Is The Horror Genre Dead?

HOLLYWOOD—This is something I have been thinking about for quite some time, is the horror genre that I have adored since a little tike actually dead? How can I best say this? I think it is. The genre I feel saw a burst in the 1930s with some classic flicks like “Frankenstein” and “The Mummy,” you also saw a boom in the 50s with the creature features, but the genre saw a shift in 1960 when Alfred Hitchcock introduced his iconic flick “Psycho” and our iconic Norma Bates aka ‘Mother.’ You could make the argument that it was the first slasher flick of the genre, but you would be wrong.

There was a little-known film made by Michael Powell called “Peeping Tom” that was released in 1959 that holds that honor. Very unnerving and a classic flick not many know about especially if you’re not a cinema buff or someone who was a film studies major as an undergraduate. The 70s really upped the ante of the mayhem, so much to the point it was the reason the 80s exploded the genre and killed it at the same time.

You had “The Exorcist,” “Black Christmas,” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” “Phantasm,” “Alien” and John Carpenter’s 1978 classic “Halloween.” All unique movies in their own way that started to shape the genre into the sci-fi, possession, gore and slasher subgenres. Then we have the 80s, which is when I was born and the plethora of horror was unbelievable, you had “Friday the 13th” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street” that introduced us to the realm of franchises, sequel mania and iconic villains Jason Voorhees and Freddy Kreuger.

You also had the birth of what were deemed Scream Queens, but there is only one if you truly think about it, and her name is Jamie Lee Curtis. The number of horror flicks this woman starred in is unbelievable. There are a couple of classics like “Hellraiser,” “Child’s Play,” that top my list, but the rest were subpar if not terrible. Why? They simply copied and pasted what everyone else did before them. There was no originality. Come the 90s the genre was dead. It’s just a fact, movies were still being churned, but it wasn’t until the 1996 classic “Scream” helmed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson that changed the genre.

It poked fun at horror and the troupes in a way a movie never did before, and it spawned a slew of copycats to a degree with “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and “Urban Legend” among many others. This ultimately ushered us in the 2000s, where remake mania became potent as hell. If the movie was made in the 70s or 80s, you saw a remake of it in the 2000s and 2010s, but none were truly epic, if we’re being honest. It was a copy and paste with new faces and some elevated tech at best. I loved “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” from 2003, “The Ring” in 2002 and “The Grudge” in 2004, there were probably others, but nothing that blew my socks off.

I loved the more psychological horror in the past 10 years or so with flicks like “Hereditary” and a few others, but no actual standouts that blew my mind. I liked “Freaky” and “You’re Next,” not to mention the twist on “Happy Death Day.” As we look at the past five to 10 years, it was the remake/rebirth/requel birth of the genre, as we saw a mesh between the remake of an original and a sequel combined to try to deliver a fresh take on things.

We have the 2018 version of “Halloween” that was amazing, we got a 2022 version of “Scream” (which is simply “Scream 5” that was a fresh take), and we’ve gotten plenty of others that I can name, but it begs the question, is it worth it to do it? No.

Why? The originality element of the genre feels it died like 30 to 40 years ago. No one is coming up with ideas that are game-changing and so fresh that it blows your mind. I’ve never been a fan of horror for the violence, which for reasons I cannot explain has always felt like the focus of so many writers and directors of the genre. Every now and then we get a glimpse of something fresh, but it’s so fleeting.

It could be a direct result of Hollywood not wanting to take a gamble. They want to do what is cheap, affordable and can quickly be churned out to make a quick buck; they don’t care about how stale the story is and how weakly developed the characters in the movie are. I want to change that as a filmmaker. I want to bring something fresh to the genre and flip it on its head. I don’t want you to know who is going to live and die as soon as the movie starts. The opening of the movie doesn’t always have to be a kill, how about we get some character development.

I want a villain that is just as smart if not smarter than our protagonist(s). I want developments in the narrative that stuns the viewer, and I want to build suspense to a height that when it bursts it leaves you so unnerved you never truly put yourself back together until after the movie ends. The goal is to leave you glued to the screen in the best way possible.

Do I think the genre can revitalize? Yes, but it comes with people wanting to take a risk and not be afraid to think outside the box and not just do what is safe. Safe is ok, but does it make you stand out from all the others? Not really and that is the problem with horror, there are so many movies that are forgettable instead of iconic.