Horror movies are making a comeback, here’s why

Moviegoers appear to have a bigger appetite for horror films, with box office success signalling a comeback for a genre once left for dead.

If you’re of a certain vintage, you’ll remember the horror films of the late 20th century; slasher flicks, which almost always featured C-list actors, shocking dialogue, and plot holes you could drive a truck through.

Stories that mostly revolved around teenagers getting slaughtered (A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Scream, Halloween, When A Stranger Calls … I could go on), occasionally a knife-wielding doll was added into the mix (Chucky), or ghosts terrorising a family (Poltergeist), not to mention killer kids (Children of the Corn).

So far, so straight to VHS (Old school Netflix, kids!).

A terifying scene from the movie Scream 6.

But in recent years, something truly spooky has happened at the movies; horror films have become a cultural force again. Something cinema hasn’t seen since the 1960s and early 1970s when films such as Psycho, Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist and The Shining ruled the box office and were a hit with critics.

Now, audiences – both in the cinema and at home on the sofa – can’t wait to get frightened. No longer the domain of Hollywood’s C-list; horror has again become a prestige genre, attracting A-list actors and the world’s best directors.

M3GAN cashed out $A145m.

So what’s changed? Why the resurgence?

“We watch these films to make ourselves feel something, and the most heightened feeling you can have is fear. It’s the sharpest emotion, the most transporting,” adds New York-based film writer and horror fan Emma Jones.

“When you get a good horror movie, it draws you down this path where you know what’s going to happen, but you still want to go.

“It’s a way of being frightened in a managed way. It lets us experience a destabilising emotion – fear – in a safe context. It lets you feel frightened and safe at the same time, which is really comforting.”

Post-pandemic, horror has reigned supreme at the US box office with films such as Thanksgiving, Five Nights at Freddy’s, Exorcist: Believer and the Australian film Talk To Me drawing in audiences in big numbers in 2023. In the US last year, Five Nights at Freddy’s brought in a staggering A$200 million at the box office, Scream VI raked in A$165 million, M3GAN cashed out A$145 million, The Nun II made A$130 million and Insidious: Red Door took in A$125 million. Massive numbers for horror flicks.

A scene from The Exorcist: Believer.

Interestingly, during a period where we’ve come out of a global pandemic, wars rage around the world, and the cost of living crisis grows, it seems we still can’t wait to scare ourselves silly.

“It’s a little unprecedented, how many traumatic things we’re experiencing [around the globe] right now,” Erik Piepenburg, who writes about horror for The New York Times, said in an interview last year.

“There’s always been an interest in horror movies, but with the uncertainties of the world we live in, which are all coming together at the same time, people want to engage with those horrors in a safe way: It’s happening on-screen, and when the two hours are over, you can go home.”

Interestingly, younger audiences have propelled this new horror boom.

The audiences who flocked to see the PG-13 rated Five Nights at Freddy’s, and M3GAN, skewered way younger, and signified a tidal shift in who’s consuming horror.

Australian films are no slouch in the horror genre either (Picnic at Hanging Rock still gives me nightmares). Not surprisingly, Australian films have been at the forefront of the horror renaissance.

Post-pandemic horror has reigned supreme at the US box office with films such as Thanksgiving bringing in A$262m.

The terrifying Saw franchise (created by Aussies Leigh Whannell and James Wan) has grossed a staggering A$1.5 billion at the box office worldwide, Wolf Creek made us petrified of strange men in the outback (John Jarratt) and 2014’s The Babadook, starring Essie Davis, was a global hit. More recently, Talk to Me, directed by Aussie twins, Danny and Michael Philippou, was named one of Variety’s best horror films of the year.

You could make an argument that American director Jordan Peele’s instant classic, 2017’s Get Out, kickstarted the most recent boom, mixing horror with a scathing critique of race relations in America while delivering a good old-fashioned fright.

Peele followed Get Out with Us, an equally terrifying look at what happens when governments try to control the population.

Scream VI raked in A$165m.

Parasite, the 2019 South Korean masterpiece about greed and class discrimination, swept the Oscars in 2020 winning Best Picture and becoming the first non-English-language film to win the award. It won an additional three Oscars, for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film.

“Horror is a wonderful way of speaking to current issues without lecturing people,” Chloe Okuno, who wrote and directed the wildly successful 2022 film Watcher said in an interview last year. “Because of the nature of the genre, you never feel the theme is overshadowing the form.”

And it looks as if the scares won’t let up anytime soon. The Omen franchise is returning in 2024 to add to the year’s impressive horror movie line-up. The First Omen, which is released in April, serves as a prequel to the original 1976 film.

Wolf Creek made us petrified of strange men in the outback.

Acclaimed horror director, M. Night Shyamalan’s, daughter Ishana Shyamalan is making her directorial debut this year with The Watchers, released in June. The film stars Dakota Fanning as Mina, a young artist who becomes trapped in the woods with three strangers as mysterious creatures stalk them.

The A Quiet Place franchise returns with its third instalment in 2024 thanks to A Quiet Place: Day One. The movie acts as a prequel to the first two instalments and is set on the first day that the alien monsters begin tormenting humanity.

And the highly anticipated, Baghead, which follows a man named Kevin who encounters a shapeshifting witch known as Baghead is also showing in cinemas.

And 36 years after the original, Beetlejuice 2, is set for a release with Tim Burton again at the helm and original cast members Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara returning. Wednesday star Jenna Ortega headlines the new additions along with Monica Belluci, Willem Dafoe, and Justin Theroux. The film is set for a September release.

So if horror is your thing, get ready to be terrified.

Originally published as Horror movies are making a comeback, here’s why