Horror cinema can be divided into two audiences: one that will worship any horror movie no matter what, and another that won’t be able to stand them. And in case you were wondering, no, it’s not because of fear, but because these films can be SO bad. Even in film schools, there are students that prefer to make horror short-films because they believe this genre is easier than a comedy or good drama. Believe it or not, horror cinema is constantly evolving, and wrenching a scream from the audience is tough to achieve.
Horror movies display a darkness that goes beyond your individual self. They deal with subjects that are disturbing on a social level. Their plots may involve traumatic experiences or impossible catastrophes. But the truth is, American horror cinema is a reflection of anything that can disturb an entire culture.
Aliens, bombs, and communists
During the fifties, fear of the atomic bomb was part of the collective imagination in almost every western country. The Cold War heightened tensions and panic across the United States. Drills would be constantly practiced in order to learn how to minimize the effects of a nuclear attack, or at least its casualties. The cinema at that time didn’t show bombs falling upon civilians, instead it showed mass destruction like this:
The War of the Worlds or The Thing from Another World are movies that recreate the destruction caused by atomic bombs but this mayhem is caused by strange alien creatures bent on destroying everything that crosses their path.
Zombies reflecting Islamophobia
Years have passed, and now people are no longer afraid of a more powerful country attacking them. According to Ann Gordon, professor of Political Sciences at Chapman University, most of Americans avoid malls, outdoor matches, and massive events in general because they fear falling victim to a terrorist attack. The University also found that people are starting to feel more fear towards “the disasters provoked by mankind,” such as biological weapons, nuclear attacks, and terrorism.
After the 9/11 attacks, horror movies were transformed and zombies took the center stage. Now the enemy is not anything created by a nation on the other side of the world, but it’s found within your own community and it will infect any person or animal in it. This transformation causes the extinction of civilization, or at least the extinction of the world as we know it. Movies featuring zombies prove that these people are no longer capable of rational thought, so they’re completely dehumanized. They could be your friends, a lover, or your family; no one is safe, and that is one of our worst fears.
Post-God cinema
Cinema also deals with universal and primal fears. Religion and fear of death have been portrayed in countless movies year after year. The silent darkness of every shot, a child’s demonic possession, or burning eternally in the fires of hell are still dominant motifs in horror cinema. The only thing that changes is the way they are represented.
Contrary to The Exorcist, movies like The Orphan feature characters whose evil nature is inherent, not the result of a demonic possession. Both movies execute horror in the same way, with the only difference that God is not part of the latter’s equation.
The Neverending Return
Nowadays, cinema is trying to reinvent itself, but global fears remain the same. The economic crisis, the world on the brink of collapse or governments that are rotten to the core (The Purge trilogy is a prime example of this) are some of the elements present in contemporary movies. Some movies are extremely well-made, but if you put quantity and quality face to face, you’ll realize that bad horror movies outnumber the good ones. Many movies follow the same line, the same framing, and the same technique in general.
The industry often recycles plots and characters to get profits from people’s morbid curiosity. Directors tend to exaggerate things like sound and visual effects more and more, and the surprise factor ends up becoming a cliché. A lot of people love these movies, but to watch them is like eating at many pizza parlors and always ordering double-cheese pizza every single time. As long as the audience does not start to demand more quality, we will have more remakes of The Ring, or movies with pathetic serial killers chasing scantily clad women.
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Sources:
Youtube
“The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema” (2006)
Sophie Fiennes
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Translated by Andrea Valle Gracia
