Horror as Hope
In the vein of my seasonal posts, here’s one for “spooky season”, otherwise known as Autumn.
Today, I feel like writing about horror movies.
There are obviously religious and spiritual subjects in horror. I feel I have to make that association because I’m writing this here and this is, in most senses, a place where I’m “supposed” to write about spiritual subjects. But I don’t see much difference between the “magical” and the “mundane,” the “sacred” and “profane,” the spiritual and the secular. So I will occasionally drop thoughts in here that touch on things some folks wouldn’t consider spiritual subjects. If you find any of it interesting, come along and see what you think. If you don’t, that’s totally fine.
In a spiritual sense, the horror genre asks us to question the afterlife, human morals and behaviors, faith as a means of protection, magical/deific/demonic intent or intervention - see The Exorcist, The Omen, The Wicker Man, Midsommar, basically any ghost story; the list could go on. It can also pose many other questions and requires us to sit with our discomfort around both every day and taboo subjects.
I’ve long been a fan of horror films and literature. As a kid - back when there were still video rental stores - I would go on a Friday night, rent two or three horror films, then go home, turn off all the lights, and watch them alone in my room. There was something subversive and exhilarating about the ritual.
As an adult, I still mostly watch horror alone because my spouse is not a fan, though she makes exceptions during the month of October when she’ll usually choose to stay in the room while I watch horror films. (Though she’s likely playing a game, reading a synopsis of the movie, or otherwise ignoring the TV.) I have, thankfully, gained fellow horror fans over the years who watch with me, but as an unabashed film buff who watches a sometimes obscene number of movies (of many genres) in a week, I can’t be expected to always have a friend on hand.
Sometimes I turn to horror because it is more comfortable to face imaginary fears, or because it provides a jolt to the sympathetic nervous system; lately I feel like I’ve been watching horror movies partly as escapism, partly as spiritual solace, but mostly I think because horror, perhaps ironically, makes me more hopeful about the state of humanity right now.
“As soon as I started to write what’s called fantasy, I was able to touch reality. I was able to talk about my world. I was able to talk about good and evil and guilt and pain and suffering, but I had to do it in that context, with that frame of fantasy around it.”
There’s not always a happy ending. That’s true to life. But more often than not, there is both social commentary about the actual monsters we face (i.e. other humans, nature, ourselves) and there is a throughline of bravery in the face of danger. There is the Final Girl, or a promise of something better rising from the ashes. Even if the outcome is not as expected. Even if we know there’ll be a sequel. There is a kind of sharp-eyed hope. (The Scream franchise is maybe a good example of this.)
Last night, I did my “dice roll” horror watch on Shudder and came up with Spree. While I would not say it is an award winning horror flick in any sense, it does pose questions for us about our deference to social media, how we present ourselves online, what we believe to be real, and consumption/voyeur culture in general. (And, of course, racism, classism, mental health; all very common subjects explored in horror, whether we’re talking about Psycho or Get Out.) Similarly, I cannot suggest that the ending of Spree is all that hopeful in itself, but it does make us face real, timely, fears; which can help us out into perspective whatever day-to-day horrors we're living through.
“And that is what genre movies do at their best., especially great horror movies: It gives you a way to discuss the undiscussable. It gives you the context to talk about subjects that are just awful and painful for everyone. But you can put it in the context of a scary movie ... and you’re suddenly allowed to talk about it.”
Horror can teach us about heartbreak, about loss, about love for the other. Horror can juxtapose the sacred and the profane. It can solve problems for us, it can be prophetic and warn us about what is to come. It can shine a light on our monstrous human behaviors and the skeletons in our personal and societal closets. It can also just be an escape. Right now, with the way so much is going in the everyday, I think any of those reasons are reason enough to catch a horror flick now and again.
So, enjoy spooky season, my friends, however it is you choose to enjoy!