Worse, we’ve created a generation numb to horror films. Their reactions alone – laughter, mockery, derision – bespeak the failure of the modern genre film. Imagination in our young has been replaced by the instantly gratifying images of interactive video games and other high-tech fare that spell it all out on high-definition monitors. There are no spooky walks through the woods, no backyard sleep-outs, no summer camp rites of passage to tantalize and tickle those dark spots in our subconscious. Folklore that once fueled imagination is on the decline, with yarns about Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster and the Bermuda Triangle reduced to tabloid fodder and ridicule from even the youngest of minds. Campfire tales and urban legends have been replaced by sensationalized newscasts. In our scientific world, everything has a rational explanation and there’s little room left for the possibility of things unknown to us. We’re arrogant in our knowledge as a society, and the simplicity of horror cinema has suffered. Sometimes ignorance is bliss – at least when it comes to our horror movies.
Theofantastique ponders on our current social and cultural context of postmodernity and the influence of commodification... oh my.
The problem with today’s horror movies is our current social and cultural context of postmodernity and the influence of commodification. No doubt, at this point, readers are scratching their heads and saying, “What?” Allow me to explain.
Horror is a complex genre involving multiple layers of interpretation, and as Stephen King has noted it “is extremely limber, extremely adaptable, extremely useful.” One of the ways in which horror demonstrates its adaptability is that it provides a means of not only entertainment, but also an expression and means of grappling with some of our greatest fears as individuals and cultures. It should come as no surprise then that as individuals and cultures change, so do their fears, and these changes result in differing cinematic expressions of horror.
Earlier in the modern period horror helped express fears of the Other in its various manifestations that were symbolized in the monster. But with late modernity or postmodernity, a post-1960s phenomenon which is often tied cinematically to films like Psycho (1960), The Night of the Living Dead (1968), or The Exorcist (1973), there has been a shift from the monster as Other to an internalization process whereby the monster is us. The shift from the externalized monster as the locus of horror to an internalized terror is the result of social forces and perceptions that in turn colored interpretation of the self. Lianne McLarty discusses this in her chapter “‘Beyond the Veil of the Flesh’: Cronenberg and the Disembodiment of Horror” as part of The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film, edited by Barry Keith Grant (University of Texas Press, 1996):
Article comments
1 - Bo
A very interesting read and some fine points made all around. I would argue that modern horror is the same as it ever was, only different. It's similar in that there have always been the good releases and the not-so-good. The '50s and '60s are a prime example of the rush to film sometimes on the basis of nae alone. For every Ed Wood, there is a modern analog, our Uwe Boll. There are a number of fine horror films in the recent past, many of which were mentioned here (The Mist, The Ruins, [REC]) and some of these films are truly exceptional. I dare anyone to watch the last fifteen minutes of [REC] alone in the dark and not get spooked. Unfortunately, all American filmmaking has become a numbers game, and, as such, the 'product' the studios have been slinging is inferior and derivative. As long as people buy tickets for it, studios will continue to produce. The best new horror is often fund on the dvd shelves and not at the box office. Unless a festival is nearby, it's all-too-easy to miss an Inside or The Orphanage. Can't wait to read part 2!
2 - Brad Schader
I find that horror today reflects the attitudes of the day. The 80's Slasher movies were filmed during the Reagan era of oppressive morals. In those films, sins were punished by a slasher's visit and only the pure survived. The 70's saw mostly horror movies were G-d and the devil were at odds and usually G-d was powerless to help you (exorcist, omen) which was a reflection of the post Watergate era. The 60's, like today, were heavy on gore based films with little suspense because today, like the 60's we live in a very suspenseful and horrific time of war and gore.
Great read BTW
3 - Teresa
Wonderful article! I've always said today's movies are just not scary (sorry, I didn't like "The Ruins" at all). The only movies that truly made me scared were ones such as "The Evil Dead" and "The Thing". Even the 'cheesy' horror movies of the past are a 100 times better than the 'cheesy' ones made today, I don't know if it's the setting, the acting, the concepts, but a 70s horror film always outshines something from today.
4 - Alvin
We just need something good to come along and change things. IMO it all went tits up when they made a film called Scream which was crap and overrated
5 - UP TOOO LATE
Rec isn't terrible but nothing on Blair Witch (i'm used to being told off for that one) and honestly didn't capture me the way i'd hoped. The ruins wasn't bad at all but still has that sour smell of crapiness that for me has defined this decades horror releases. The Mist was watchable enough but again, flat.
I think what's wrong with horror today (and there is something very wrong) is down to something that's missing in youth culture at the moment. It's the same in music ect innit. It's hard to define. I will start my OWN BLOG YEAHAHAHAHA. (i will)