The horror genre tends to be the most divisive genre in the Hollywood medium. Many people either love or hate it, with criticisms being they are just two hours of cheap jump scares and serial killers talking horny teenagers. In other words, they are often criticized as being cliched. As much as I am horror fan, I have to agree that Hollywood has been suffering a fatigue in horror films with the same recycled material over and over again with older and more superior works. This is why I am so excited to see that, with the new horror films I have come out this year, the genre is starting to see an improvement.
Actor and comedian Jordan Peele made his directorial debut in 2017 with the horror film Get Out, a movie that starred Daniel Kaluuya as a twenty-something year old black man who heads on a vacation to meet the family of his white girlfriend, only to unravel some sinister motives behind their seemingly welcoming gestures. The film was successful at not only being both spine-chillingly scary with some unexpected cracks of humor but boasting a plot laced with thought-provoking political symbolism that resonated heavily on today's society. As a result, it proved successful at the box office and was well received from the critics and audiences alike.
But Jordan Peele, who has recently made a powerful impression with his second film Us earlier this year, is not the only one who struck a major cord in the horror genre recently. Newcomer Ari Aster arrived on the scene last year with the film Hereditary, a film that tied the psychological horror with deep study on family drama, allowing for one of the most frightening and nightmare-inducing films ever to hit the big screen in years. It has since been considered by many as a instant horror classic, and I couldn't agree with them more.
What's been changing in the horror genre these past few years is that Hollywood is now starting to come up with films that go beyond countless jump scares and suspenseful music scores to churn up the tone. They are not only learning how to create effective scares again but capitalizing on stories that invite audiences to engage in deep thought about what they witness. In other words, filmmakers are coming up with movies like The Witch and Mother that challenge audiences at an intellectual level. Some of these films have warranted repeated viewing for fully examine them and look for small details to understand how the stories tie together.
Horror movies like these do have the tendency to alienate to some mainstream viewers who look for more conventional type flicks but that is part of what makes them feel special, because they are reopening a realm in the horror genre where conventions can be pushed to the side and filmmakers can introduce us with more original ideas. And based on the latest films we have seen in the genre these past few years, I believe that a new era of horror films may be beginning.
