UrbanLegends, cryptozoology, and mythology both Myth/{{classical|Mythology}} and [[HeavenVersusHell Abrahamic]]. |
| 103 | * ''Series/WynonnaEarp'' was adapted from a comic book that mixes supernatural horror with Western action. The titular character is a descendant of Wyatt Earp and must defend the modern-day town of Purgatory from the revenants of bad men Wyatt killed in the past. She also discovers other, more powerful horrors that are focused on destroying her and her town. |
| 104 | [[/folder]] |
| 105 | |
| 106 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 107 | * ''VideoGame/AlanWake'': You play as a mere writer who accidentally unleashed an eldritch horde of darkness, but used its magic to give himself a few mundane superpowers (and a lot of guns). The horror comes from fighting against an adversary who can unleash new types of horrors from an otherwise quiet and dark environment at any time, most of which obsess over destroying any light sources, to the point that they can even ''speed up time'' just to make it night. |
| 108 | * ''VideoGame/AroundTheClockAtBikiniBottom'' is standard SurvivalHorror at most parts, but shifts regularly into comedic and action elements. The game has boss fights, and there's a few other select sections where the game deviates from pure horror. There's even an entire level about fighting [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever Jellien Plankton]], armed with the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Mayo-]][[ItMakesSenseInContext Minigun]]. |
| 109 | * ''VideoGame/Back4Blood'', a SpiritualSuccessor to the below-mentioned ''VideoGame/Left4Dead''. Like the game that inspired it, the game has four players gunning their way through a ZombieApocalypse, though the zombies in this game are {{Parasite Zombie}}s instead of {{Plague Zombie}}s, and the cast can be more than just the same four people. |
| 110 | * The ''[[VideoGame/BioShock BioShock]]'' games feature this as part of their formula. |
| 111 | ** ''[[VideoGame/BioShock1 BioShock 1]]'' leans more towards horror, especially in the early levels. The protagonist is the survivor of a plane crash who found shelter in an underwater city whose inhabitants have been turned into mad, grotesque monsters thanks to overuse of [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke gene splicing run amok]]. Greater action elements come in as the protagonist starts using those gene mods himself to [[EmpoweredBadassNormal gain superhuman powers]], as well as acquiring a greater arsenal of weapons. |
| 112 | ** ''VideoGame/BioShock2'' leans more towards action due to the PlayerCharacter this time being a specified type of Big Daddy, a superhuman protector of the Little Sisters who harvest [[PsychoSerum ADAM]] from [[HumanResources the city's corpses]]. The enemies you face, meanwhile, have grown increasingly mutated and powerful over the years. |
| 113 | ** ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'' is the most action-heavy game in the series, with most of the horror being of the [[RealismInducedHorror real-world sort]] in the story's focus on [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain the villains' bigotry]]. |
| 114 | * ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'' opens up in Yharnam, a Victorian-styled city overrun by the "Beast Scourge", transforming its inhabitants into mindless, vicious monsters. Just by regularly exploring, you're constantly outnumbered by bloodthirsty hunters, werewolves, mutant animals, and various other GothicHorror staples. While the game is oriented around combat, your resources are limited and a single mistake can cost your whole life bar. [[spoiler:This is all before the [[CosmicHorrorStory Great Ones]] show up too, by the way.]] |
| 115 | * ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyZombies'', which takes the FirstPersonShooter gameplay of the ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' series and adapts it into a zombie horror game. |
| 116 | * ''VideoGame/{{Control}}'' has a secret government agency set up in an EldritchLocation that gets invaded by what's best described as a sapient extradimensional frequency which converts most everyone into its minions. (Plus numerous other dangers [[spoiler: like parasitic mold, a mirror dimension housing an evil doppelganger, and a refrigerator possessed by a giant tentacle monster]].) Opposing them is Jesse, an ActionGirl wielding telekinetic powers and a shapeshifting gun with infinite ammo. Her allies include an entity that's set up shop inside her brain, a [[SinisterGeometry giant inverted pyramid]], and a [[AlmightyJanitor creepy custodian]] who's not entirely human. It's equal parts unsettling, darkly comedic, and badass. |
| 117 | * The start of ''VideoGame/DeadRising'' leans more into SurvivalHorror with the protagonist Frank West outmatched by the hundreds of zombies around him, but the moment he starts to [[CharacterLevel level up]], the zombies become about as dangerous as the individual mooks in a ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' game. The sequels, which provide players access to [[SequelEscalation increasingly powerful]] [[MacGyvering combo weapons]], are basically [[HackAndSlash Hack-and-Slashes]] with a ZombieApocalypse theme. That said, while zombies in this series exist to get splattered in increasingly outlandish ways, [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters the human enemies are far more dangerous]], and the [[EscortMission human survivors you escort]] are not nearly as capable of kicking zombie ass as the games' protagonists. |
| 118 | * ''Franchise/DeadSpace'': The [[VideoGame/DeadSpace1 first game]] in the series focused more on horror, albeit with some action shooter touches like upgradable weapons and a more fluid, AlwaysOverTheShoulder combat system. The [[VideoGame/DeadSpace2 second game]], however, featured a greater mix of action and horror sequences, while the [[VideoGame/DeadSpace3 third game]] was almost a straight-up action game. |
| 119 | * ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'': The games star a HumanDemonHybrid named Dante who slays demons in the most [[StylishAction stylish ways possible]], and some of the games have a more horror-focused feel and aesthetic. |
| 120 | ** [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry1 The first game]] was a DivorcedInstallment of the ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' series that was made into its own game series because the developers thought it was too action-heavy to be a mainline ''RE'' title, and it takes place in a dark, HauntedCastle that at times feels claustrophobic, with the looming presence of [[BigBad Mundus]] felt in every hallway and area. |
| 121 | ** ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'' gives the demons a more photorealistic, grotesque and disturbing appearance, similar to the monsters from the ''RE'' games that utilize Capcom's RE Engine. |
| 122 | * The ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'' series (at least the early installments) leaned heavily into gory horror aesthetically, but their gameplay has always concerned slaughtering monsters by the dozen, then killing the devil himself. To put it differently: the world of ''Diablo'' is a horror fest... for everyone except the {{Player Character}}s. |
| 123 | * ''VideoGame/DinoCrisis 2'' is an ActionizedSequel of the SurvivalHorror first game, and it shows. Regina and new protagonist Dylan have access to much better weaponry, ammo and recovery items are no longer scarce as you could simply buy it from a shop whose terminals are relatively commonplace, the environment is generally far less claustrophic (thus making it easier to spot enemies early and react in time... usually, that is), and puzzle-solving has been de-emphasized; to compensate, instead of non-boss enemies being usually encountered solo or in pairs at a time, most areas now casually throw 3-4 dinos at you all at once over and over until you've killed about a dozen or two, and the newly introduced Allosaurus serves as a mini-boss of sorts in several areas that can tank a lot of damage and deal a whole lot of it in turn, especially when it [[TurnsRed goes berserk]]. |
| 124 | * ''VideoGame/Doom3''. While the ''Franchise/{{Doom}}'' series had always borne many horror elements, its two main influences ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' and ''Franchise/EvilDead'' both being prime examples of the genre, this entry swung far more heavily towards horror than the more action-packed games before and after it, with most of the action set in dark passageways with little illumination where monsters and demons hid around every corner. |
| 125 | * ''VideoGame/{{Dusk}}'' has a dark, occult theme with plenty of creepy or scary encounters. It is also styled heavily after Quake, and gives the player a wide variety of weapons to blast through these creepy enemies. |
| 126 | * The ''VideoGame/EndlessNightmare'' series, while the first game is a SurvivalHorror through and through, the sequels starts adding in a wide range of firearms, boss battles, and plenty of zombie and monsters to kill. |
| 127 | * ''VideoGame/EternalEvil'' is a FPS take on the genre, where the creators calls it "''Resident Evil'', with vampires". |
| 128 | * ''VideoGame/EvilDeadRegeneration'' starts from the premise that, instead of [[TimeTravel traveling 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. |
| 129 | * ''VideoGame/EvilDeadTheGame'' is an AsymmetricMultiplayer game in the vein of ''VideoGame/FridayThe13thTheGame''. Being an ''Franchise/EvilDead'' game, a lot of the game involves players going after deadites with a chainsaw in one hand and a boomstick in the other. |
| 130 | * ''VideoGame/{{GTFO}}'' has up to four players being sent down into the ruins of some as-of-yet unknown facility by an unseen being known as "The Warden" to complete various tasks. While doing this, the players are armed to the teeth for the purpose of defending themselves against hordes of Sleepers, which appear to be [[WasOnceAMan humans who were mutated by some kind of infection]] into monsters with giant VaginaDentata-style mouths on their bodies. |
| 131 | * The ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' games in those segments where you aren't battling human or alien soldiers. |
| 132 | ** ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'': The opening segments of the game especially pit you, an underequipped scientist with little experience in combat, against hordes of alien monsters that have overrun the Black Mesa research facility after an experiment GoneHorriblyWrong. Later portions of the game shift more towards action, though, especially after the CavalryBetrayal. |
| 133 | ** ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' has this once you leave the confines of City 17. The Ravenholm level in particular is straight-up SurvivalHorror. |
| 134 | ** ''VideoGame/HalfLifeAlyx'' revolves around the titular protagonist Alyx Vance trying to get inside the quarantine zone within City 17 to rescue her father Eli, all while trying to survive against dangerous foes that prevent her from reaching him. |
| 135 | * The first three ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' games shift from standard MilitaryScienceFiction to horror whenever [[TheVirus the Flood]] shows up, as you find yourself heading through darkened passageways (often filled with murky clouds of gas) battling wave after wave of [[CombatTentacles tentacled]] [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombies]], many of which also have guns (or worse, [=RPGs=]). The horror elements are taken up a notch in ''VideoGame/Halo3'', where you get to see victims [[TransformationHorror infected and transformed]] right in front of you. |
| 136 | * ''VideoGame/TheHouseOfTheDead'' is a series of {{Light Gun Game}}s that are all about blowing away zombies and various other hostile monsters with an endless supply of bullets. |
| 137 | * ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'', a CoOpMultiplayer shooter in which four players fight their way through a ZombieApocalypse. |
| 138 | * The ''Franchise/{{Metro}}'' games from ''VideoGame/MetroLastLight'' onward emphasize gunplay and action against human and mutant enemies as well as horror in the form of supernatural threats lurking in the Metro tunnels and on the [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic surface]]. |
| 139 | * ''VideoGame/MidnightGhostHunt'': The game is a CompetitiveMultiplayer Horror Game about a team of four ghosts hunters who need to get rid of a team of four ghosts, who themselves need to hide from them until midnight, when they get a power boost and can really fight back. |
| 140 | * ''VideoGame/NanoBreaker'' is a HackAndSlash actioner set in the aftermath of a viral infestation, only instead of zombies, you're dealing with nanomachines that forcefully convert humans into half-mechanical, mindless abominations. BodyHorror and {{Gorn}} galore. |
| 141 | * ''VideoGame/OnimushaWarlords'' was [[DivorcedInstallment originally conceived]] as a ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' game set in [[{{Jidaigeki}} 16th century Japan]], and while it was ultimately a more action-heavy game than its inspiration, much of this influence still shows up in the finished product, combining a heavy emphasis on highly cinematic samurai swordfighting with the protagonist fighting an army of grotesque monsters led by DemonKingNobunaga. |
| 142 | * ''VideoGame/PerilousWarp'', a {{retraux}} 3D game based on ''Half-Life'' and ''Doom'', where you're a space marine trapped in an intergalactic mining outpost infested by monsters. |
| 143 | * ''VideoGame/{{Redfall}}'' is a first person horror shooter about four survivors attempting to escape a town under siege from vampires. |
| 144 | * The ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' games in the '00s and early '10s veered in this direction. |
| 145 | ** ''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 fully capable of gunning down every enemy he fought. ''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, with ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6'' following in this trend. ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard'' started to back away from the genre and return to the SurvivalHorror of the earlier entries, only for ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilVillage'' to go right back to focusing on action, in some ways even moreso than some of the previous games. |
| 146 | * The ''VideoGame/{{Resistance}}'' series of MilitaryScienceFiction FPS games took a more horror-focused approach than comparable titles like ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'', ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'', and ''VideoGame/{{Killzone}}'', between its '40s/'50s DieselPunk setting and an AlienInvasion that was filled with a lot more BodyHorror than the Covenant. While the second game toned it down in favor of a focus on action and spectacle, the third game went even harder in this direction with its [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic setting]]. |
| 147 | * ''VideoGame/ReturnToCastleWolfenstein'': ThoseWackyNazis have awakened legions of undead and created {{cyborg}} abominations, and it's up to the Allied protagonist to kill them all in-between classic UsefulNotes/WorldWarII sabotage missions. |
| 148 | * ''VideoGame/ShadowsOfTheDamned'' is a ThirdPersonShooter game starring Garcia Hotspur, a demon hunter who journeys to the underworld in order to rescue his girlfriend. |
| 149 | * ''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}}. |
| 150 | * ''VideoGame/{{Splatterhouse}}'' took the gameplay of a side scrolling arcade BeatEmUp and combined it with an '80s horror movie aesthetic, including a protagonist who wears a mask that makes him resemble [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Jason Voorhees]]. |
| 151 | * ''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''. |
| 152 | ** 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. While Torque starts the game with nothing but a prison shiv, he later upgrades to 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. |
| 153 | ** The sequel ''The Suffering: Ties That Bind'' takes the action to the streets of UsefulNotes/{{Baltimore}} as they are overrun by Malefactors, which now include some new ones drawing on the city's [[ViceCity sordid history of crime and urban decay]]. |
| 154 | * ''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 "action" side comes in not just with the game maintaining its focus on gunplay, but with the main villain Navarro revealing that he knew about the plague the entire time and was searching for El Dorado in hopes of selling it as a bioweapon, and continuing to send his mercenaries to stop you (at times leading to a MeleeATrois between you, the mercs, and the zombies).]] |
| 155 | [[/folder]] |
| 156 | |
| 157 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 158 | * ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'': There are lots of horror elements--including a monster made of ghosts, bad memories, thorny twisting silver and the cancerous flesh of its victims--yet anytime there is something horrifying trying to kill or do worse to people there are those who fight it in often spectacular fashion. |
| 159 | [[/folder]] |
| 160 | |
| 161 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 162 | * WesternAnimation/Castlevania2017, an adaptation of the Franchise/{{Castlevania}} video games, focuses on a trio of monster hunters battling through hordes of demons and vampires that are trying to destroy or enslave humanity. |
| 163 | [[/folder]] |
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