Spoilers ahead: for the puzzle and the movies/games
This page reveals all categories and answers for this puzzle. It also discusses plot details, story endings, and other spoilers for some of the movies/games shown.
easy
Werewolf movies
An American Werewolf in London · Ginger Snaps · The Howling · Dog Soldiers
medium
Actors making their directorial debut
Nothing But Trouble · Dances with Wolves · Ordinary People · A Bronx Tale
hard
Artificial beings searching for personhood
Her · After Yang · A.I. Artificial Intelligence · Bicentennial Man
These films do not use artificial intelligence as mere threat or gadgetry. Each one centers a non-human being pushing toward recognition, intimacy, dignity, or legal personhood and asks what counts as a fully human life.
tricky
Actors playing versions of themselves
This Is the End · JCVD · The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent · My Name Is Bruce
These films turn celebrity image into part of the fiction. The performance works because the movie wants the audience to bring outside knowledge of the actor's persona, then watch that image get exaggerated, mocked, or cornered inside the story.