Thank you for following along for the last 7 days as I gave you the academic perspective on Why I love Horror. And thank you again to Ben Rubin for organizing it all.
For our final day of this series I am featuring Elijah Cooper, a senior at the University of Pittsburgh majoring in film and creative writing. He is a student employee with Archives & Special Collections in the University Library System, where he works with the horror studies collections. Over the past few years, he has found inspiration in the horror genre and developed an admiration for the artists that embrace its darker aesthetics and more vulgar aspects of life and how they use the genre as an outlet for these experiences.
We have less then a week left in the 2025 edition of 31 Days of Horror, but I still have plenty of surprises planned, unloading 2 giveaways for our final week and the Summer Scares Spokesperson announcement on the 31st.
But that is next week, let's cap off this week and take a moment to see why Cooper loves horror.
💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀
I love horror because it focuses on the vulgarity and the unacceptable. The horror genre is the only time when these fantasies are considered acceptable. It lets me fantasize about the worst parts about humanity while not feeling shameful. This is how the genre works; as a means of bringing change or peering into the unknown. It is meant for more than scaring people. It exists as a countercultural phenomenon that is meant to be consumed and acknowledged. However, it disguises itself as a simple mode of entertainment—hardly ever considered art—that people have understood as being something that they can enjoy without being shameful.
Horror experiences constant change yet maintains the same intent. This, of course, is only natural, as with every other genre. However, horror, especially in film, has grown to be more obviously outrageous. The genre continues to grow and the audiences grow with it. And they seem like they hardly notice the in-your-face cruelty that they experience on the screen. For example, the highest grossing horror film until 1953 was Frankenstein. But it was eventually replaced by Psycho (1960). As scary as Frankenstein was, it was nothing compared to how brutal and twisted Psycho was.
Frankenstein was intimate but Psycho was much more. Already a twisted idea, a man built together by body pieces stolen off of corpses from graveyards, and then proceeds to stalk a family admiring their life. However, Psycho was arguably a drastic progression in vulgarity since the release of the 1931 Frankenstein. The mind of a lost man named Norman Bates who preys on beautiful young women as they stay in his motel—but more than anything the bathroom kill scene is brutal. The first time I saw that scene I thought there was more attention to fear, violence, hatred, masochism, etc. than in any film I had ever seen. And to this day there aren't many films I’ve seen that have matched it.
It is not to the extent of the vulgarity that interests me, but the genre itself. The material is an important element, yes, however, there seems to already be an expectation that is assumed to be fulfilled when stepping into the cinema of a horror film. The material is important but its importance is hardly seen. With the increase in horror film box office revenues, it can be assumed that audiences are consistently getting more desensitized. The escalation of the horror genre like from Frankenstein to Psycho still continues to happen, with films becoming more gruesome. There now seems to be a clear plausible direction that the horror genre could be taken to.
Horror films can only become more violent, and it’s difficult to know where the bar is. Since most people, even the horror film audiences, need consistency when they consume media, the horror genre unfortunately somewhat subscribes to this unspoken rule. However, in this era it is hard to see exactly how much more vulgar horror films can get. In mainstream horror they must all follow the same amount of vulgarity to maintain the consistency for their viewers. But what happens when the boundaries are pushed? There are many times when the push for change is problematic for the masses. One such show that is somewhat recent and while it is not known for being in the horror genre, I would argue that it is. The HBO Max show for example, Euphoria, broke many expectations on the amount of vulgarity that is societally acceptable in a pop-show.
Euphoria is not part of the horror genre, technically, however, I would argue that it is glamour-horror. It was shocking to me when I saw it the first time. The show is full of vulgar activities such as underage sex, rape, use of hard drugs, self-harm, suicide, pornography, and etc.. And it was surprising to me that it was as popular as it was. However, I think this is the primary reason why the show is successful. I call this horror because the audience’s reaction to the show is similar to horror. The expectation of harm and the assumption that the harm is going to be even greater than expected.
As close to horror as Euphoria seems, the key reason it is not horror is the glamorization. Horror’s vulgarity is special because there is usually no desire to indulge in their activities. Consuming frightening material in a safe position to enjoy the stimulation of it from the other side. Other genres may have these same qualities. All art in a way acts towards the different in our lives. And this is what draws us to it. How art is the only thing that we think keeps us sane or even alive. But what is it that truly separates the horror genre as the one true mode to experience the unacceptable? There’s an emotional response that is associated with horror, clearly. It is a known fact that fear is the most powerful force that can drive a person to do or believe something. This works in favor of the horror genre. It forces the viewer to have an emotional response to the art.
Euphoria is not meant to be a horror, but it would be better if it was. The intentions of the show are not to induce fear. They show horrific events that are stimulating but not necessarily scary. To be fair, the actions in the show have horrible consequences which is justification for condemnation. However, there is still a desire to partake or at least suffer the ways in which they do. Their suffering is shamefully desirable, there is societal value in these beautiful peoples’ struggles. The suffering of success; the human desire to suffer is only natural and this is what Euphoria thrives on. The show pushed the boundaries of vulgarity even shocking to me. When disturbing content like this appears in mainstream television, without horror's built-in moral condemnation, the audience reaction reveals something crucial about how we process vulgarity. Unlike Euphoria's seductive glamorization, the horror genre offers the thrill of transgression while maintaining moral clarity. I can enjoy the unacceptable without being forced to desire it. I only desire the distance in reality.
There are many horror films that could be similarly interpreted in the way I described Euphoria: glamorous with an adoration for a life that seems more exciting than an ordinary one. This is similar to Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977). This film is about an American girl getting accepted into a prestigious ballet school in Europe that is secretly controlled by witches. The architecture of her new home is stunning and all the girls are beautiful. These are all the qualities of a natural desire towards this life by the audience—much like the glamor of the beautiful people in Euphoria. Instead of beautiful people and drugs in this new home there is dedication towards a life as a dancer/artist—something we can only fantasize about. The main girl, Suzy, begins to suffer due to her new environment, overexertion, and inability to understand the intricacies of the school. However, the film is so unsettling and horrific in atmosphere that there is no possible way to desire to suffer in this way. There is not necessarily a moral, but there is a condemnation that invalidates the value of a bourgeois lifestyle. Their evil methods of discipline, obedience, and livelihood. How Suzy and the rest of the girls are all secretly victims to the school’s psychological torture. In a building full of secret rooms of barbed wire, maggot infestations, and other types of traps—even loud ominous snoring. Then she has to take the scary trek into the catacombs of the school to fight them.
As glamorous of a film Suspiria is, it is only in its appearance. The film exists purely as a story of isolation due to interference from the upper class. Told in a way that is fear-inducingly stimulating to the viewer. But obviously, enjoyable, in the most professionally masochistic way. The unspoken rule about the horror genre is the choice to fantasize about what could be impossible—but the most disgusting and inappropriate impossible.
💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀
No comments:
Post a Comment