Film
Neve Smith 12A
21/02/2024 |
What is the future of horror movies?From slashers like Halloween to psychological thrillers such as The Sixth Sense, horror has always proven to be an extremely popular genre in the world of film. Goosebumps on your skin, hairs standing up, heart beating fast, the fear of the unknown creates an exciting thrill for the audience, one of which people are desperate for more of. However, will this stop? Is horror too much of the same? And if so, how do we change it?
There are many not so original plots of horror movies that are reused over and over again without the audience always noticing while they are watching, and even though these are presented in a light hearted, fun movie manner, the message behind them is much more serious. A common example of this is one that has been talked about before but not necessarily changed, the black guy dies first. This theme reflects larger cultural anxieties around race and violence. However, in these horror movies, the black guy rarely actually does die first, but these misconceptions stem from the value they’re often given on screen. Whether it’s first, second, third, or whenever, black characters are typically just there to die, they’re marginalised, and marginalisation in horror leads to death. This has been the case for many decades, but only in recent years, since movements such as Black Lives Matter, has horror has reflected the awareness of inequalities in firm. Another cliché in horror is the indestructible main character, fighting the bad guys and escaping death hundreds of times. This is a much more noticeable and irritating trope that arguably ruins the outcome and success of these movies. For example, Sidney Prescott from the Scream franchise who (spoiler alert) survives in 5 films, evading murder from a total of 12 serial killers. In each of these fast-paced, adrenaline filled movies, Sidney runs, hides, fights multiple killers without knowing their true identities. This small, thin and emotionally unstable young teen has no previous experience in combat and has no pre-warning of the time of the attacks and still manages to escape. Every. Single. Time. But this is very quickly getting very old and is resulting in fans of horror growing tired of the same predictable content. Maybe sometimes the main character needs to die even if it means the bad guy wins. The same can’t be said though for the classic ‘best friend’. In order for the main character to survive, they must be serious, smart and focused, however, to keep things interesting the audience has got to be given a character to love and relate to – and to provide some much needed comedic relief. But apparently that’s not what you need to be to survive a brutal killer à fun = dumb and dumb = dead. Unfortunate. Is this what people want though? A heartbreaking death of a beloved character? Personally, I’d rather they lived, leading me to think a change needs to be made. It is not a great message to promote, that all fun characters, who drink, dress in a more revealing way, and date who they want, will ultimately meet a bad end for living freely. But not all is bad in the world of horror, and some things maybe just don’t need to change. For me, it’s the famous opening kill in the Scream franchise. Despite its predictability, each opening kill is unique and ICONIC, even though the outcome remains the same – well… until recently! But still, all this leads me to believe that horror movies don’t necessarily always need to be new and different, they just need to be revamped and shown in a new way. |