Survival horror is a prominent video game genre in which the player has to survive an onslaught of opponents, often undead or otherwise supernatural, typically in claustrophobic environments in a third-person perspective. Horror movie elements are used liberally. The player is typically armed, but not nearly as well-armed as the player in a shooter game. The player's goal is generally to escape from an isolated house or town that is inhabited mostly by zombies and/or monsters through fighting and puzzle solving. Isolation is generally one of the most recurrent themes within this genre.

Survival horror is possibly the only video game genre that is defined primarily by theme rather than gameplay style. Though most commonly associated with the Resident Evil mechanics described above, the genre is also home to beat 'em ups (Nightmare Creatures, Splatterhouse), role playing games (Sweet Home), first-person shooters (, F.E.A.R, Hungry Ghosts), and text adventure games (Kamaitachi No Yoru, The Lurking Horror). Other games such as the Doom and Alien versus Predator series include horror elements, but such games are not typically considered survival horror because horror is not the defining gameplay characteristic. However, the subjective nature of such discrepancies can make survival horror a difficult genre to classify.