We need the horror genre. Horror pulls out the monsters in our minds and haunts us in our waking hours; is the perfect genre for the shadow work we'll be doing for the next few years.
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this is the only silver lining of the next 4 years but the danger of cultural conservatism strangling the arts + financial pressure in Hollywood could make this challenging
Horror is my favorite genre for this reason. It can help us come to grips with the difficult and scary aspects of life. It feels very enlightening in a way.
I grew up on Stephen King. I have been training for this bizarre shit for my entire life. Matter of fact, I was oddly prepared for isolating at home for COVID... I was built for this dystopian world 🐦⬛
The past few years have been fantastic for horror in this vein specifically. Barbarian, The Substance, I Saw the Tv Glow, Late Night with the Devil, Us, Talk to Me, etc. I loveeee horror with a message
I like this take. Not usually a horror person but lately I’ve been writing psychological horrors. I’m trying to navigate shadow work. I’m essentially telling on myself. Also healing. Crazy.
Amen amen. It also often explores so many issues our culture needs to grapple with- gender, difference, stereotype, identity, power, anarchy, the unknown
The museum of pop culture in Seattle helped me appreciate the horror genre by connecting the psychology of people’s projection of irl fears to “monsters”.
Also this cool exhibit on 100 horror movies watch before you die
Just wrote half of my huge grad degree paper on Horror and themes and such. Horror also serves as a safe way for us to engage with fear and learn how to react. It can also deactivate the parts of the brain causing panic by putting audience in control of the scares.
I might also add there's unconventional beauty in many of our monsters, while horror lets us know that there's hidden currents of malice beneath surface-pretty waters. It teaches us to look and not shy away, because what we don't know may kill us. In a word, courage.
this is so real. roomie and i just binged “them” lots of feelings… but the way i got on my zoom and started to reframe the way i talked about my people. scared me so bad i retired the n word lol
I turned to horror as a kid because I needed monsters I could attribute to something. I had terrible nightmares and horror helped me really thin them out.
This is actually really common! Horror puts us in control of our own fear and some limited studies have shown that horror media may help people because of this. I just wrote a paper in college about this 🤣
As soon as it’s published through my university, I’ll be posting it somewhere to be read! Just waiting on that solid *proof* it belongs to me, you know? But for sure! Once they process it, I can let you read it
You know I really want a slew of horror movies exploring a group of people who believe they are following God only to learn they are following the actual devil instead, and who they where taught was good is actually evil. I think thiers a real audience here in America.
It depends on what you mean by horror. If you're talking about monster movies like from the early 20th century I'm with you. I can't watch people being stabbed or hurt though. Violence porn doesn't work for me.
While I agree with you I believe there needs to be more Connect the Dots horror films, such as The Substance. Now we have monsters going to run the country I hope horror focuses on reality horror synthesis.
I’d add that in horror even when facing overwhelming odds there are actions to take. Even if ultimately unsuccessful, the protagonists can do something - unlike us who are watching a looming nightmare growing daily and are unable to do anything to stop it
Honestly, sitting helpless watching the collapse of a nation, knowing all the hunger, disease and death that is to follow, is itself, a worse horror than any monster in need of slaying.
I have been watching (more like listening to) various horror films as background for several weeks now. There's something soothing about the predictability.
I need effing authors and Hollywood to quit giving these assh0les ideas. Stop with the Handmaid's Tales, the Purges, the damn Hunger Games. Those are republican wet dreams.
Best movie genre. Me and my partner are obsessed, definitely more into the classics. Too many modern horrors don't pull me in. There are so many modern gems, but on the whole, too many are poorly made now.
What I love about the horror genre is that it’s the one genre of media that still privileges new stories and pushing boundaries. It actively pursues the subversive. It will be interesting to see how creators play with that over the next few years.
I like being challenged to the depths of my humanity and how we can persevere in tragedies, even if things are ultimately for nothing in the end. I love seeing tenacity and having a safe place to explore my fears and anxieties under my control.
And I’d argue it teaches the empathy that’s so lacking in so many people these days. Take Stephen King-besides the scares, I remember how much I ached reading about Carrie’s last thoughts, or Cujo’s confusion, or Harold’s loneliness that twisted him so badly
Yes, I love how horror challenges the dangerously hopeful idea of humanity's eternal resilience. The truth is that lots of the time things don't snap back, they just snap.
This!! There’s so much empathy to be learned from horror; Alien: fear of forced birth (there’s a reason the man has the chest burster), Hellraiser: fear that pursuit of pleasure could lead to suffering, American Werewolf: survivors guilt! The messages utilised in horror media are so important 🖤
One hundred percent. Even something like the Bible uses horror elements to reflect our deepest fears and flaws. I’m reading a Bible study book called “Don’t Look Away: The Horrors of Holy Scripture” that compares Bible passages to horror films.
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The Daryll series rocks, though
Also this cool exhibit on 100 horror movies watch before you die
https://www.mopop.org/100horrorfilms
I mean it doesn't
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0D7SZ9C51/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.TR2CVOE2qITNabmmUZf8x_mfa4g188UH9XPI8f0ll4aKgZbcTd7MfJPR0PMXRJIiVlfYuZu5yOHWJJEaf5xC4tPNlCyJPot43iGTcqQSX85btlX13Ndt5ytcdbiWvUicgXlf8RiUoAT1dXP4HKWZSg.HUUtAUjjxob5oMHz2h8_9VNjVjNLYVUOHb2sQ6nmAJk&qid=1724282490&sr=8-1
Just to clear the monsters from our minds.
Unfortunately, the only real monsters are humans.