I would say that in general, movies should be lauded for mixing genres. It's all too easy to make a Western or a Science Fiction film, but when you succeed at blending genres you get gems like Joss Whedon's Firefly.

As far as I am Legend and Cloverfield, yes I think they fit into the horror genre. But in the context of the earlier conversation--what horror defines the decade--I found it disturbing that we were coming up with films that mixed genres so much. Maybe that is what defines the decade, that straight horror no longer exists.

That's okay, really. But sometimes you just want to watch straight horror. But as I said, producing in one genre I think should be easier than blending. So perhaps it's not a good sign that Hollywood can't seem to produce great straight-up horror any more.

Haven't scifi films been horror generally.Look at some old silent films from the 20s like Dr.Jeckyll &Mr.Hyde its a horror with some sci fi in. MIxing genres have given us some of the greatest horror/scifi films.One off the top of my head is Alien

It is pretty telling when we can't think of very many good films off the top of our heads that aren't genre mixers. Maybe it's just the natural progression of things. I personally don't mind the mixing of genres much.

Along these same lines, the American Film Institute (http://www.afi.com/tvevents/100years/10top10.aspx is doing a Top Ten this year of films in many genres. There is a Sci-Fi category, but not a Horror category. Fans are being asked to pick from 50 films, and whittle it down to the top ten. AFI defines "sci-fi" as: "a genre that marries a scientific or technological premise with imaginative speculation." It has selected the following 50 movies as contenders for the best, in alphabetical order : A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Alien, Altered States, The Andromeda Strain, Back to the Future, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, Blade Runner, Children of Men, A Clockwork Orange, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Cocoon, Contact, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Destination Moon, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Escape From New York, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Fantastic Voyage, The Fly (1986), Forbidden Planet, Frankenstein (1931), The Incredible Shrinking Man, Independence Day, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), The Invisible Man (1933), It Came From Outer Space, Jurassic Park, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, The Matrix, Men in Black, Minority Report, Planet of the Apes (1968), Repo Man, RoboCop, Rollerball (1975), Silent Running, Soylent Green, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, Star Wars: Episode IV--A New Hope, Starman, The Stepford Wives (1975), Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Them!, The Thing From Another World, The Time Machine (1960), Total Recall, Tron, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The War of the Worlds (1953), Westworld.

Now we know that many of those films have horror elements. Two of them specifically--Frankenstein and The Invisible Man--I would personally think of as horror, and classic horror at that, though I can see how they could see sci-fi elements in both the films. I think most people would think of those two films as horror rather than sci-fi, especially in consideration of the other movies they have listed in the category. I am wondering why there is not a horror category at all. They've got fantasy, romance, drama, gangster, animated--just about everything else.

I think it's really hard for people to recognize horror as a legitimate form of film. There have simply been too many horror flicks that use cheap scare tactics or a plethora of gore rather than focus on plot or dialogue--not that there's anything at all wrong with that. A huge deal was made about Silence of the Lambs as a horror doing well at the Oscars, but even then I don't think the movie can be strictly defined as such. I would say it's more of a drama/thriller with some horrific elements.

I don't think the mainstream takes horror seriously, much to its own loss. Because there is legitimate horror out there that deserves recognition, but won't get it.

A perfect example would be Scott Smith's The Ruins. When the book came out in 2006, it was lauded by top critics as one of the year's best. Stephen King called it the scariest thing he'd read in the naughts (not to keep harping on that topic). The movie that's coming out looks like downright camp horror. I can't help but believe there was a way to make that movie that didn't turn it into teen slasher, but I'm afraid that's what it looks like. If we, as a society, took horror more seriously, maybe more time and effort would be invested into making it.