Jumanji(1995) is Horror movie.

[lud]

I don't know if ever was mentioned before,but Jumanji os way more of Horror than Family. I jut rewatched this movie,it was THE movie of my childhood.

When you think about it, it has tons of elements of classic horror.

Game itself is pretty evil.

Where to start:
10 yrs boy if stucked into board game.
And he lived 26 years alone in some dzungle in Africa.
Bats scared to life young girl.
Father was way too dominating over young Alan.
Hunter who kills people for sport and specifically wants to kill Alan.
Game also released Lions and Crocodile to kill players.
Game CAN'T be destroyed.
Peter and Judy's parents are died in ski trip(in original timeline).
Stampedo in city.
Game splited huge houe into two parts.

[Leonidas King]

[BluBonnet]

[lud]

Originally Posted by BluBonnet

Than do it.

[Kaiju]

I mean, it does have some pretty frightening elements to it for a family film, but no.

[MifuneFan]

Zathura too while we're at it.

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by lud

I don't know if ever was mentioned before,but Jumanji os way more of Horror than Family. I jut rewatched this movie,it was THE movie of my childhood.

When you think about it, it has tons of elements of classic horror.

Game itself is pretty evil.

Where to start:
10 yrs boy if stucked into board game.
And he lived 26 years alone in some dzungle in Africa.
Bats scared to life young girl.
Father was way too dominating over young Alan.
Hunter who kills people for sport and specifically wants to kill Alan.
Game also released Lions and Crocodile to kill players.
Game CAN'T be destroyed.
Peter and Judy's parents are died in ski trip(in original timeline).
Stampedo in city.
Game splited huge houe into two parts.

I can see how Jumanji has its edge, but in an age when Jurassic Park terrified kids this was still pretty campy in my eyes. If you want to view it as a horror film, then awesome.

I'm just not sure I can see it that way. I can see the point about the bats--that was a pretty suspenseful scene. But nearly everything else just screams adventure movie tropes to me. Even the threat of death is not exclusively a horror movie trope--adventure films need it too to for suspense. The hunter killing people for sport--that's just lifted straight out of The Deadliest Game. Bats, lions, crocodiles--Indiana Jones encountered all these as well. The monsoon, killer flowers, spiders are new, but still adhere to the jungle theme. They are all things that could easily fit in a Lara Croft, Dirk Pitt, or even a Tarzan movie.

The fact that the game is indestructible might seem intimidating, and it's fun that the game seems to have a life of its own. But I think it's written that way to address a possible question in the story--why don't the characters simply burn it? Simple answer is they can't. Once addressed, the audience can accept that the only way out is to play.

The stampede scenes always struck me as a disaster movie carryover. CGI mass destruction was in its infancy in the 90s, and having animals trash a town was a fun way to show this. It never terrified me the same way ID4 did--probably because it's played more for camp than terror.

Having Alan vanish and live 26 years in a jungle could echo Heart of Darkness somewhat, which could be horror I suppose, but Alan doesn't exactly come back all John Malkovich crazy--the jungle life merely hardened him, like Tarzan. And because he remains a kid in an adult body, this is played more for laughs, like Big and Shazam. Family issues with Alan, Judy, and Peter are done to introduce a theme of trauma to the story. Not sure that's exclusive to the horror genre, although I can't deny that Stephen King loved to work with these themes often.

The horror aspects I see are the atmospheric opening scene (where characters are running from something unseen and bury the game, it actually looks and feels gothic here), and the ambiguous ending (game found half-buried on a beach--actually not too different from how Return to House on Haunted Hill ended).

EDIT:
I had one more thought--looking at the premise from a broad perspective, it is not too different than the myth of Pandora's Box, which aside from being a Macguffin in at least one Tomb Raider film, is a pretty horrific tale about hope (or the lack thereof). Approaching Jumanji from the perspective that the game is a really a conduit for the evil things of the jungle to spill out and ruin a peaceful suburban area, then I suppose it could be viewed as a horrific premise. Even the theme of false hope is something that reflects in the film's finale, when the final dice is rolled (but bounces out of view and Alan has no choice but to stand there and take a bullet like a man--for a brief moment, hopelessness, and therefore terror).

Same can actually be said of Gremlins, which is much more of a horror movie.

[ivanb06]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaH60GjQTBo

[brooks101189]

An outright horror film, no, but it does have its moments of scares, particularly when the lion comes out of the shadows and the lead up to it.

Zathura though has a more outright protracted horror scene to it with the younger brother being stalked by the aliens, even though there are bits of humor in that scene.

[joshsquash729]

It definitely freaked me out as a kid, especially the part with the giant mosquito attacking them in the car, and the spiders later on. I'd consider it more of an "adventure with frightening elements", though. More tense than frightening.

[DVD Josh]

If that's the case, than Big is a horror movie too.

In other words, you are wrong.

[lud]

Originally Posted by DVD Josh

If that's the case, than Big is a horror movie too.

In other words, you are wrong.

Difference is in Big, main character will not have any mental scars from experience. And in Jumanji,even two kids at the beginning still are deeply disturbing about Jumanji game. Not to mention that Alan Parrish and Sarah will probably always have scars from game.

[kylor]

The Grinch is also a Horror movie. You have a creature who hates humans breaking and entering their houses at night. I'd say this qualifies based on OP logic.

[lud]

Originally Posted by kylor

The Grinch is also a Horror movie. You have a creature who hates humans breaking and entering their houses at night. I'd say this qualifies based on OP logic.

I didn't watch Grinch for years. Did he try to KILL main character like Van Pelt from Jumanji? Speakin of it, that hunter is played by same actor who played Alan's dad. Ain't that little bit disturbing?

[kylor]

Originally Posted by lud

I didn't watch Grinch for years. Did he try to KILL main character like Van Pelt from Jumanji? Speakin of it, that hunter is played by same actor who played Alan's dad. Ain't that little bit disturbing?

Yep, that's why I brought it up. Good catch!

[CrazyBlu-RayFan]

It's closer to a dark fantasy than actual horror.