Although horror movies evoke powerful emotion and have always played an integral role in entertainment, the genre lacked legitimacy.
Historically, hackneyed horror films were released with little regard to quality, so they were often ridiculed as unrefined by tastemakers and audiences.
However, horror has experienced a renaissance in recent years – a trend that will most likely continue thanks to an influx of new talent, as well as the sheer volume of titles across all media platforms.
This new wave of quality horror will likely pave the way for a wider respect of the genre and some new classics to tingle the spines of future audiences.
Films
Hollywood has a strange relationship with horror.
The genre is a mainstay of the Hollywood economy, but its films are often of dubious quality, doomed to be released in January. Studios still want to make money in months where moviegoers are scarce, but don’t want to risk releasing better titles in January and February.
However, the quality of horror films has improved dramatically and critics have recently treated the genre with more respect because of it.
Jordan Peele’s 2017 debut horror film, “Get Out,” made $255 million at the box office on a $4.5 million budget even though it was released in February. The film also gained near-universal critical praise for its combination of horror and social commentary on racism.
“Get Out” succeeded in showing that horror isn’t just about gore and scares, but can be cerebral just like any other film genre.
Later in 2017, a film adaptation of Stephen King’s “It” made more than a $100 million on its box office opening, releasing in the more profitable month of September and rocketing Pennywise back into everyone’s nightmares thanks to Bill Skarsgård’s eerie performance.
Since then, horror movies are treated more fairly by Hollywood studios, fans and critics.
For instance, Jordan Peele’s second horror outing, “Us,” was released in March, as opposed to the January and February dumping grounds.
In general, horror movies seem to be improving both in production and in artistic direction by producing hits like 2018’s batshit-insane Nicholas Cage-helmed revenge story “Mandy” and the eerily beautiful and morally twisted “Midsommar.”
We have some interesting horror titles ahead of us as well, like the “Candyman” reboot produced written by Jordan Peele, and “Halloween Kills,” a sequel to the 2012 movie “Halloween,” a well-received reboot of the 1978 film.
Shows
Throughout the history of television, series centered around horror have been rare.
Until relatively recently, horror on television usually took the form of anthologies like “The Twilight Zone” and “The Outer Limits,” or are aimed at younger viewers like the aptly-named “Eerie, Indiana” or the campy “Goosebumps.”
Sure, shows with horror trappings are aired every once and awhile like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” with its vampires and demons or “Charmed” with its witches, but they were usually seen as drama stories rather than true horror.
Of course, serialized TV shows have delivered genuine horror stories, such as existential-dread-filled shows like “The Walking Dead” and “American Horror Story.”
However, with video streaming came an absolute boom in horror content.
Netflix, not content to host a collection of horror series, produced a few of its own, such as “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” a darker take on the “Archie Comics” character, the sci-fi love letter to the 1980s “Stranger Things” and “The Haunting of Hill House,” which horror genre maestro Stephen King describes as “Close to a work of a genius, really,” in a tweet.
A further testament to horror’s renaissance is Shudder, a streaming network dedicated solely to the genre, full of movies and TV series, some of which are exclusive to the platform.
Though YouTube is rife with amateur horror films and found-footage style series, Crypt TV lends legitimacy to the platform with professionally-made horror shorts and series.
Episodes of Crypt TV series are shorter than an average TV show, but the scares it provides are no less potent.
Crypt TV also has a stable of horrifying monsters that they’re trying to make into a nightmare version of “The Avengers.”
Traditional television isn’t willing to be left in the dust either. While “The Walking Dead” may be starting to drag, newer series like “NOS4A2” on AMC and “Lovecraft Country” on HBO ensure that cable TV will bring some chills too.
Podcasts
Perhaps one of the oldest forms of storytelling is the oral tradition, the act of describing events real or imagined out loud.
It is no surprise that horror has found a home in the world of podcasts, it evokes auditory nostalgia of people telling spooky tales around the campfire.
Horror has also flourished in the podcast scene and has arguably become a mainstay of the platform.
Horror podcasts are available in many sub-genres and new shows are always cropping up to add some spookiness to your daily jog or commute from work.
If you’re looking for old-fashioned radio plays, check out podcasts like “PseudoPod” or “Campfire Radio Theater.”
If you’re looking for audio experiences that play out like television for your ears, you can listen to podcasts like “The Magnus Archives,” “Deadly Manners” or “Alice Isn’t Dead”
Anthologies are perhaps the most common type of horror podcasts, like “The NoSleep Podcast,” a polished audio experience often drawing from the subreddit of the same name or “Creepy,” which is a collection of internet horror stories known as Creepypasta.
Horror podcasts aren’t afraid to play with the format either, with medium-bending shows like “5 Week Countdown” by Audiohm Media, which tasked the audience with helping its protagonist solve puzzles in a lethal escape room and ultimately determine how the story ends.
“The Heads of Sierra Blanca” plays out so much like real-life serial killer podcasts, that many audiences were fooled into thinking that its tale of a murderer who utilized complicated contraptions to decapitate his victims was the real deal.
Best of all, they are largely free of charge, only requiring you to own a phone or a computer to become immersed in an audio horror experience.
So sit back, relax and enjoy the soothing sounds of serial killers and other great modern day horror stories in whichever platform you choose. And don’t worry about the voices, you’re probably just imagining them . . .
