Primary Genres
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Find Scripts & Screenplays by Genre
Key genres, subgenres, and mood & tone.
If you’re looking to find scripts and screenplays by genre, we can help you track down exactly what you want.
Movie genres are labels that group films by shared storytelling patterns or stylistic choices. A film’s primary genre often hints at what you’ll get, from character types and settings to plot beats and overall tone.
Action, for instance, tends to lean on high-energy set pieces like fights, chases, and dramatic slow-motion shots. Horror is built to provoke tension, often using jump scares and a faster, more visceral pace than dialogue-heavy scenes.
How We “Code” Genres
Netflix uses numeric category IDs. We built a script-friendly version of that idea.
Fans sometimes call them “Netflix secret codes,” but they’re basically internal category IDs that map titles into genres and subgenres. If you plug a code into the URL (netflix.com/browse/genre/CODE), you’ll land on that category page.
We use a similar system on 8FLiX to organize scripts by key genre, subgenre, and even mood/tone.
For example, our Action shelf lives here: 8flix.com/browse/genre/1/100107.
Keep an eye on the 8FLiX URL when you browse, because we have about 140 unique codes that also cover subgenres, mood, and tone.
The Primary 13
Find scripts & screenplays: here are 13 key genres.
Action
Action is storytelling at speed, told through physical problem-solving: a goal, a threat, and a character forced to move.
Adventure
Adventure is story powered by the unknown. A character leaves the familiar, steps into a wider world, and earns every mile through obstacles, discovery, and choice.
Comedy
What is comedy? Well, comedy is engineered laughter. It’s not “people being funny” so much as pressure applied to personality
Drama
Drama is storytelling in its purest form: people wanting something badly, and paying a price to get it. The engine isn’t explosions or punchlines, it’s consequence.
Fantasy
Fantasy is reality with the lid popped off. It’s not just spells and monsters, it’s a story built around a new set of rules and a character forced to live inside them.
Horror
Fear with intention. Horror is a genre built to create dread, shock, and unease by controlling information, pacing, and vulnerability.
Musical
A musical is story that refuses to stay spoken. When emotion spikes past the limits of dialogue, characters sing, dance, and turn subtext into text.
Mystery
Mystery is curiosity with teeth. A question is posed, information is withheld on purpose, and the story becomes a controlled drip of clues, misdirection, and revelation.
Romance
Romance is a story where the relationship is the engine. Two people collide, connect, and change each other, often while life throws beautifully inconvenient obstacles in their path.
Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi is a story built around a “what if?” that changes the rules of reality. It’s not just spaceships and gadgets, it’s cause and effect.
Sports
Sports stories aren’t really about the sport. They’re about identity under pressure: what winning costs, what losing reveals, and what a person becomes when the clock is running out.
Thriller
A thriller is suspense with a ticking pulse. The protagonist is under threat, the stakes keep tightening, and the story weaponizes uncertainty: who can you trust, what’s really happening, and what’s the worst thing that could happen next?
Western
The Western is a genre of edges: law vs. chaos, civilization vs. wilderness, justice vs. vengeance. It’s not just horses and dust, it’s a moral landscape where choices echo louder because the world is thinly held together.
There’s So Much More
How about subgenres? Or mood & tone?
‘Rom-com,’ or ‘romantic comedy,’ is a classic example of a subgenre. ‘Mockumentary’ and ‘parody’ are two other subgenres branching off from the parent genre, ‘comedy.’ Explore our subgenre archive to find individual links to some of the most popular.
Looking For Something?
If you can’t find what you’re looking for, send us an email.
Can’t find something? Maybe we can help. 8FLiX has thousands of scripts and screenplays. Not all are currently listed here. Eventually, they’ll all be available to download (but certainly not in your lifetime). To avoid waiting decades for 8FLiX to add the script that you’re looking for, send us an email. You still may have to wait, but it’ll be days rather than generations. You can SEARCH our site when you’re ready!