What is the Future of Horror?

The recent elections here in the U.S. as well as looking back on the past 8 years have left me pondering about many philosophical and sociological questions. One of those concerns our beloved genre.

Horror films tend to thrive during times of political and/or social unrest, as well as during times of war and economic hardships. This is likely due to the theory that horror films give vent to many of our anxieties and fears at a subconscious level. During the Depression era of the 1930's the classic Universal Monster films as well as many other horror films were greatly popular. World War 2 seemed to have a similar effect, though in the 50's, even though there were still plenty of horror films, they tended to be a bit on the campy side. This is likely due to the fact that the 50's were considered to be a "golden era" for the U.S. with the economic prosperity and lack of war for most of the decade, even though the Cold War was already happening. The 60's brought us an escalation in the Cold War, the Vietnam war, counter culture movements, the peak of the civil rights struggle, and a great amount of social unrest. Horror with a more serious tone was once again flourishing and it was the birth of "Satanic Panic" era in horror. Graphic, brutality and violence in horror seemed to peak in the 70's, an era with still plenty of social problem, the cold war still raging on, and counter culture movements either peaking or coming to an end.

Horror films of the 60's and 70's seemed to offer subliminal commentary on the problems of times, with films like Night of the Living Dead, Halloween, Dawn of the Dead, and TCM all being picked apart by scholars and praised for their deliberate or accidental social commentary.

The 80's were viewed as somewhat of a return of the 50's prosperity even though the cold war was still going on and the threat of nuclear war loomed like ever before. Horror still thrived, but aside from the slasher craze of the early 80's the films were once again largely of the campy variety with the later Nightmare on Elm Street series and various horror/comedies.

In the 90's, the cold war had ended, and after a brief war and recession the U.S. entered into a period of relative peace and prosperity. I remember that in this period horror was pretty much dead as far as theatrical releases went. Horror seemed to barely make a blip on the radar when it came to box office returns, movies would languish in theaters for about a week before being sent off to cheap second run movie theaters where they died a quiet death. It was not until Scream in the late 90's that horror made a comeback, but it was not a great comeback with the films either being sequels to Scream or cheap imitations aimed at the "Dawson's Creek audience."

In the early 2000's thing seemed to fall apart again in the country and horror is as big as ever before with the "torture porn" genre and the endless torrent of remakes. Now that the country is in it's lowest economic state since the Depression and a newly elected president the slogans of "hope" and "change" everywhere the question is what will happen to our beloved genre if the U.S. does enter another period of peace and prosperity? Any thoughts?

[17thJuggalo]

Nice analysis on the relationship between horror and social unrest.

I will say that I don't think that this country is going to come close to any sort of prosperity or peace in the near future, so there will be plenty of "doom and gloom" for horror films to capitalize on. Hopefully the new Democrat regime will be more lenient when it comes to censorship compared to the religious and "family values" shit that's been shoved down our throat for the last 8 years. However, Democrats are known to shit on the 1st Amendment as much as anyone else so we'll see what happens.

I think these days it all comes down to money. Creativity and originality is put on the backburner in order to make way for formulaic creations that can be safely consumed by the masses. This exists in television, music, film, and even the news and doesn't look like it'll be going away any time soon. So even if horror films still remain as popular as they are, the formula driven garbage will be at the forefront despite the current state of society.

Remakes of prequels to remakes of sequels, that's what's coming...

[DVD-fanatic-9]

I don't look at The Clinton era America as killing horror. Look at the Romero documentary, Document of the Dead- that shows him and Chris talking about how hard it was in the late 1980's to get financing for lower budgeted films as opposed to the early and mid-80's, and I imagine the 70's and earlier on. So already it was sort of becoming a studio-controlled environment as far back as 20 years ago. Which is kind of why people look at the greatest successes in horror of the 90's being outside the U.S. in countries where it wasn't necessarily the same situation. In the U.S., Orion and New World became defunct, and the most low budget horror output was from Troma and Full Moon, though other companies like Dimension/Miramax and A-Pix flourished later on when it was all direct-to-video.

The biggest problem in horror is conformity, when it all has to fit into a group. Studios controlling everything leads to everything being edited or changed, or test-screened until people become raised to think that's what the best horror is - modified and controlled from directors' original visions. New President or old, new administration or old, democrat or republican - it's too early to tell what will change. But I don't see much changing for the better. I do see the volume decreasing. But time will tell.

[Ash28M]

Contrary to popular opinion. I think overall this decade has been great when it comes to horror. I agree that it is a direct reflection of what was and still is going on in the world. The anger people felt towards this administration not to mention the inhuman acts that have occurred on both sides, is very similar to what caused the "gritty" horror boom in the 70's. This is why we are seeing more mean spirited films now a days. The 50's films reflected peoples fears of nuclear annihilation. I think WW2 was a little different as although it was a rough time, People didn't have the same hostility towards there own government that they did during Vietnam and Iraq. There was a boom of Nazi spy type films in the 40's so again horror trends almost always reflect societies fears.

Now if we do enter a more peaceful time I think there is a good chance it will hurt at least the edginess of genre films. We may see more inventive creative horror films though, which is always good. We also may go back to what we saw in the late 80's and 90's with watered down thriller type horror films and bad cash in sequals. That wouldn't be good.

[baggio]

Well, for next couple of years were going to see a lot of remakes.


Maybe we will see a slew of horror "in space" & "underwater" type movies.

Originally Posted by Ash28M

Contrary to popular opinion. I think overall this decade has been great when it comes to horror. I agree that it is a direct reflection of what was and still is going on in the world. The anger people felt towards this administration not to mention the inhuman acts that have occurred on both sides, is very similar to what caused the "gritty" horror boom in the 70's. This is why we are seeing more mean spirited films now a days. The 50's films reflected peoples fears of nuclear annihilation. I think WW2 was a little different as although it was a rough time, People didn't have the same hostility towards there own government that they did during Vietnam and Iraq. There was a boom of Nazi spy type films in the 40's so again horror trends almost always reflect societies fears.

Now if we do enter a more peaceful time I think there is a good chance it will hurt at least the edginess of genre films. We may see more inventive creative horror films though, which is always good. We also may go back to what we saw in the late 80's and 90's with watered down thriller type horror films and bad cash in sequals. That wouldn't be good.

I agree with your assessment completely, I think that beneath the huge ocean of crap remakes and sequels there have been many great, gritty and brutal horror films. So many in fact that I haven't been able to keep up.

[DVD-fanatic-9]

I'm sorry you two, but your assessment and agreement couldn't make me more sick to my stomach. No offense, truly. But this decade still leaves me feeling horror will never recover.

And "brutal"... all in the eye of the beholder. Not to mention that brutality alone can't keep the genre alive. That's really the same as copying. Only now it's a mindset that's becoming regurgitated in every film not just specific cliches.

[Ash28M]

Originally Posted by DVD-fanatic-9

I'm sorry you two, but your assessment and agreement couldn't make me more sick to my stomach. No offense, truly. But this decade still leaves me feeling horror will never recover.

And "brutal"... all in the eye of the beholder. Not to mention that brutality alone can't keep the genre alive. That's really the same as copying. Only now it's a mindset that's becoming regurgitated in every film not just specific cliches.

That's cool we can disagree. I Just think if you take out the crap and there definitely is allot of it, this is one of the best decades we have seen. It may lack in the "Bonafide Classics" territory that made the 70's so memorable but I could probably list off 100 films I thought were above average in the last ten years. I'm not sure If I can do that with any other decade.

[DVD-fanatic-9]

You're right to say that we disagree. We're right on the same page with the crap idea. But not only is most of this decade disposable, but it's not just lacking classics - it's lacking a great deal of art and almost all signs of intelligence whatsoever.

This has been a much better decade for horror than the 90's, that's for sure.

[spawningblue]

Originally Posted by Rockmjd

This has been a much better decade for horror than the 90's, that's for sure.

Agreed. Still far behind every other decade though. But I agree, it hasn't been as bad as people make it out to be. There have been some really great films so far in my opinion.

[Ash28M]

I just thought I would give some evidence behind my defence of this decade so here is a list of 100 films (well I stopped at 100) from the last 10 years that I thought were well above average.

Let the Right One In (2008)
Grindhouse (2007)
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Saw (2003)
[Rec] (2007)
The Others (2001)
The Orphanage (2007)
The Devil's Backbone (2001)
28 Days Later... (2002)
A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)
Audition (1999)
The Descent (2005)
The Mist (2007)
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Shutter (2004)
American Psycho (2000)
Frailty (2001)
The Ring (2002)
Three... Extremes (2004)
28 Weeks Later (2007)
Inside (2007)
1408 (2007)
Dark Water (2002)
Stir of Echoes (1999)
May (2002)
The Devil's Rejects (2005)
The Eye (2002)
Saw II (2005)
Haute tension (2003)
Dead End (2003)
The Midnight Meat Train (2008)
Ravenous (1999)
Dog Soldiers (2002)
Session 9 (2001)
Kairo (2001)
Severance (2006)
Next Door (2005)
Final Destination (2000)
Suicide Club (2002)
30 Days of Night (2007)
Joy Ride (2001)
Rogue (2007)
Ils (2006)
Slither (2006)
Ju-on: The Grudge (2003)
In My Skin (2002)
Maléfique (2002)
The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
The Ninth Gate (1999)
Land of the Dead (2005)
Silent Hill (2006)
Calvaire (2004)
Funny Games U.S. (2007)
Final Destination 2 (2003)
The Strangers (2008)
Uzumaki (2000)
The Hole (2001)
Vacancy (2007)
Quarantine (2008)
Wolf Creek (2005)
Frontière(s) (2007)
Dagon (2001)
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
The Ruins (2008)
Re-cycle (2006)
Joshua (2007)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
Bug (2006)
Wrong Turn (2003)
Teeth (2007)
Isolation (2005)
The Last Winter (2006)
Open Water (2003)
Mulberry Street (2006)
The Abandoned (2006)
My Little Eye (2002)
Storm Warning (2007)
Hostel (2005)
Dead Birds (2004)
Borderland (2007)
Sheitan (2006)
House of 1000 Corpses (2003)
Jeepers Creepers (2001)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Signs (2002)
Cloverfield (2008)
Eden Lake (2008)
Martyrs (2008)
Vinyan (2008)
Acolytes (2008)
Battle Royale (2000)
Ginger Snaps (2000)
The Girl Next Door (2007)
Cookers (2001)
The Machinist (2002)
End of the Line (2006)
Red Dragon (2002)
Blood Moon (2001)
The Host (2006)
Irréversible (2002)

[DVD-fanatic-9]

I would have to count to know for sure, but I think I haven't seen half of that list yet. Also, I should have made myself clear about one thing- whenever I criticize this decade, I always leave out Asian horror films. I think I've only seen one below-average Asian horror film (and surprisingly enough it was on your list: The Eye).

I will give you credit for: American Psycho, Final Destination, May, Hostel, 28 Days Later, Jeepers Creepers, Open Water, and Ginger Snaps (the single bonafide masterpiece from North America I've seen in this pathetic excuse for a decade). Funny enough, almost all of those films are from 2000-2002. As well as a couple of others I didn't see on your list- Dahmer and Wendigo.

As far as this decade versus the 1990's, if you rule out Asian horror... it's offensive to compare this piece of trash decade to the 1990's. With the exception of Ginger Snaps, no films have even come close to approaching the quality of the greatest horror films of the 1990's (Silence of the Lambs, Misery, Dead Alive, Scream, Arachnophobia - I don't care what anyone says about spiders not being scary, everyone I know who saw that movie were scared shitless).

Like I said before- this decade is all about conformity. It's so hard to tell one of these awful films from another. Hell, even subgenres have no stylistic separation anymore. The production values, art designs, camerawork, cinematography - they all look the same. Whether they're ghost films, survival exploitation torture films, zombie films. The casts all look the same, the actors have feel the same, the writing on so many of these films are completely void of intelligence... Hell even in the 1990's, the worst thing about the "teen slasher" trend was the heavy reliance on cliche. They were still better written and smarter on the whole in many ways than... sorry, every time I try to say it I gag and my throat closes a little bit: the Saw franchise.

But the impression I'm getting here is that people have stopped caring about intelligence. Maybe I take it too seriously. I just don't want the genre to die. And it's so damn close, I can actually, physically feel it slipping away for good. It's flat-lining.

[Ash28M]

Originally Posted by DVD-fanatic-9

As well as a couple of others I didn't see on your list- Dahmer and Wendigo.
.

I guess we just simply disagree as I thought the 90's on the whole was horror at it's lowest point. 1999 was the beginning of a it's comeback IMO. If you haven't seen half of them I really recommend you give some of them a try as it may change your mind.

I was actually going to include Wendigo as I think it's great but I know allot of people don't like that film so I decided to leave it out.