(Pre-amble, I don’t think the meme should be taken seriously and I do find it funny)

Horror is my favourite genre because it genuinely seeks to express the most primal and furious of all emotions: fear. From the goriest, straight-forward splatter fest to the subtlest discomforts of tense artsy horror films, the popular and cult favourite movies offer a fantastic reflection of that generation/culture’s deepest vulnerabilities.

Slashers like Friday the 13th were about the internalized self-criticism of modern, white Judea-Christian values (pre-marital sex, drugs, etc) and Nightmare on Elm Street was about parents, society, the government, etc, being unable and unwilling to help with the problems they created, problems that turn lethal. Suicide due to depression from repression, OD’ing from drugs because you need a way out, getting killed because you got mixed up with the “wrong” crowd at the wrong time, these were all things that happened to people because the “system” pushed you into a corner, and vilified any means you sought to escape.

Even “torture porn” like Saw was about feeling trapped and what extremes you’d take to “free” yourself. Terrifier, too, can offer a reflection of extreme violence offering some form of release.

Backrooms and Obsession are so relevant because they too talk about our fears of being trapped in the endlessly mundane, or attachments that we cling to beyond the safety of ourselves and others.

This is a really general rant so I’ve glossed over and even ignored so many nuances. Not to mention that I’m really not eloquent enough to really hit every nail on the head… and each person will pull their own unique experiences from horror.

I genuinely love it when people find something they can connect with in horror, regardless of what generation or subgenre they find.

edit: head not hand