THE ISSUE: It’s October — the spooky month — and the editorial board was feeling the spirit of the season. Horror movies are always divisive, leading to arguments among friends during movie night. To formally address this division, two editorial board members describe their viewpoints on the genre. Read the other viewpoint here.
The genre of horror predates film. For centuries humans have been interested in death, ghosts, suspense and the afterlife. Humans — well, at least some of us — have sought ways to evoke fear as entertainment.
To me, there are three types of horror movies: the great, the awful and the earnestly bad. Two I fully defend, the other I must cede to the anti-horror fans.
The greats are just great. These are your The Exorcist, The VVitch or The Babadook — movies that rely on strong characters in terrifying situations and use suspense to make the movie great. They do not rely on poor character development or jump scares to evoke emotion in their audience. They let the stories build suspense and speak for themselves.
The bad are awful in every sense of the word. I am not here to defend these movies, which have hijacked a genre I love. These are what critics pull from to discredit horror movies. They are sexist, racist and usually have bad plots to boot. I’m sure if you read the other viewpoint you will see a few examples. Opponents are not wrong in using these to cast horror movies in a bad light, as they are currently dominating the genre. I don’t watch these and neither should you. Degradation based on sex or ethnicity should not be encouraged — in music, movies or “locker-room talk.”
The earnestly bad might be my favorite sub-genre. These are bad movies, no denying it, but at least they tried to be good.
So gather ‘round a campfire or in your dorm room, find some media with the spookiest of spooky plots and engage in an age-old tradition of needlessly frightening ourselves.
