‘Eli Roth’s History of Horror’ Recap: ‘Nine Nightmares’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the season two finale of ‘Eli Roth’s History of Horror’.
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Over the course of its past two seasons, Eli Roth’s History of Horror has done a phenomenal job of exploring every single aspect of the horror genre. For this dynamic series has shown us how these movies and stories prey upon our darkest fears, all while finding new ways to stay relevant to the world we live in, by offering all kinds of themes and commentary on modern society and some of the issues that it continues to face. In fact, this journey through scary stories has been so thorough, that one has to wonder if there is anything left to explore within this incredible genre. And as it turns out, there most certainly is, since the season two finale of this magnificent series opted to examine a unique corner of the genre. 

For there are horror films out there, that simply don’t fit the standard mold, which isn’t a bad thing by any means since this genre is designed to tell stories that buck convention. But these movies are so intelligent and so unique that they don’t fit into the standard sub-genre classifications and it just so happens that ‘Nine Nightmares’ highlighted nine films that meet this standard. Which made for quite the epic finale for certain, since so many different types of films were highlighted. Something that should have made for a hodge-podge of storytelling. But as this series is wont to do, it found a way to spotlight the underlying themes of these movies in order to spotlight exactly how they fit into the horror genre and everything that it works to accomplish

Take Us and American Psycho for instance, a pair of films that seemingly have no ties since one features doppelgängers, while the other features a serial killer. But upon closer inspection, it quickly becomes clear that these movies are about societal class and the various struggles and privileges that come with that, making them welcome additions to the genre, despite their lack of a proper sub-genre classification. Plus, this episode also took the time to spotlight the wonder of folk horror by way of The Wicker Man and Midsommar; two movies that explore so much more than isolated places that are filled with people eager to kill. Since these movies speak to the power of the disenfranchised and the lonesome and how they choose to revert to horrible behaviors in order to feel as though they belong to something more.

Yet while those unique explorations could have carried this finale for the entire hour, there was still more for this episode to dive into. For it turns out there are a lot of outlier horror films that explore the cruelty of man in some supremely unique ways. For Pieces looks at misogyny in an over-the-top manner. While Dressed to Kill examines our struggles with sexual identity and how mankind’s desire to shun that can lead to trouble and of course, the sheer savagery of who we are is featured in movies such as The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and Cannibal Holocaust since those movies put the worst parts of us on display in every way imaginable, making for quite the visceral experience for certain. And of course, the wonder of anthology horror and a reminder of how horror can be fun was spotlighted by way of a quick reflection upon Creepshow.

If anything, this rapid-fire examination of some quality horror films, really did make for a supremely fascinating finale when all is said and done. Since the show packed in a great deal of discussion on each of these movies before moving onto the next one, prompting a re-watch of this episode for certain, and also perhaps… a marathon of our own to revisit each one of these unique stories and everything they have to offer and really, in the end, it’s a wonderful thing that the series took the time to spotlight these outliers. In part because they deserve attention and recognition for everything they accomplish, but also because… this really does demonstrate just how deep this documentary can go. For some of these films were likely new to horror fans that were watching, and now that we’ve come to the end of our second tour of duty through the genre, all we can do now is hope that AMC brings another season of this delightful documentary to life. So that we can continue to dive deeper, into a genre that explores every fear known to mankind. Until next year.

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