The horror genre isn’t just a personal favourite of mine, it’s been a cornerstone of the film industry since the earliest days of cinema. People love to watch movies to be scared, making horror one of the most popular and consistently successful genres.
It’s also one of the most international, as fear is universal. As the journalist Walt Hickey pointed out: “A scary girl that crawls out of the television is scary no matter where the TV is…and a scream is the same in every language”.
The horror genre’s popularity and international appeal, and its relatively low costs of production, make it an excellent breeding ground for filmmakers. The likes of Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron, Oliver Stone, Peter Jackson, Sam Raimi, James Gunn, Guillermo Del Toro and Zack Snyder all cut their teeth making horror films.
Named after the idea that, following a terrifying group ordeal, only the ubiquitous final girl in a horror movie is typically still alive in the morning, my new video series will explore the trends and tropes of this enduring genre.
I will be looking at how the genre is evolving and discussing how writers, producers and directors can utilize storytelling and filmmaking techniques from horror films in their own work, even if they’re not actually making a horror film themselves.
In the first episode, I examine how the genre’s perceived greatest weakness is rapidly becoming one of its biggest strengths: its characters.
Over the years, even fans of the horror genre have routinely complained about the characters: they’re one-dimensional, they’re too stereotypical, they’re too annoying, they do stupid things, they’re just fodder for the killer…
But in more recent times, films such as Get Out, Hereditary, Midsommer, A Quiet Place, Censor, and St Maud have featured characters who are much more complex than their predecessors.
I compare the characters from classic horror films of the past, like Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, with their modern day counterparts to show how the approach to horror movie characterisation is changing.
I also look at how the newer films still remain scary, despite placing much more of an emphasis on drama and character
I hope you will join me on this journey into horror filmmaking and storytelling.
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