The horror genre is one of my favourite genres in the world of film (although I would consider sci-fi to take a joint first place with horror for me personally). Horror has some rather iconic tropes within all of the films that have been produced throughout the genres lifespan, and as those years have passed by, the genre has grown in both creativity and popularity.
Horrors very much like to play on common fears of the human race. Fear in horror films vary between subjects like Religion, which mainly includes tropes such as exorcisms, possession, the worship of Satan or other demons of hell, a simple Slasher story, which mainly relies on the antagonist of the story being a murderous psycho that likes to slay oblivious teenagers in a gory fashion, films like Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween and many (many) others. Horror films can take our every day fears and dramatise them in a way that leaves the audience more afraid of them than they were aware.
One film to take note of that I feel really set the bar with exorcism/possession style films is of course The Exorcist, a film that at the time of its release, disturbed audience members to point where they left the theatre petrified, mainly because it was a child being put through such a horrific event and performing vulgar acts that really made the audience uncomfortable about the subject of Religion in horror.
A common character trait that is very much seen in films about demonic possession, mainly in the character that has been possessed, is a moral absence due to this character being corrupted by the demon. In the case of The Exorcist, the girl who has been possessed was set up to be innocent but the demon known as Pazuzu, possesses this inncoent child stripping her of the innocence built up in the first half of the film and replacing her character with the evil demons traits.
Films like The Exorcist have a formula that has proven to really work financially, and is still used today with the rise of the horror genre, films like Hereditary or The Conjuring which were financial successes at the time of their release. Its now common these days that big production companies like Holloywood take advantage of old films that did it right and either use that structure again or create a “remake” of this old film using todays technology, below is an example of this in practice.
Horror as a genre can function with other genres like sci-fi. Films like The Thing (1982) which at the time of its launch was not too popular with the public, but now it is well renowned by the many who have watched it. Another genre that I think horror works well with is a more psychological take, a film for example is It Follows, where it may not have been so successful in the box office, it is now known for having established an atmosphere of dread with an antagonist who never truly leaves the protagonist alone. Horror is known to work with a few other subgenres but these two I believe have made some of my favourite movies of all time.
I believe that this genre will go on to evolve, and more creative ways of terrifying audiences will be spawned from said creativity, but to me, this system of remaking old successful horror icons is not sustainable and really snuffs out that creativity.
