For the longest time horror movies were about ghouls and men wielding knives who liked to kill
babysitters.
But now in 2022, the days of the Creature from the Black Lagoon and 1980s slashers are long gone,
replaced by ‘elevated horror’.
Jordan Peele and Ti West are at the forefront of this new wave of cinema making, but they’re far from
the only ones, with psychological twists and profound metaphors replacing the boogie man who hides
under your bed.
With the highest grossing films falling into this category, one might wonder what exactly defines
elevated horror?
Elevated horror refers to films in which psychological manipulation takes precedence over jump scares
and violence and instead uses metaphors to make points about society or the human experience.
With the highest grossing films of 2022, including X, The Innocents, Hellbender and Nope, falling into
this category it seems like elevated horror is only becoming more en vogue.
With that being said, there are some that would argue that the sub-genre of horror does not actually
exist at all.
According to Jon Mendelsohn
“The debate over this term centers on whether it’s a valid new subgenre of horror or simply a loaded
and pretentious term that lacks any legitimacy.”
Whether or not fans in the horror community feel that the sub-genre exists, the fact remains that
elevated horror has a choke hold on the movie industry that isn’t going away anytime soon.
So, is there still room in the horror industry for more traditional horror?
The latest installment in the Scream franchise would appear to show that there is still an appetite for old
school slasher movies, as it smashed box offices worldwide in its first week.
The new Halloween movies have also seen long time horror fans packing out cinemas, which would
show that at the end of the day, even though elevated horror is the new hot trend, you really can’t beat
the classic movie monsters.