As we’ve seen over the last month, horror comes in all shapes and sizes. Some is funny, some is terrifying. Some has to do with people, some with aliens, some with monsters, and some with ghosts. There’s paranoid horror, supernatural horror, slasher horror, torture horror, and all kinds of horror. But the last movie of our Horrorfest deals with the most recent trend in cinematic horror: society-based or social horror.
Get Out is the 2017 horror movie that transformed Jordan Peele from a hilarious comedian into a big-time horror director. It was lauded for its effective storytelling and social commentary, and while I usually give a short summary of movie plots, I’ll just encourage everyone to watch this one for themselves and make their own judgments on the characters, the story, and the messages it conveys. The reason why I’ve chosen Get Out as my crowning movie for Horrorfest is because it is the best current depiction of the modern horror subgenre, a subgenre that focuses on our relation to others and society at large. Jordan Peele is definitely a big name in this trend with projects like Us, Get Out, and the modern Twilight Zone, but he is not alone. Other horror media like the recent films Midsommar and Mother as well as popular TV shows Black Mirror and The Walking Dead delve into social themes, examining what kind of horror lies in our own relationships to each other. Modern technology and issues collide with our own historic struggles and classic questions about how humanity is mean to live in relation to each other, and I believe we can expect more projects to follow this trend in the future. Perhaps what is scariest to us is not the fear of the unknown as Lovecraft described, but rather, it is the fear of what we do know but wish wasn’t true. Get Out is a depiction of our own inner horrors, the lines we draw between us and others, the personal agendas we have against our own brothers and sisters. So it’s no wonder that this new social horror is taking the lead when we fear to even look at the news to discover what we’re doing to each other today.
Thank you for embarking on this horror-filled journey with me. I love Halloween, and I love sharing my passions with others. I’ll see you next year for more scares, laughs, and deep thoughts. Stay safe!
P.S. You just might get one last bonus article tomorrow to help you ease out of the horror season into the coming winter.
