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The State of Horror Films: A Decade of Evolution | E-Writes Podcast
Welcome to the E-Writes Podcast! Today, we’re exploring the current state of horror films, a genre that has seen remarkable transformations and innovations over the years. As we dive into the films of this decade, we’ll examine whether the horror genre is thriving or struggling to find its footing. Horror films have a long history of spine-chilling narratives, but are there great horror films in the 2020s? Here are the arguments for and against this claim.
Evidence for Great Horror Films in the 2020s
1. Innovative Storytelling
What then for the horror genre? Does its most recent output reveal a robust innovation that’s capable of continuing to offer viewers new and exciting ways with which they can experience their worst nightmares? Or will future generations scoff at Hereditary much as some in my parents’ generation scoffed at Psycho – and will they be right to do so? Quite the reverse, I feel. There has seldom been a better time to be an aficionado of horror movies. Just as the genre was growing tired, it was reinvigorated by The Blair Witch Project (1999). Even now, more than two decades later, it feels like the game is still being reinvented. For example, the recent remake The Invisible Man (2020) recast the otherwise similar Universal Studios classic from the 1930s so that it chimed productively with recent thinking about domestic violence. And, as with marvelous examples such as Scream (1996), it demonstrated that horror could also embrace social issues in provocative and convincing new ways.
2. Diverse Voices
More and more people with a vast range of voices are being given the opportunity to make horror films, with recent releases like Nia DaCosta’s Candyman (2021) and Axelle Carolyn’s The Night House (2020) coming from the directing minds of black and female directors, whose films address issues of race and identity, as well as mental health.
3. Successful Franchises and Unique Concepts
Franchise sequels such as A Quiet Place Part II (2021) can both live up to the promise of their predecessors and move forward into new characters and worlds. Stand-alone movies like Malignant (2021), by James Wan, allow the genre to experiment with jolting audiences out of their complacency with surprises and innovative plots, even if those movies themselves might often fail to adhere to classic horror tropes.
Evidence Against Great Horror Films in the 2020s
Perhaps the biggest critique of the contemporary horror landscape is the prevalence of the reboot. As long as people have fond memories of a prior film, studios know it will draw in audiences by default. At the same time, nostalgia alone doesn’t always make for captivating filmmaking. Look at reboots and remakes of famous films that range from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) to The Grudge (2020) and Halloween Kills (2021): often they repeat rather than innovate, and fans wind up dissatisfied because it feels like a copy that’s inferior to the original. Filling out the yearly slots for horror films compels studios to rely heavily on restarted franchise models. This not only risks stereotyping what audiences expect of ‘horror’, but it can also stifle creativity by overshadowing original, new horror films.
2. Mixed Reception
Not all horror films released in this decade have received favorable reviews. While some films have been praised, others, like "The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It" (2021) and "Fear Street Trilogy" (2021), have garnered mixed to negative responses, suggesting that not all entries are hitting the mark with audiences and critics alike.
3. Market Saturation
Streaming platforms have proliferated horror, which, in turn, leads to an oversaturation of the market with complete and dissimilar projects being greenlit left and right. With the sheer amount of (subpar) movies unleashed to the world in a short amount of time, the fear of a saturation effect raises its ugly head. During the last several years, enough uninspired content has flooded the genre to make it questionable whether the modern viewer, in spite of his or her hunger for inspiration, is still able to be creeped out effectively.
Conclusion
Where does the horror film genre go from here? It enters the 2020s facing both those challenges and innovations. On the one hand, we can see a horror genre that is exploring a wider variety of narratives, and with each passing year, those narratives are expanding. Horror is poised on the edge of startling technical innovations and the continued relevance of films made half a century ago, and the tale it tells will be a long one. In many ways, the genre is in great shape: it remains as vital as ever. Horror films continue to explore and comment on modern society and culture, and each year they strive to set new standards for what works and what doesn’t. Even now, with its ever-expanding ranks of fans and participators, it occasionally strikes the perfect balance between pagan grandeur and over-the-top excess that it has always striven to attain.
We’d love to hear from you! What are your thoughts on the current state of horror films? Are there any recent favorites that stand out to you?
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