It's Not Weird Enough, Make It Weirder!

Still from Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth

Weirdness! We're all a little weird, right? Most people consider horror, and the people who like horror, weird. Because horror definitely is strange, out of the ordinary, and twisted. But what happens when that weirdness becomes the ordinary?

In the horror industry there is definitely an "ordinary" now. A lot more people are into horror now than ever before, and it's become a genre that includes a lot of things, including tropes. Not to say that tropes are bad, because they aren't, there needs to be something familiar for an audience to hold onto while being shown the unfamiliar. However, there haven't been many horror pieces lately that are as shocking, or weird, as they used to be because we've become so familiar with horror.

I don't think horror is in any kind of "rut," because I do enjoy a predictable horror movie, and many others do as well! They're fun and cheesy. But it has been a long time since I've been surprised by horror movies or even literature.

This week I read "In the Hills" by Clive Barker which I thought was really cool. I had no idea what was going on for a while, but it was interesting enough for me to keep reading. Gay protagonists in horror was something I haven't seen done often so that was cool too! The story was just so darn weird that I didn't know what to expect for the ending.

I miss this unpredictability with horror, and even though "In the Hills" isn't relatively new, I think this is the direction horror is going. When I watch a horror movie, I want that shock of my predictions for what's to come to be smashed and bashed and put in a blender to give me a smoothie that's better than what I imagined. I got that when I read "In the Hills." I think directors like Guillermo Del Toro are really good at doing this. You could argue his movies are more fantasy than horror, but they usually have you feel dread and shock at points. Pan's Labyrinth is a good example of a weird horror story that has a clear structure yet remains unpredictable, and gives you something you don't expect at the end but fits perfectly.

Promotional poster for season 1 of Channel Zero: Candle Cove

Some modern movies that I think are taking horror to new heights are: Get Out, The Shrine, The Babadook, They Look Like People, and Creep and its sequel Creep 2. I also recommend the TV show Channel Zero which is halfway through its third season right now. It's an anthology show where each season is based on a different short story found on the internet. Each season, so far, has had strange stories and super weird imagery that really gives ya' the goosebumps.