“IT’S ALIIIIVE!!! IT’S ALIIIIIVE!!!”

What has been happening to the horror genre in the 21^st century? The transformation of the genre has been an interesting one. If you'll direct your attention to the timeline below, we'll examine this timeline and the films that were released within each era.

It’s certainly been a roller coaster ride as we started off the new millennia with the, at the time, popular torture porn version of horror films.

The Torture Porn Era (2000-2006)

Films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot, the Saw franchise, and other flicks such as The Hills Have Eyes remake are all examples of this gruesome new fad in the horror community. Featuring enough blood to paint a barn, these films capitalized on the fear of dismemberment and dying while being hacked in half by a chainsaw or ripped apart by a strong, oversized monster man.

These films featured almost nothing redeeming, and while it might have been scary for third graders, none of them really scared us, but rather just made us puke in the lap of the person sitting next to us.

The Home Invasion Era (2007-2008)

Now, let’s fast forward about a few years where we find the home invasion horror fad. A new series emerged known as The Strangers as well as a remake of a great 1970s film called When A Stranger Calls.

While these features certainly offered a bit more fright than the torture porn genre, I feel it’s more for a niche audience and still didn’t grab our attention like horror classics such as Halloween. The home invasion genre is an incredibly tough one to pull off and can end in absolute disaster if not communicated effectively (see The Purge.) I’ll say that, on the road to the horror genre’s resurrection, this was probably the best fad, but it really only lasted for about a year.

If we transition to around 2007-2008 we’ll see a fad that became widely popular and still is decently relevant. Wanna take a guess?

The Paranormal Era (2007-Present)

The ghost/demon/paranormal/found-footage fad would be the right answer. The film that started this fad would be Paranormal Activity. Bridging off of the found-footage gimmick that was started by The Blair Witch Project in the late 90s, Paranormal Activity had a minuscule budget of $15,000 dollars but grossed over $193.4 million dollars in box offices around the globe, spurring a completely new trope within the horror community.

They were able to squeeze out four films out of this tired cliché and I’m not convinced they’ll ever stop. Left and right, these found footage ghost movies were being released by the dozens and it still hasn’t come to an end.

One series that has relatively lived on past the expiration date of horror fads is the Insidious franchise. While this franchise has spawned three films, a series came out of that one known as The Conjuring which was, in its own right, a good film, but then came Annabelle, which was just another jump scare mess.

I’m not even telling you about the Oujia franchise, which only has two films right now, but I would estimate there will be two more. I’m not sure if I would say this fad is still relevant but I would definitely say it’s still alive, and I’m honestly not sure it ever will die.

Here comes “the resurrection” that I teased earlier.

The Creative Era (2011-Present)

Starting in about 2011, horror films began becoming creative again. I feel that the film to start this creative spurt was Cabin In The Woods, which I strongly recommend as it’s unlike anything you’ll ever watch. As time went by, the duds were certainly apparent, but a transition to a new, fresh horror began. To name a few, flicks such as The Babadook, It Follows, Get Out, and, most recently, A Quiet Place have introduced brand new themes, creative premises, terrifying scares and, most importantly, whole, coherent films.

In films such as The Babadook, we see the terrifying struggle of a stressed woman who can’t seem to put her grief past her. While this is technically a monster movie, the monster is purely symbolic.

In It Follows, the film tackles the issue of stigmas and scars that follow you through life. Another monster movie, the monster follows one person until they have sex with another (kind of like a distraction) but near the end of the film we see that the main character has come to terms with her follower, just like how we must come to terms with the scars we bare, whether it be emotional, physical, mental, and so on.

These films have introduced a new layer to the horror genre that I feel will usher in the best era of the 21st-century horror genre. Here we’ve seen true, deep storytelling about characters who actually have struggles outside of just trying to escape the guy with an axe.

If this trend continues, we’re gonna see plenty more of great horror films, and I hope it does. Horror is definitely one of my top two favorite genres, and I love direction it’s going.