Genre
PHOTO: An illustration of vintage filmmaking equipment. © (Licensed Image)
What Are Movie Genres?
Primary genres, dozens of subgenres, mood & tone.
What are movie genres? Excellent question. Movie genres are labels that group films by shared storytelling patterns or stylistic choices. A film’s genre often hints at what you’ll get, from the kinds of characters and settings to the plot beats and overall tone. Action movies, for instance, tend to lean on high-energy set pieces like fights, chases, and dramatic slow-motion shots. Horror, meanwhile, is built to provoke tension, often using jump scares and a faster, more visceral pace than dialogue-heavy scenes.
How we code the genres.
If you’re familiar with Netflix’s coding system, we use a similar approach. For instance, Netflix categorizes ‘action’ movies under the code: 100107. Our ‘action’ screenplays follow the same code
Let’s take a look at the primary 13 genres.
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 archives to find individual links to some of the most popular ones.
8FLiX features over 100 subgenres, complete with each script’s inferred mood & tone settings. Click or tap the link for a deeper dive into the details.
