Another year is in the rearview mirror – and as far as we can tell, there’s no maniac following us on that lonely stretch of rural road.
As per usual, 2023 ran the gamut from the ridiculous (Pet Sematary: Bloodline and Children of the Corn) to the sublime (When Evil Lurks, many a critic’s unanimous choice for Horror of the Year and the outstanding Canadian horror/thriller, Influencer).
However, many films that cracked some people’s Top 10 (M3GAN, Thanksgiving, Scream and Evil Dead Rise) don’t require a re-watch. And no slight against them, but they aren’t flicks you’d message your friends about saying “you’ve gotta see this!”
While it’s surely nice to see broader downturns in the cinema business haven’t affected the production and release of horrors, 2023 was nonetheless bit of a weak year for the genre.
There are a few trends in the horror film space that are best abandoned near a remote farm house – and absent cell service – next year, to improve matters.
The continued proliferation of cash-in Christmas slashers. There are simply no more puns to dispense, as It’s a Wonderful Knife showed us, and which, if greenlit, so will We Wish You a Scary Christmas (that doesn’t exist, does it?) These Christmas horrors are occasionally spirited, as befits the holiday season (Better Watch Out or Christmas Bloody Christmas) but more often than not, aren’t.
New installments of, and constant chatter about who is or isn’t in the next Scream. Director Christopher Landon exited the flick for reasons unknown. Star Melissa Barrera, conspicuously social media silent about the massacre of Jews by Jihadi militants Oct 7 – but suddenly only vocal when Israel, justified morally and legally – asserted its right to self defence – was axed from the latest installment. Either way. The last two Scream movies were solid, if unspectacular, which is more than can be said about the last three Halloween flicks or the appalling/abysmal 2022 Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Ergo, why not breathe new life into mediocre IPs? Where is the reboot of Don’t Go in the Woods? It’s dang near impossible not to improve on the original. Same goes for Splatter University, The Unnamable, Urban Legend, Hospital Massacre. The list is a long one. Any of these could stand a fresh coat of paint.
Horror has always been smart and subversive – see, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Fly, Society, Re-Animator, Piranha. However, the phrase “elevated horror” needs to be taken out behind the barn – and with effects by Tom Savini.
Is Hereditary “elevated” because it’s talky? Only in relative terms. After all, scripts have been getting shorter and shorter over time. Or, is it elevated because the plot is more than “escaped lunatic with a knife kills people?”
Lastly, an excess of violence/splatter can’t save a bad horror movie. Plus, having horror film characters talk about horror films is a huge detractor and an escapism killer. No more meta, please!
Anyway, all the best to everyone in the New Year.
Really Awful Movies 