Item: Salem's Lot
Language: en-US
Type of Problem: Incorrect_content
Extra Details: Why is this movie categorized as only a Mystery? I was searching under Horror on Letterboxd, and I noticed that Salem's Lot wasn't there. I was quite surprised to discover that its genre didn't include Horror. I think it's self-evidently a horror movie.
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Reply by raze464
on July 1, 2024 at 4:05 PM
This is a TV entry and there is no "Horror" genre for TV shows. Horror TV shows use the "horror" keyword, which this entry already does.
Reply by NikosKaramanlisV2
on July 1, 2024 at 4:50 PM
There's no "Horror" genre for TV shows, but there is "Mystery?" Why can it be classified as "Mystery" but not "Horror?" Well, anyway, that kinda screws things up over on Letterboxd. There must be a lot of horror movies over there that aren't being classified as horror.
Btw this isn't a TV show. It's a made for TV movie.
Reply by NikosKaramanlisV2
on July 1, 2024 at 7:56 PM
I just looked up Dracula (1974), directed by Dan Curtis. It's also a TV movie, and this site has it classified as "Horror." So why not Salem's Lot? Same thing for The Night Stalker (1972). It's another TV movie, and it's also classified as "Horror." Salem's Lot should be no different.
Reply by raze464
on July 1, 2024 at 8:13 PM
This Salem's Lot adaptation is different; it's a TV entry. Dracula (1974) and The Night Stalker (1972) are movie entries.
Reply by Banana
on July 1, 2024 at 8:16 PM
@NikosKaramanlisV2 TMDB has two different sections/type of entries: TV series and movies. As @raze464 there is no Horror genre in the TV section. We physically cannot add Horror to the entry because it's not listed a genre option on TV entries. (Yes, it sucks, but there's nothing we can do about it.)
Reply by NikosKaramanlisV2
on July 1, 2024 at 8:30 PM
"This Salem's Lot adaptation is different; it's a TV entry." But there's no reason why it should be any different. Salem's Lot was not a TV show, as you initially described it. It was a TV movie, same as Dracula (1974) and The Night Stalker (1972). And those are classified here as "Horror." Salem's Lot should be moved out of TV and placed under Movies.
"Yes, it sucks, but there's nothing we can do about it."
But if there's nothing you can do about it, then I suppose that's the end of it.
Reply by NikosKaramanlisV2
on July 3, 2024 at 7:37 PM
So, over the course of our discussion, we managed to identify the real problem: Salem's Lot is currently categorized as a TV entry, but that's incorrect & it should be categorized as a Movie entry. If that mistake were corrected, "Horror" could then be added to its genre, and the whole problem would be solved.
Anyway, I've said my piece. I'll let you figure it out. Thanks for listening.
Reply by Banana
on July 3, 2024 at 7:43 PM
No, Salem's Lot is CORRECTLY categorized as TV miniseries since it originally aired in two parts on CBS.
The missing Horror genre will hopefully be added enventually. But moving Horror TV shows to the movie section is not a solution. I don't think anyone would be happy if we started deleting the TV entries of horror shows such as The Walking Dead or American Horror Story, and adding them as movies instead.
Reply by NikosKaramanlisV2
on July 4, 2024 at 10:26 AM
lol that's a false equivalence, and you know it. Nobody thinks of Salem's Lot in the same vein as a TV show like The Walking Dead. It was essentially a TV movie split into two parts. The terms "TV movie" and "miniseries" were often used interchangeably back then, depending on the circumstances. But you're technically correct; it is referred to as a TV miniseries. So I'll just take the L and move on. Hopefully something changes one day so that horror movies can be classified as horror movies on Letterboxd.