Imagine you go to sleep tonight, things are going okay. Maybe not perfect or great but not bad, just that middle gray area and you are preparing yourself for the next work day or school day or just general day to do errands or planning out when SOMETHING goes wrong. Something out of your control. And it’s something big, like astronomically big.
You can say that horror is a genre where things are happening TO us or around us, inspired by the current climate of social, political importance. What happens to us, shapes us, no matter how big or small, there’s an effect. And honestly, a lot of horror movies would fit this topic. It’s so broad that you can throw any subgenre in it like slasher or supernatural film. But in order to keep this more contained, I came up with some perimeters.
The films listed are what came into my head when I thought of this topic. I hope there’s a pattern here. I thought of circumstances in horror where there’s an IMMEDIATE change, especially towards the lead protagonist(s) that then the pattern continues. So like a part of me wants to say Scream (1996) as in Casey (Drew Barrymore) not answering the phone and perhaps making it out but also, the plan was more or less set and there doesn’t seem to be an outing for her. Her boyfriend being kidnapped, 2 killers watching, there doesn’t seem to be a way out of it.
Let’s see how this goes! And if it makes sense? It should!
The Mist (2007) – IF YOU WAITED 2 MORE MINUTES, EVERYONE WOULD HAVE LIVED.
28 Days Later (2002) – Literal change when you wake up from a coma and nothing is the same.
Night of the Living Dead (1968) – What would it be like if we never visited a cemetery?
Dawn of the Dead (2004) – You’re a nurse, you have a shitty boss, a loving husband and then your world changes when your husband is bitten and the world is just hell.
Children of the Corn (1984) – A road trip leads to he who walks behind the row.
Jeepers Creepers (2001) – If only they hadn’t witnessed the bloody sheet wrapped in rope.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) – How long can you stay awake?
Cabin Fever (2002) – Don’t drink the water!
The Evil Dead (1981) – Nobody snoops, nobody reads the book of the dead as a joke.
Planet Terror/Death Proof (2007) – Wrong place, wrong time. For both.
Demons (1985) – Movie premiere in a theater where you can’t escape. My introvert self stays home.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) – Brad and Janet didn’t travel late at night and lose a tire.
Host (2020) – We just don’t joke around with spirits, okay??
Get Out (2017) – Dating is rough. Meeting parents is deadly.
Us (2019) – Don’t leave children unattended. You might get your own doppelganger.
Psycho (1960) – Stealing money isn’t worth death at the hands of a man obsessed with his mother.
Ready or Not (2019) – “it’s like muuuuurder on your wedding day”, my take on Alanis.
These films above are extreme circumstances of their lives being completely flipped upside whether from outside sources or even out of their reach and faced with something unexpectedly, deadly, life changing or confronting something supernatural. Hmm, supernatural is something that a lot of these films have in common and well, you really don’t have a lot of pushback when it comes right into your face (or life). Take it from me, I have had quite the experiences with the strange and unusual as Lydia Deetz would say. Huh, in a way, Beetlejuice fits this criteria.
What other films would you include in this? Leave a comment below! I’ll see you guys next week!
Shots of Horror 