The Academy Awards celebrate the best in film – at least, in one sense. The Oscars don’t always go to the movies that are most popular with fans or at the box office.
That might be why, according to The Wrap, only eight horror movies have ever been nominated for Best Picture.
“The Substance” was one of the highest-profile horrors from the past year. Of its five nominations, it only won for hair and makeup.
But the genre is growing in popularity among Americans. The website The Numbers reports horrors now make up more than 12% of the market share.
Harry Benshoff studies the growing significance of horror films in American culture. He is a professor and chair of the Department of Media Arts at the University of North Texas. Benshoff talked with Texas Standard about why we love to be scared any time of the year and why we’re seeing a growth in so-called “elevated horror.”
Listen to the interview in the player above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity.
Texas Standard: What do we know about the rise in the popularity of horror films?
Harry Benshoff: Well, I think horror has always been popular. It’s certainly a genre that is sort of critic-proof.
It’s got built-in fans. So, you know, every little horror film that opens usually will turn a profit, just partly because they’re cheap and easy to make. And these built-in fans, like I say, they’ll just go and see whatever the new horror film is.
So what is it that audiences love about horror? Do you have a sense of that?
Well, I always say the genre is about sex and death, which is quite, you know, a lot of pop culture is.
So, horror thematizes things that are going on in the culture. And so, about 10, 20 years ago, we had torture porn when we were having this conversation in America about Abu Ghraib and, you know, black sites.
In the ’80s, we had the slasher film, which was all about punishment and dying a horrible death after sex. So that very much ties into the AIDS crisis and also the backlash against feminism that was going on in the ’80s.
And of course, another one that people always point to is the rise of sci-fi horror in the ’50s about an alien invasion, and we get sort of monsters next door as being a commentary on the Red Scare.
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I’m glad you brought up these sort of subgenres. One you focus on is the rise of the “socially driven” or “elevated” horror. What do you mean by that?
It goes by a lot of different names. I kind of call it smart horror. Some people call it elevated, slow horror.
David Church, who is a colleague of mine, has a book called “Post Horror,” and he defines this sort of subgenre that’s been going on now for about at least 10 years. He calls them “a new breed of independently produced horror films that merge art cinema style with de-centered genres, tropes, privileging lingering dread and visual restraint over audio visual shock and monstrous disgust.”
The typical horror film that most people think about is going to be just jump scares and gore, right? But this kind of post-horror, elevated horror is more about other types of themes, maybe like abuse or grief or, you know, something like racism in a film like “Get Out.”
And so I like them because they’re films that take the genre and do something interesting. I really don’t like all of the sequels and prequels and remakes that, you know, Hollywood normally cranks out, and it’s key that these films are independent films because they are … a filmmaker is coming in and doing something creative with it, which is what I like about this subgenre.
So would you say then that that “The Substance” fits into that idea of elevated horror despite it starring some bigger names?
Yes and no.
Yes, in that it’s making a critique, right? Of patriarchy in the entertainment business. But no in that it has bigger stars, bigger budgets, and it’s certainly not – not visually restrained.
It’s pure body horror. Which is another kind of trend that, you know, has been going on at least since the ’80s with new special effects technologies and then CGI.
I think another trend that sort of dovetails into this is the fact that more women are making horror films now finally. For years, the genre has been just dominated by men. And, you know, something like “The Substance,” written and directed by Coralie Fargeat … she made a film right before that called “Revenge.”
So, I think women-made horror films tend to focus on slightly different themes, maybe. Rape revenge is a big one. Motherhood and birth is a big one. And, of course, body horror and bodily modification, which also ties back into a movement in France called the New French Extremity, which was also sort of perhaps a French version of this elevated horror.
You know, there are horror films that are quite gory, but they’re being made to make sort of a political commentary.
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One thing that “The Substance” had going for it was sort of this parallel story of a comeback of its star, Demi Moore, and that might have helped it get more awards attention. Do you think that was a real part of it, or was there truly more “substance” there – to make a pun.
Well, I should give the disclaimer that I was not on “The Substance” train as much as many people were.
I personally found it sort of guilty doing what it was allegedly critiquing, i.e., exploiting women and exploiting women’s bodies.
And it definitely turns up the dial to 11, to use the Spinal Tap joke, but that’s typical of Coralie Fargeat’s other – her first film, “Revenge.” [It] just ends in this bloodbath … like, I don’t think that human body can contain that much blood, but they’re definitely going into those territories where the men were before and doing it with a gusto and a relish, I suppose you could say.
When you think of where horror goes next, what films or filmmakers are you thinking of?
This is another interesting take on it. You know, we have this concept called auteur theory and film studies, which, you know, you have directors who sort of specialize, right? And they have consistent theme and consistent style. And we still see that it’s a more male kind of thing.
There’s definitely new horror filmmakers like Alex Garland, Ari Aster, Robert Eggers, who are making really interesting, smart or elevated horror. But they tend to work consistently in the genre in a way that the women who are making horror tend to be more of a one-off.
There’s not a woman auteur that I could point at right now and say that they’ve got the same status as a Robert Eggers or an Alex Garland.
What would you like to see? Anything that’s missing that you think there’s room for? Or maybe a hearken back to something that horror did in decades past?
No, I just, you know, I like the idea that these are independent films made by people who are trying to do something interesting with the genre. And as far as I’m concerned, they can keep doing that.
You know, “Get Out” from a few years ago, there’s another one. Jordan Peele is another good example of somebody who’s using the genre right over and over to make sort of social commentary.
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