Where ‘Verity’ Sits Between Horror and Psychological Thriller
Whether ‘Verity’ is a horror movie has become a common question as the film reaches theaters. The Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett film opens on October 2 with an R rating. The answer depends on where a viewer draws the line between horror and suspense, and the film sits close to that line.
The story is adapted from Colleen Hoover’s best selling novel and follows author Verity Crawford and a struggling writer named Lowen Ashleigh, who relocates to the remote Crawford estate to ghostwrite for her. The marketing, the early reviews and the director’s own words point in slightly different directions, which is why the question of whether ‘Verity’ is a horror movie keeps coming up.
Why ‘Verity’ Is Billed as a Psychological Thriller
The official positioning is clear. Amazon MGM describes the film as a seductive, psychological thriller, which Screen Rant argues is a better guide to the movie than calling it another Colleen Hoover adaptation. Rotten Tomatoes lists the genre as Mystery and Thriller, along with Drama.
The plot supports that label. After Lowen finds what appear to be Verity’s chilling autobiographical notes, she wrestles with disturbing confessions about Verity’s husband Jeremy and struggles to separate fiction from reality, manipulation from attraction, and opportunity from obsession. That is a story built on doubt and unreliable evidence rather than on monsters or supernatural threats.
The source material works the same way. The thrill in the books comes more from plot twists and an unreliable narrator than from gore and violence. Screen Rant also notes that romance is present in ‘Verity’ but would be a mistake to expect as the main draw.
The Horror Movie Elements in the ‘Verity’ Trailer
The trailer is what pushed the horror conversation forward. Her Campus pointed to blood, jump scares and screaming as reasons the film feels more like horror than a psychological thriller. Fox News described the preview as dark and sinister, a psychological thriller that peels back layers of deception and secrets.
One moment drew particular attention. In the trailer Lowen realizes she is kissing Verity, who bites her lip and makes it bleed, and haunting music builds until Lowen lets out a horror movie scream. A scene like that borrows the language of fright even if the story around it stays rooted in suspense.
Viewers noticed the shift too. One fan reaction quoted by Her Campus said the trailer looked scary and that the book was not that scary. That gap between page and screen explains much of the debate.
What Michael Showalter Has Said About the Film’s Tone
The director has been consistent about the label he prefers. Michael Showalter, who previously worked with Hathaway on ‘The Idea of You,’ has described the project as a thriller. He has also admitted the film has an edge to it.
He told ScreenRant that the film is “dark and twisted” and that he is proud of it. Dark and twisted is not the same as horror, but it leaves room for the scarier touches that appear in the trailer.
The final film reportedly leans on atmosphere. Heaven of Horror describes it as a seductive psychological thriller and credits Hathaway with playing into a steamy 1990s femme fatale thriller vibe that runs through the storyline. That places the tone closer to erotic suspense than to a traditional scare machine.
How Critics Describe the Genre of ‘Verity’
Early reviews mostly stay with the thriller label, though they disagree on how well it works. In a review, IndieWire called the film a faithful adaptation of Hoover’s 2018 bestseller and a ludicrous psychological thriller. The same critic wrote that Showalter is not especially convincing as a horror craftsman, and that the film is more silly than scary whenever its dark strings give way to a sudden jolt.
Other critics focus on style rather than fear. Reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes range from praise for a stylish and twisty noir to complaints that it lacks the trashy guilty pleasure touches of a pulpy thriller. Heaven of Horror gave the film three out of five stars.
The practical takeaway is that ‘Verity’ is best understood as a psychological thriller with horror flavored moments. It runs one hour and 54 minutes and is rated R. Anyone expecting a full horror experience may find the film closer to suspense, while those who like the unreliable narrator of the novel will find the same uncertainty on screen, so does the blood in that trailer scene tip ‘Verity’ into horror for you, or is it still a thriller about whose version of events can be trusted?
