The Importance of Horror

Written by Alex Chrisos

Horror has had quite an interesting history & has not gotten a lot of critical acclaim by the industry for a long time despite its invaluable impact. Horror to me is such a wide landscape as far as film & art in general goes. To me, horror includes everything that goes bump in the night. Horror includes everything we don’t want to look at. Horror is the underbelly of our society. Horror is the shadow within us.

The fascinating thing about horror is that, when done well, both reflects & changes the culture of the time it was created in. From World War II, to the Vietnam War, to Civil Rights, to 9/11. The horror movies that came out during these times periods & after are inescapably tied to the fears & difficulties we humans/Americans were/are dealing with. As time goes on, horror takes on the hate so that art can move forward. Nowadays graphic violence is seen in movies everywhere. I firmly believe that without horror movies being hated for doing it first(and them being willing to do it anyways), this type of violence would not be accepted by the public.

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