The Evolution of Social Commentary in Horror

Written by John Edward Betancourt

There was a time when the horror genre did not enjoy the incredible mainstream success that it does today. The finest the genre had to offer could only be found in the back of your local video store, and any horror related television programming aired at the latest of hours on a Friday or a Saturday night. But that was then and this is now since horror is the hottest thing out there in film and television and it is enjoying a level of success rivaled only by the superhero genre.

But success is not the only major change to come to the genre, there have been incredible changes to how these scary stories are told as well. These days, the terror we often experience comes by way of a reboot or a reimagining and the debate as to whether or not that is a good thing should be saved for another time, because these re-hashings of horror classics make incredible money at the box office; and in an era where revenue is king for any film production company, the state of the industry is about as healthy as it gets. 

Beyond being cash cows however, there is another element present in these stories that has evolved as well, that simply wasn't there when the genre hit the big time in the 1940's and 1950's, their ability to speak to current events in our world by way of powerful social commentary. But the golden era of horror, the late 1960's to 1980's changed all that since a common thread could be found within the films released during that era, a subtle yet in depth look or message about who we were as a society at that particular point in time in our history. Shivers for example broke down human sexuality and the sexual revolution while films like Dawn of the Dead examined our obsession with consumerism with great depth and care.

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But these days it seems like it is all about the jump scares, which begs the question...does horror need to be or is it still socially relevant anymore? The answer to that question is that horror has never stopped being relevant to the times, it's simply relevant in a different fashion. After all, when horror began to explore these more philosophical concepts in cinema, we were a nation struggling to discover its identity and its future, we needed the escape and the analysis to help us quietly understand the madness surrounding us. But in present day our needs and our fears have changed greatly and in this post 9/11 era of American history, our focus is on the horrors that mankind is capable of and horror now feeds off of that.

A prime example of this is evident when it comes to The Walking Dead, where the walking corpses that once served as the greatest threat to mankind and represented the worst parts of our species in George Romero's zombie tales have now become nothing more than a force of nature, one to be avoided and dealt with accordingly since the real terror on the show just so happens to be humanity. Men like the Governor or now Negan demonstrate the real threat at hand and it doesn't end there. Hannibal and even Bates Motel were shows that brought classic ideas back to life but focused more on the monsters that can lurk within the hearts of men, and even the new Halloween sequel taps into the #MeToo movement and the fight against the old guard that is desperate to keep the world's inevitable progress at bay.

Horror is a genre that much like the creatures that it features, evolves at every step. It finds new ways to survive and new ways to grow and this current renaissance is proof of that because really, the genre is about the experience and how it in a way heals us. That may sound wild but consider what one goes through when one watches these tales of terror. They take us on an ugly and terrifying ride but when all is said and done...we are safe when we come out of the other side and they give us a sense of comfort in providing us with that little psychological gift. But what matters more is that while on the surface it seems as though the genre has lost its way in a world of remakes, it's doing just fine, and it is still showing us the parts of our world we sometimes refuse to see and it still reminds us that evil exists and it's up to mankind to stand up to it. 

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