Sounds absurd to even hear it asked. The Terminator is clearly Science Fiction; a killer robot from the future? The notion of such a premise even looking in horror's direction is preposterous.
Is it, though as preposterous as... say...
...a talking killer slasher doll with voodoo powers?
If...
Freddy Krueger can cross the realm of the unconscious into our dreams and if
Jason Voorhees can cross death from under a lake into our summer camps and if
Michael Myers can cross out of boogeyman mythology into our very homes, then why
does a menace who's crossed the seas of time get laughed out of the discussion?
The Terminator is no less unstoppable than any of the above & is certainly no less committed to his cause. In fact, in a one-on-one, Terminator would likely decimate all of the above (assuming Krueger was brave enough to showdown in the material realm).
• Terminator targets women.
• Terminator kills any extras in his way.
• Terminator even kills young people right after sex.
• Terminator's existence is no less implausible than other slasher icons.
• Terminator is pretty unstoppable & can come back just as many times from the future.
The Terminator movie has no less thrills in it, no less suspense & at times is even more tense that the wise cracking slashers of the same decade.
So, again, why laugh at the thought of The Terminator being a slasher, if not an outright horror?
As discussed previously, Horror is rooted in hopelessness which is often amplified by ignorance. We simply don't know how Jason came back or what makes him unable to stay dead. We don't know what triggered Michael or why bullets don't stop him. And so on.
The terminator has a battery pack & software. We know other machines can stop him & that he can be reprogrammed. Considering Cameron's message is one of responsibility, we have all the hope we need especially since we'll be the one's making Terminator possible.
It's as simple as that. If you have hope you can have thrills and shocks but not horror. Going to camp or to sleep or to your closet and not being able to stop what's there from trying to kill you? There's nothing to science one's way out of. If it's a hopeless scenario, it's horror.
Ultimately, this is why Terminator is just Science Fiction, not Horror & certainly not Slasher.
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