Well I must confess something.
I am a lover of horror movies. I have always been a fan for as long as I remember. Back in the not-so-supervised days of childhood (when I would seek to gt away with as much as possible) I was able to see quite a number of them (sorry mum). Films like The Amityville Horror and The Exorcist were the foundation for the interest.
While I was in seminary I wrote a paper for a mission course on the difference between the North American horror move and Japanese Horror movies (J-Horror) and how that difference gives us insight into Japanese culture that can help in evangelistic efforts in Japan. I think more then any other genre of movies horror taps into the base essense of the culture it comes from. If one were to analyze western horror (particularly American) between 1950-2000 one can see many smaller trends and a fairly major theme. One of the primary themes in american horror has been the overcoming or escaping of evil in the end of the film. No matter what the subject matter or sub-genre the protagonists in American horror between 1950-2000 all find a way of overcoming evil. A lot of this has to do with the cultural foundation of Judeo-Christian values of western culture.
Evil in the American horror always had some sort of supernatural source and generally speaking, no matter how destructive the evil is it is overcome. The American horror does not like to leave the audience without some sort of closure.
It was around 2002 with the introduction The Ring that some of the rules of the game began to change for the American horror movie. The Ring is a remake of a Japanese horror movie called Ringu. While American horror was already well on its way to a less supernatural more slasher approach The Ring was completely supernatural in nature. One of the key defining characteristics of The Ring was the way it ended – SPOILER ALERT – with The Ring and other J-Horror remakes (like The Grudge) and J-Horror in general evil is not defeated. In J-Horror when a person involves themselves with the supernatural that is it – you know how it will end – there is no escape. Evil will hunt you down and you cannot defeat it. The key defining characteristic of the Japanese horror that sets it apart from the American horror (aside from a distinct lack of intense gore and blood) is that there is no hope in it…not a stitch.
I believe part of the reason for this is that Japanese culture is distinctly more animistic (spirit oriented) then American culture. In Japanese culture the spirit world in general is to be avoided and if connection needs to occur that connection should be careful reverence. The supernatural world (God(s) included) are neither good nor evil – they are capricious at best and are quick to anger. From a ministry perspective one begins to understand how approaching such a culture with a message of eschatological warfare is distinctly not a good idea.
Back to American horror – take a look at the Zombie sub-genre. It has always had a healthy life to it but recently it has become very popular. I saw Zombieland tonight and feel as though it will likely be considered the peak of this current cycle of Zombie films. Historically Zombies have always been the reanimated dead. The source for this was Haitian voodoo mythology. How te dead were reanimated depended upon the current psychosis of western culture. In the 50’s-80’s they were generally reanimated via mysterious outerspace dust or atomic/nuclear radiation. In 2002 a fantastic British movie came out called 28 Days Later which completely reworked the Zombie movie by presenting us with a population that had been transformed by a mysterious virus. Since then virtually every Zombie movie (save Fido which to be fair was a homage to the 50’s zombie films) has followed the same basic premise…zombies are no longer reanimated dead but infected living. The new focus on the infectious virus speaks to our cultures fear of things like H1N1, Bird Flu, AIDS, etc.
ASIDE – Video games track fairly closely with movie culture and have been ahead of the curve when it comes to these cultural reflections…especially as regards Japanese influence on American culture. Part of the reason for this is likely that Japan has generally been seen as the video game leader of the world in terms of creativity and development.
If one were to apply some of these insights to today’s horror movies that are less and less supernatural and more and more slasher/violent in nature one might come to believe the current psychosis of American culture is a fear of one-another. A fear of humanity. Given the state of things this makes lots of sense.
In terms of the future I would not be surprised to see more horror films exploring themes reflective of terrorism, fear of Islam etc. I also expect the western horror film to become less and less hopeful with the collapse of Judea-Christian values. The series of horror moves called Final Destination (which launched in 200)) bear this out I think.
Anyhow – those are some thoughts on horror movies. Much more could be said about sub-genres like vampires but I am too tired to go into it all right now.
Harnessing Chaos 