Why there are fewer screamers and other scary tricks in horror films

Clever horror films have always existed. Rosemary's Baby (1968), The Wicker Man (1973), The Shining (1980) are all true cinematic masterpieces and absolute classics. But at the same time, film critics have long been skeptical about the horror genre, making an exception only for the works of recognized directors like Hitchcock or Kubrick.

But ordinary viewers have always loved horror movies. The success of the most famous horror franchises speaks for itself: A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre spawned huge film series. It's gotten to the point that all these sequels, prequels and spin-offs are not easy to understand even for fans.

But at the beginning of the 21st century, traditional horror films began to annoy the audience and fail at the box office. For some time, horror stories in the format “found film” (“Paranormal Activity”, “Report”, “The Blair Witch Project”), but they soon became boring. And then the scriptwriters and directors found a way out in deepening the dramaturgy of films.

To describe such a movie, many new terms have appeared: post-horror, slowburner and even sublime horror. But they all essentially come down to one thing: these are tapes whose action develops slowly, and the whole suspense is built on the expectation of something terrible.

The Witch (2015), Reincarnation (2018), Solstice (2019), Get Out (2017) are all prime examples of the new wave of smart slow horror. At the same time, there are often user reviews where viewers complain that these films do not scare them at all.

Indeed, modern directors deliberately do not use adrenaline-stimulating tricks like screamers. Let's try to figure out why they do this and how they replace traditional ways to impress the viewer.

The horrors lurking in the subconscious scare more than monsters

Maniacs Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger and Leatherface are primarily associated with slasher classics, and demons from The Exorcist or Paranormal Activity with horror stories about occultism. However, in newer horror films, supernatural monsters or witches are just the outward manifestations of more complex fears.

The famous "Reincarnation" (2018) by Ari Astaire can be viewed as a typical film about cultists trying to revive a demon. And you can - as a social horror about the breakup of a family.

Solstice (2019) by the same author begins with a group of young people on their way to visit pagans who practice terrible rituals. But they are not the villains here. The task of the director is to show the drama of the heroine, who lost her entire family and turned out to be unnecessary for her beloved.

Robert Eggers' debut The Witch (2015) is not about witch trials, but about the sexual maturation of a young girl. Get Out (2017) by Jordan Peele raises the issue of the hypocrisy of white liberals who only pretend to be progressive and decent people, but deep down still intolerant to African Americans.

Even in the Australian "Babadook" (2014), behind the image of a specific monster that occupied the heroine's house, her repressed hatred for her son is hidden. There are many more examples, but the essence is the same: it is not the monsters themselves that come to the fore in the horror films of the new generation, but the deep subconscious fears that they personify.

Screamers have been replaced by oppressive atmosphere and absurdist dialogues

The techniques used by modern horror makers also do not fit into the style of standard horror films. Here you will not find, for example, screamers or, as they are also called, jumpskairs that exploit a purely physiological reaction. Although it used to be the most common way to scare the viewer - to make someone or something jump into the frame abruptly.

I must say, it worked: just remember the ending of the first "Paranormal Activity" (2007). The whole film was built on the expectation that something terrible would appear in the frame. And how scary it was when at the end the evil spirits literally rushed into the camera.

Now it’s not enough for directors to make the viewer shudder once. Their goal is to drown the beholder in a sticky feeling of melancholy and anxiety. And this cannot be achieved by simply showing a monster jumping out from around the corner. Therefore, an unsettling environment, static shots and a gloomy color palette are used. Although there are exceptions - for example, "Solstice" was filmed in the bright light of day.

Another way to catch up with fear is unusual dramaturgy and staging. So, after watching The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) by Yorgos Lanthimos, many viewers complained that the actors play unnaturally, and the dialogues are somehow strange. Their claim is partly true: in life, people usually don’t talk to each other like that and don’t stand in such elaborate poses.

But the whole point is precisely that the director specifically sought such disturbing and uncomfortable mise-en-scenes to evoke conflicting feelings. While watching "The Murder" you may have a strange desire laugh — and that's okay.

Charlie Kaufman in I Think How to End It (2020) did without the traditional methods of intimidation. But the film even without them inspires horror and melancholy, and imperceptibly for the viewer. Heroes naturally change clothes and names, grow old and get younger. And even if you don’t notice it right away, you subconsciously feel that something is wrong with these characters. At some point, the plot of the picture will finally lose touch with reality and the movie will turn into a suffocating surreal dream.

“torture porn” has been replaced by poetic violence

Pictures with brutal torture and sophisticated murders were popular back in the 70s and early 80s. It was then that icons of the slasher genre came out, including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). But in the 2000s, torture horror in the wake of the popularity of the franchise "Sawhas become quite mainstream.

By the way, some critics believe that such a frenzied surge of public interest in on-screen atrocities arose after real footage of torture from Abu Ghraib prison was made public.

However, in the new decade, viewers are tired of looking at "torture porn". And the directors of the new wave sensitively caught the mood of the audience. Now, far from every horror you can find fountains of blood, and sometimes the authors do without scenes of violence at all.

But if modern creators undertake to show suffering and torture, they do it so beautifully that even the most sensitive viewers will be fascinated. For instance, "Solstice”, which we mentioned above, up to a certain point, it almost does not scare - except that it worries about the expectation of something terrible.

But at some point, without any warning, an incredibly brutal scene occurs in which two elderly members of the cult kill themselves. And then one of the heroes is also finished off with a huge hammer.

And although Ari Aster demonstrates the physiological aspects of violence with the utmost frankness, these moments do not cause obvious disgust, as well as the desire to turn away. After all, they resemble a canvas painted by a good artist.

Sometimes directorial searches in this area take quite unusual forms. Viewers who have seen The Killing of a Sacred Deer will probably remember that the film opens with footage of open-heart surgery. It's hard to believe, but this is real footage of coronary bypass surgery. Although modern graphics allow you to simulate almost anything, Yorgos Lanthimos still won permission to shoot in a real operating room.

Screamers, monsters, and torture no longer evoke the same emotions in the audience, so directors find ways to play with old means of expression in a different way or invent new ones. And it's great, because such creative searches enrich the genre. Probably not everyone is intimidated by new horror films, but one thing is for sure: they leave few people indifferent.