Everything is Cannibalism

Background and Context:

As you know, I’ve been working on my articles to do with Shakespeare and fear not, for that is still going on. I wanted to add some of my other ideas into the mix though. Another thing I studied at university and wanted to explore more was horror and its trends. Back then, my article was meant to be called “May-Queens and the Folk Horror Revival” whereas now, I have had to change it as a few years have passed since the announcement of the film ‘Midsommar’ (2019) (yeah, it hadn’t even come out yet, it was just announced back then). Now that I’ve updated the title, I can actually get on to formulating the essay. As this was meant to be published on a website, it should be easier to read and more compelling than those I’m writing about Shakespeare and in-depth literary analysis stuff.

Also please, a lot of this article is based on opinion and thought so if you don't agree, don't take it out on me. I'm just one person: there's room for all of our opinions as long as we remain respectful.

Everything is Cannibalism

Will Horror Sub-Genres Ever Overstay Their Welcome?

Horror has always been about reinventing fright. Ghost stories show us this first and foremost and though they were once whispered around campfires, we have evolved to enjoy the imagery of cinema and its visceral terrors. From societal fears to bloodsucking monsters, horror has continued to shift in storytelling trends and often has something to do with time and place. One of the key ways therefore, horror has remained such as fresh and exciting genre is through its development and focus upon sub-genres. These are distinct categories in which particular themes, settings and narrative structures tend to thrive. But there’s a dark side to this: does this expansions and boxing into sub-genres fuel the creativity within horror or does it risk confining the genre to formulaic storytelling?

Sub-genres though, are nothing new especially in horror. Gothic Horror emerged in the 18th century with Horace Walpole and flourished in the next century thanks for Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker. These stories sought to blend the supernatural elements of the novel with the decayed settings of earlier horror tropes. In the early 20th century, HP Lovecraft popularised cosmic horror which introduced themes such as existential dread and nihilism into horror. This was later developed into more psychological takes on horror novels with writers such as Shirley Jackson and Stephen King emerging.

When it comes to these 20th century sub-genres, we also get a split where horror is no longer simply in novels, but is now also in films. With the 1970s and 1980s popularising slasher films we can see that American cinema definitely had their way with brutal imagery. At the same time we could have looked at Germany 50 or so years before that and seen a much more subtle and terrifying version of the horror movie. In American cinema, we then went through moments such as body horror, folk horror and psychological horror. When moving into the 21st century, social horror and eco-horror became part of the forefront of looking at human issues and the fears they presented to reality. With so many sub-genres now firmly established, the question arises: are we reaching a saturation point?

The Rise of Female-Centric Horror

Over the past decade or so, horror has become increasingly female-centric in authorship and narrative focus. This reshapes the themes of horror in which they now explore trauma through grief, motherhood, identity and much more. Elevated horror was one of the sub-genres that came out of this. Think of “Hereditary” (2018) and “The Babadook” (2014). These place women in the centre of the experience and use psychological elements as opposed to jump-scares to explore their internal struggles. The result is far more introspective and concentrates on elements of existentialism.

However, even in literature we are seeing a shift towards female-centric horror. Writers such as Carmen Maria Machado, Silvia Moreno-Garcia and T. Kingfisher have brought new and exciting storylines which feature women as main characters woven into the fabric of a frightening social commentary, sometimes even in a state-of-the-nation style novel. They tackle not only this but also gendered issues regarding bodily autonomy, mental illness and societal expectations. Thus they prove that more than often, horror can be a direct reflection of lived experience.

This has not come without criticism of horror becoming more predictable and introspective in its purpose, often lacking the fun that defined the genre for earlier eras even when women were still part of the horror novelist world. Trends that concern personable but trauma-stricken characters in the modern day have become a risk for sounding like a broken record for example: paranormal manifestations of grief have now become almost expected in the world of female-led supernatural horror, whilst a descent into madness for an unreliable main character is almost a standard across all sub-genres dealing with these issues. Often powerful stories are therefore teetering on the edge of perhaps becoming repetitive, weighed by their emotional and psychological horrors rather than their propensity for sheer terror.

Furthermore, could we also argue that this form of elevated horror has led to a class divide in the genre itself? What is considered serious horror now is this emotionally weighted style narrative in which we have a deep and often traumatic storyline, whereas the more fun slasher and gory horror is dismissed as unrefined. Therefore, despite the enduring appeal of something like ‘Friday 13th’ and it’s unpredictability, thrill and gore, modern horror cinema which focuses on deeper issues of lived female experience might be considered better automatically without having shared in that same timelessness. The big question is: is this therefore limiting the scope of horror and turning filmmakers away from being fun within the genre?

Predictability in Horror

One of the challenges that comes with the increasing number of sub-genres is that their themes and tropes are at risk of becoming overused, leading to possible predictability. It’s most noticeable when the theme of hunger is used as almost universally it has become associated with cannibalism. The primal desperation of “Raw” (2016), the eerie ritualistic feasting of “Bones and All” (2022), the grotesque revelations of “Fresh” (2022) and even to some extent the satire associated with the sit-com “The Santa Clarita Diet” (2017). This leaves little room for fresh interpretation and new stories as these do so well that they filter through the money-making machine and become the dominant narratives. However, a dominant narrative and storyline in horror, no matter how well-crafted, can stifle the genre because of its extensive focus on the tropes of sub-genres.

This issue though extends beyond cannibalism and hunger, even in my own personal favourite sub-genre of folk horror. Folk horror has knowingly seen a resurgence but, with it has come films that again, are well made but work in the same tropes over and over again. Films such as “Midsommar” (2019) and “Apostle” (2018) follow this same trajectory in which a ritual sacrifice based on pagan ideologies make for the climax of the narrative. Obviously, this is a weird homage to possibly the greatest British horror movie ever made: “The Wicker Man” (1973) and though there is no problem there, in our modern time of over-consumption, it can become flat because of the sheer amount of these movies have been made. Even though a film like “Midsommar” (2019) is a fantastic achievement of cinema, the sense of inevitability can lessen the impact with the audience knowing where the story is heading far before the final act.

Another example is the rise of grief-based horror particularly in the elevated horror realm. “The Babadook” (2014), “Hereditary” (2018) and “The Night House” (2020) all centre on main characters processing loss with supernatural elements becoming metaphors for unresolved trauma. Whilst these films are powerful, their success has led to a wave of similar narratives in cinema, leaving little room for other filmmakers’ creative expansion. Therefore, these storylines become increasingly expected and water-down the difference within the whole genre, no matter how good the initial films are.

The problem is not the existence of the tropes, but instead their overuse which produces a default approach to these various subgenres. More experimental horror films which do not fit into a sub-genre of their time such as “The Blair Witch Project” (1999) and to some extent, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” (1975) may have been made before our streaming world, but in this day would never be green-lighted due to their originality and innovation.

Sub-genres and Stagnation

With horror now fragmented into multitudes of sub-genres by the streaming era, a new issue emerges: creative stagnation and whether it has been manufactured by these companies who only want one thing of the same thing. Whilst they might provide the audience with a useful shorthand for finding what they might want to watch, we have already established that it creates a a limit for storytelling opportunities from capitalist organisations. Audience expectations therefore become the standard, often at the detriment of the people creating more innovative stories to tell in fiction and on the screen.

This rigidity can also be seen in how horror is advertised. A film labelled a particular way may now include those tropes being focused on for more usefulness in what the audience is going to choose to watch. For example: folk horror is now expected to include eerie landscapes, isolated communities and a weird/unusual belief system. Psychological horror is assumed to be slow-paced and introspective with tons of metaphors. Whereas, social horror is framed with modern social anxieties in mind, often with urban settings. Making horror feel less surprising seems to be against the will of the genre itself as horror has in the past been focused on exemplifying the unpredictable and the unrecognisable.

Yet, horror has always been a genre of reinvention and newer movements are pushing against these constraints. Films such as “Barbarian” (2022) are trying to blend scare and satire whilst slasher films of old are starting to make a comeback, the “Saw” franchise still being a popular go-to for audiences wanting a thrill. On top of this, they attempt through story, to deconstruct the formulas of slasher films which were once dismissed as low-brow in comparison to ‘elevated’ horror.

Perhaps the key to keep horror fresh lies in cross-pollination, blurring the lines between the sub-genres rather than adhering to rigid categories. Some of the most effective of these have included the works of Jordan Peele and also, independent British horror. They defy easy classification and often remain unpredictable until the very end with the best example of this that I can think of being “Us” (2019). With “Get Out” (2017) having done so well working in multiple subgenres into one film, Jordan Peele is definitely doing the correct thing when it comes to marketing films that subvert audience expectations.

Conclusion

As my favourite genre continues to diversify, we have seen even more sub-genres appear - some subverting a lot of expectations and yet, I fear for them too becoming overdone. These include: the Shirley Jackson inspired haunted house novel, female body-trauma horror, Asian folktale horror, workplace horror and finally and probably the most recent: wellness horror. Whilst predictability has crept around, with the newer sub-genres coming into existence, we can still see people trying to break through. I can only hope that this is a response to more rigid expectations. All in all, horror is unlikely to stagnate for long. While certain tropes and sub-genres may dominate for a time, the genre’s strength lies in its adaptability. Whether through hybrid storytelling, new technologies, or a return to classic monster horror, horror will continue to evolve. The question is not whether horror will reinvent itself, but in what form it will do so next.