48 Hour Film Project

‘Life is like a box of…’ Genres! At the Kickoff event, each team receives two genres in a random drawing. Whether it is “Comedy or Horror” or “Musical or Mystery”, each team must ensure that their film fits into one of the genres–or a combination of both.

Horror Genres

Abduction

Horror focused on kidnapping or disappearance, often with psychological or alien twists.

Clone Film

There’s more than one of someone or something… and that’s a problem.

Clown / Funhouse / Carnival / Freaks

A film set in carnivals or featuring clowns and "freaks," playing on warped entertainment and unsettling performances.

Comedy Horror

Horror that blends scares with humor, often parodying or subverting genre tropes.

Demonic Pact

Horror involving deals with dark forces that come at a terrifying cost.

Eco-Horror

Nature turns deadly — animals, plants, or the environment itself lash out at humanity.

Forbidden Place Film

A film centered on a place that is off-limits, restricted, or forbidden to enter, and the consequences of crossing that boundary.

Found Footage

In which all or a substantial part of the work is presented as if it were discovered film or video recordings. The events on screen are typically seen through the camera of one or more of the characters involved, often accompanied by their real-time, off-camera commentary.

Insect / Parasite Horror

Horror where bugs or parasites invade bodies or environments, often triggering disgust and dread.

Liminal Horror

A film that evokes fear through isolated, transitional, or seemingly ordinary places that feel unsettling or unreal.

Musical Horror

A horror film in which songs or musical performances are an essential part of telling a story.

One Day Left Film

A known deadline is approaching—end of the world, system shutdown, or something worse.

Parental Horror

Horror that explores fears around parenthood, children, or family dynamics.

Post-Apocolyptic

Horror set after societal collapse, where survival is haunted by monsters, madness, or ruin.

Revenge Horror

Horror driven by vengeance, where payback turns violent or supernatural.

Fantasy Genres

Afterlife Fantasy

Concerns the use of the afterlife as the main setting within which its characters, who may be famous pre-existing historical or fictional figures, act and interact.

Beetlejuice
Field of Dreams
The Sixth Sense

Dark Fantasy

It often combines fantasy with elements of horror or has a gloomy dark tone or a sense of horror and dread.

Edward Scissorhands
Sleepy Hollow
Pan’s Labyrinth

Fables

Using personified animals and the supernatural, fables impart moral lessons, like the stories in Aesop’s Fables and Arabian Nights.

Beauty and the Beast
The Brothers Grimm
Red Riding Hood

Grimdark Fantasy

Dark, violent worlds where morality is grey and hope is scarce.

Heroic Fantasy

Stories of bold heroes on quests against evil forces.

High Fantasy

Feature a more richly developed fantasy world, and may also be more character-oriented or thematically complex.

Lord of the Rings
Dragonheart
The Chronicles of Narnia

Historical Fantasy

Real historical settings blended with magical or mythical twists.

Magical Realism

Everyday life subtly infused with extraordinary, magical elements.

Modern Fantasy

Magical elements woven into a contemporary world.

Nature Fantasy

Stories where forests, creatures, or elemental forces drive the magic.

Romantic Fantasy

Fantastical tales centered on love, destiny, and magical bonds.

School Fantasy

Adventures set in magical academies where students learn spells and secrets.

Steampunk Fantasy

A mix of magic and steam-powered technology in retro-industrial worlds.

Sword and Sorcery

Tend to be more plot-driven than high fantasy and focus heavily on action sequences, often pitting a physically powerful but unsophisticated warrior against an evil wizard or other supernaturally endowed enemy.

Willow
Labyrinth
The Dark Crystal

Urban Fantasy

Supernatural forces hiding in plain sight within modern cities.

Genre Drawing