I think you're blaming the wrong thing in looking at The Witch as the start of this trend. That's a masterful movie underpinned by social commentary and can stand on its own without a discussion about the 21st Century. Patient Zero for social justice horror is Get Out, which was also a masterful film but has inspired quite a bit of mediocrity.
I agree, except for the part about Get Out being masterful. I wanted to like it, but it really was just an episode of the Twilight Zone from 1960 that was copied and pasted into 2017 with a great big dollop of race politics thrown in to make it modern and (pseudo)edgy.
At this point in my life, I've heard Hollywood's AnimalFarm-esque PSA message of "black people good, white people bad," more than enough times.
OK no I'm not, Hollywood is obsessed with this, to the point of ruining its product. Turn off the tube, reacquaint yourself with your family and books.
I traded in horror movies for horror podcasts 3 years ago. There are some independently produced horror podcasts that are simply outstanding!! Also a couple by big production companies with characters voiced by famous actors and actresses. The big production ones tend to be more mediocre as they're quite formulaic, like the writers don't dare to take any risks to write something different. Although there are a few exceptions.
I grew up watching Friday the 13th movies, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Halloween movies(minus part 3). I had a great childhood. The last good horror movie I saw was “The Platform” on Netflix. It had some social undertones, but ultimately I thought it was pretty good.
"The film demonizes the Christian right in the most extreme and ham-fisted way."
Do you mean that the film does to Christians and conservatives what this publication and its handful of lamentably weak-minded "writers" do on a weekly basis? You should tell the "left-wing" Peter Savodnik to go and watch this film. He may be running out of ammo against the "far-right". Or maybe Eli Lake needs some new inspiration. Or one of the other execrable Democratic Party apologists on staff...
The Democratic Party Rehabilitation Project, DELENDA EST!
Horror movies have often had hot and relevant takes on politics/culture. The problem is that it is 2024 and you are posing evangelical Christianity as the ultimate threat and horror in America? This is cowardly and boring.
Worse, Ti West is a mid tier director who has directed one scary movie (the sacrament) which was terrifying because it was a play by play exploitation of the horrors of Jonestown that did not really need to be made.
I liked the intro to this and was gearing up for going deeper but then it just ended. Would love more meats. Also, horror always involves a kind of social commentary but it has to actually be scary. That's the hard part. It Follows and Babadook are examples of that.
to put it in another way. horror is very similar to comedy in how guttural it is. In comedy, you laugh before you start thinking and are sometimes shocked by what you are laughing at (then laugh even harder). In horror, you are freaked out by something and won't know why until you process it after. Horror can always hit your limbic system with jump scares or gross out torture but there's a reason (everyone but freaks) stopped watching the Saw movies. What people find scary is a moving target.
Wow. No offense but I feel like you missed the film class in college that explained where horrors comes from- especially slasher flicks which were designed originally as conservative, anti counterculture cautionary tales. Horror has always been a way to critique and question our current cultural and political environments. Filmmakers may not be as good at it now as they were in the 70s and 80s - maybe that’s a reflection of our own feelings about morality- but they are still making movies that question both the fringes of society and the status quo.
I agree with the overall sentiment here - MaXXXine is yet another example of A24's decline. It seems that half of their releases are now either shallow provocations (Dream Scenario / Everything Everywhere) or that they're entirely focused on racial / sexual identity (Minari / Men). Worst still is the degree to which they pump their audience with merchandise and promotions to no end. However, I think it's important to note that the horror genre is historically ripe with metaphor. The origins of Frankenstein, Dracula, and zombie movies all have something deeper to say about society. The question isn't whether that layer should exist but rather how bluntly that need be conveyed to an audience looking to have a good time. Just look to a film like 2017's MOTHER as a prime example of what happens when the message overwhelms any sense of narrative cohesion.
I've got some excellent news - you don't have to be a member of their audience if you don't like the merchandise OR the promotions. It's not a requirement! The flipside of that is - being able to buy something like a Director's Cut Blu-Ray of Midsommar in a clothbound case w/ a booklet containing a foreword from Scorsese and original folk art from the film is, frankly, dope. This proposition is entirely opt-in, and I wish more studios catered to superfans like they do.
I mean sure, all of this is opt-in...every piece of media we consume and everything we purchase. I think the essence of this article and my comment was more about what's being made and how it's being marketed. It's disheartening to have movies being essentially bundled with a memeified toy company while the amount of boundary-pushing art decreases year over year. I'm totally for memorabilia I just don't think Mr. Merch should be in the room when a script is being pieced together.
Something that really bugs me about most new horror films: lack of exposition and character establishment. Another thing--horror movies now telescope darkness and strangeness from the first few seconds, rather than giving us a situation in the world we know and then revealing a dark intrusion into that familiar world (or showing us it was always there below the surface). It sometimes feels as if horror filmmakers are dealing with tropes they know are familiar, and don't feel they have to do any work to make them real to the audience. Genre films trade in certain well-worn cliches--but an effective genre flick has to make those tropes new, and the characters need to be people we care at least a little about. Horror comes from a threat to those we love (or alternately those we despise--but we do have to feel some way about them to fully invest).
Well said - reminds me of the New Yorker piece about The Trauma Plot wherein some short trauma-based event is used to provide characters with depth rather than the writer developing any real backstory.
I understand the overall perspective here, but I think seeing Midsommar as a "Me Too" movie is a total miss. It's a modern folk horror film/fairy tale about losing & regaining a family. Dani is not assaulted, or put it any situation that could be construed as sexually non-consensual. She's not put in any sexual situation at all. Her having a bland & shitty boyfriend doesn't make it a "Me Too" movie. You're inserting something there that just isn't there, and missing the real themes, seemingly in order to make a point about the studio.
I agree Midsommar isn't a Me Too movie. It has a feminist streak, but not in the modern sense - there's a sense of female empowerment as a woman, not a social justice battle of the sexes. I think the thing people really miss is that it's not just a shitty relationship or a bad boyfriend - it's a codependency that swings both ways. We sympathize with her because of the tragedy in her life, but we also see how non- committal he is about more than just the relationship. In the end she's just purging all the bullshit from her life, him included. It's not an act of revenge for being a run-of-the-mill bad boyfriend.
I have a pretty high tolerance for braindead movie politics as long as the movie has some style and panache to it in other areas, so I’ve been okay in the Era of Pretentious Center-Lefty Art Horror. On the other hand, my favorite horror movie of the 21st century is BONE TOMAHAWK, a proper horror film that eschews all 21st century politics in favor of cannibals and Kurt Russell being awesome.
It is the sacred right of horror movies to be full of hot takes (see NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE) as long as the social commentary gets out of the way when it’s time for the killers and monsters to do killer and monster stuff.
I still dug the hell out of THE MENU, because I chose to read it as a satire of bullshit culture rather than the Adam McKay class struggle I’m sure it was intended to be.
Spot on regarding MIDSOMMAR, though. THE WICKER MAN already existed, was almost an hour shorter, and contained no grad students.
I think you're blaming the wrong thing in looking at The Witch as the start of this trend. That's a masterful movie underpinned by social commentary and can stand on its own without a discussion about the 21st Century. Patient Zero for social justice horror is Get Out, which was also a masterful film but has inspired quite a bit of mediocrity.
I agree, except for the part about Get Out being masterful. I wanted to like it, but it really was just an episode of the Twilight Zone from 1960 that was copied and pasted into 2017 with a great big dollop of race politics thrown in to make it modern and (pseudo)edgy.
At this point in my life, I've heard Hollywood's AnimalFarm-esque PSA message of "black people good, white people bad," more than enough times.
I'm shocked, SHOCKED I SAY!
OK no I'm not, Hollywood is obsessed with this, to the point of ruining its product. Turn off the tube, reacquaint yourself with your family and books.
I traded in horror movies for horror podcasts 3 years ago. There are some independently produced horror podcasts that are simply outstanding!! Also a couple by big production companies with characters voiced by famous actors and actresses. The big production ones tend to be more mediocre as they're quite formulaic, like the writers don't dare to take any risks to write something different. Although there are a few exceptions.
Could you list some recommendations for the indy podcasts, please? Thanks in advance
I grew up watching Friday the 13th movies, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Halloween movies(minus part 3). I had a great childhood. The last good horror movie I saw was “The Platform” on Netflix. It had some social undertones, but ultimately I thought it was pretty good.
I felt like the film didnt have much of a plot and found it confused!
"The film demonizes the Christian right in the most extreme and ham-fisted way."
Do you mean that the film does to Christians and conservatives what this publication and its handful of lamentably weak-minded "writers" do on a weekly basis? You should tell the "left-wing" Peter Savodnik to go and watch this film. He may be running out of ammo against the "far-right". Or maybe Eli Lake needs some new inspiration. Or one of the other execrable Democratic Party apologists on staff...
The Democratic Party Rehabilitation Project, DELENDA EST!
Are you my husband? Am I married to you?
Horror movies have often had hot and relevant takes on politics/culture. The problem is that it is 2024 and you are posing evangelical Christianity as the ultimate threat and horror in America? This is cowardly and boring.
Worse, Ti West is a mid tier director who has directed one scary movie (the sacrament) which was terrifying because it was a play by play exploitation of the horrors of Jonestown that did not really need to be made.
I liked the intro to this and was gearing up for going deeper but then it just ended. Would love more meats. Also, horror always involves a kind of social commentary but it has to actually be scary. That's the hard part. It Follows and Babadook are examples of that.
to put it in another way. horror is very similar to comedy in how guttural it is. In comedy, you laugh before you start thinking and are sometimes shocked by what you are laughing at (then laugh even harder). In horror, you are freaked out by something and won't know why until you process it after. Horror can always hit your limbic system with jump scares or gross out torture but there's a reason (everyone but freaks) stopped watching the Saw movies. What people find scary is a moving target.
Wow. No offense but I feel like you missed the film class in college that explained where horrors comes from- especially slasher flicks which were designed originally as conservative, anti counterculture cautionary tales. Horror has always been a way to critique and question our current cultural and political environments. Filmmakers may not be as good at it now as they were in the 70s and 80s - maybe that’s a reflection of our own feelings about morality- but they are still making movies that question both the fringes of society and the status quo.
I agree with the overall sentiment here - MaXXXine is yet another example of A24's decline. It seems that half of their releases are now either shallow provocations (Dream Scenario / Everything Everywhere) or that they're entirely focused on racial / sexual identity (Minari / Men). Worst still is the degree to which they pump their audience with merchandise and promotions to no end. However, I think it's important to note that the horror genre is historically ripe with metaphor. The origins of Frankenstein, Dracula, and zombie movies all have something deeper to say about society. The question isn't whether that layer should exist but rather how bluntly that need be conveyed to an audience looking to have a good time. Just look to a film like 2017's MOTHER as a prime example of what happens when the message overwhelms any sense of narrative cohesion.
I've got some excellent news - you don't have to be a member of their audience if you don't like the merchandise OR the promotions. It's not a requirement! The flipside of that is - being able to buy something like a Director's Cut Blu-Ray of Midsommar in a clothbound case w/ a booklet containing a foreword from Scorsese and original folk art from the film is, frankly, dope. This proposition is entirely opt-in, and I wish more studios catered to superfans like they do.
I mean sure, all of this is opt-in...every piece of media we consume and everything we purchase. I think the essence of this article and my comment was more about what's being made and how it's being marketed. It's disheartening to have movies being essentially bundled with a memeified toy company while the amount of boundary-pushing art decreases year over year. I'm totally for memorabilia I just don't think Mr. Merch should be in the room when a script is being pieced together.
Something that really bugs me about most new horror films: lack of exposition and character establishment. Another thing--horror movies now telescope darkness and strangeness from the first few seconds, rather than giving us a situation in the world we know and then revealing a dark intrusion into that familiar world (or showing us it was always there below the surface). It sometimes feels as if horror filmmakers are dealing with tropes they know are familiar, and don't feel they have to do any work to make them real to the audience. Genre films trade in certain well-worn cliches--but an effective genre flick has to make those tropes new, and the characters need to be people we care at least a little about. Horror comes from a threat to those we love (or alternately those we despise--but we do have to feel some way about them to fully invest).
Well said - reminds me of the New Yorker piece about The Trauma Plot wherein some short trauma-based event is used to provide characters with depth rather than the writer developing any real backstory.
I understand the overall perspective here, but I think seeing Midsommar as a "Me Too" movie is a total miss. It's a modern folk horror film/fairy tale about losing & regaining a family. Dani is not assaulted, or put it any situation that could be construed as sexually non-consensual. She's not put in any sexual situation at all. Her having a bland & shitty boyfriend doesn't make it a "Me Too" movie. You're inserting something there that just isn't there, and missing the real themes, seemingly in order to make a point about the studio.
Signed,
Ari Aster Superfan
I agree Midsommar isn't a Me Too movie. It has a feminist streak, but not in the modern sense - there's a sense of female empowerment as a woman, not a social justice battle of the sexes. I think the thing people really miss is that it's not just a shitty relationship or a bad boyfriend - it's a codependency that swings both ways. We sympathize with her because of the tragedy in her life, but we also see how non- committal he is about more than just the relationship. In the end she's just purging all the bullshit from her life, him included. It's not an act of revenge for being a run-of-the-mill bad boyfriend.
Totally agree with you there. There is also an interesting allegorical level to Midsommar that is far, far away from political hot takes.
A hallmark of modern films is feeling as though you just sat through a ninety minute lecture about cultural sensitivity.
I have a pretty high tolerance for braindead movie politics as long as the movie has some style and panache to it in other areas, so I’ve been okay in the Era of Pretentious Center-Lefty Art Horror. On the other hand, my favorite horror movie of the 21st century is BONE TOMAHAWK, a proper horror film that eschews all 21st century politics in favor of cannibals and Kurt Russell being awesome.
It is the sacred right of horror movies to be full of hot takes (see NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE) as long as the social commentary gets out of the way when it’s time for the killers and monsters to do killer and monster stuff.
I still dug the hell out of THE MENU, because I chose to read it as a satire of bullshit culture rather than the Adam McKay class struggle I’m sure it was intended to be.
Spot on regarding MIDSOMMAR, though. THE WICKER MAN already existed, was almost an hour shorter, and contained no grad students.