THE WITCH.
THE CONJURING 2
DON’T BREATH…
So many others.. (And I would even couple some movies from 2015 into this category because they were ahead of their time, films like BABADOOK and IT FOLLOWS) ..
This was the year for horror. So many people analyzing such things are attempting to figure out why.. I can tell you why. There has been a generational shift.. and with it, a newfound burst of creativity and not movies that rely on just the typical and stale forms of scaring people. We had movies this year that dug deep–emotional films with a gritty sense of reality.. and a self-awareness that it was all, thankfully, just fiction.
Maybe.
You hope.
That is why horror works WHEN it works. When horror does what it is supposed to do, you are scared and have a reason to be scared… you are trapped in the emotional roller coaster along with the main character.. and in the end, the release from the films comes with the self-realizaiton your mind has that you WERE NOT the one in danger. Someone else was. Your brain that release the energy and calm down by closing credits.
There were lots of those very films this year.. and it was a scary year.
Don’t think for a second that the reality around you does not play in.. This election was divisive and unkind, sometimes crude, rude, and even scary. Pop culture can be scary. Reality can be scary. That is why horror, again WHEN it works, works well. Because in the end horror is fiction .. horror is just a few hours on a big screen in front of us .. for even the gory films, horror is an escape from the true gore of life. The reality of reality is that it’s plain out dangerous and scary. Your brain often is looking, constantly, for ways to keep your body to surive. At least you know by the end of a film that you did survive.
And quite frankly, this year, movies were better than other years. It all just worked well, it flowed perfectly.. the box office release schedule also seemed to favor horror. The summer–for some weird reason–always works better for horror than the autumn. Especially August and early September. No different this year.
But this year we were delivered classic films instead of rubbish that would have been better going ‘straight to video.’
So thanks, Hollywood, for a change. It was a fun scary year. Here’s hoping that it was not fluke, and that it continues in 17.
Hold on to 16 as long as you can. Changes come around real soon make us demons and men.
