Horror by the decade

1970s – High Horror and the introduction of the slasher

Standouts

The Exorcist

The Omen

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Halloween

When A Stranger Calls

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

The Hills Have Eyes

The 70s is when horror cemented its place as a genre. It didn’t start in the 70s but I believe that this is where the genre really got its legs. The slasher sub-genre was introduced in the early 1970s and became a mainstay for the next 3 decades. I personally see this genre being defined by high-horror. I use that term somewhat loosely. What I mean is that this decade is pre-trope and that the creators took the gerne seriously. Later decades is where horror earned some of its stigma but the 70s treated horror films as serious art. There were some high quality actors and acting in the 70s that we unfortunately saw at an inconsistent rate at best as the years passed and the genre subsequently became stigmatized.

1980s – Slashers, franchises, tropes and camp

Standouts

Halloween 2 & 4

Nightmare on Elm Street

Friday the 13th

The Shining

They Live

Child’s Play

Aliens

Night of the Comet

Fright Night

The 1980s is the Golden Age of the slasher. Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Freddy Krueger were three kings. Their success opened the door for an influx of slasher films which defined the decade stronger than any other trait defined any other one. We also saw sequels turn into full-fledged franchises during the 1980s. Camp is also pretty prominent throughout this decade as well. Many horror films of the 80s have a very distinctive campy and goofiness that is totally unique to the decade. I’m not sure if it’s because of impending doom at the height of the Cold War, but writers shed any artistic pretentiousness of years prior.

Unfortunately, the 80s garnered a lot of stigma during this period. The 1980s started and routinely fell victim to many tropes and formulaic plot tendencies that plagued the genre long after the 80s ended.

1990s – Teen horror, decline and resurgence of the slasher, miscellaneous

Standouts

Scream 1

Scream 2

Candyman

The Faculty

I Know What You Did Last Summer

Urban Legend

The People Under the Stairs

Wes Craven’s New Nightmare

Tales from the Hood

Misery

People were pretty slasher’d out by the time the early 90s rolled around. The sub-genre was oversaturated with shaky films that became predictable, trite, and overly reliant on tropes. This resulted in horror films being seen in as bad of a light since its inception. With people being over slashers, this led to a vacuum in the horror industry between 1990-1996. As a result, the genre didn’t really have a defining trait during this period.

Horror in the 90s was kind of in a lull. Slashers had gone by the wayside and there weren’t many reoccurring commonalities between films from 1990-1996. There wasn’t a defining trait that you could say can accurately define this period. Horror films, slashers specifically, by this point had developed a bad reputation, so a lot of writers during this period seemed that they were exploring new ideas. This is a good thing in a broad sense, but there seemed to be a lack of focus. That 80s camp was no longer in style but horror films had gotten so heavily stigmatized that it wasn’t seen as high art either.

Horror films were in no-man’s land where people didn’t want camp but it also wasn’t held in high enough regard to go the artsy approach either. A good example of this is the pushback on Silence of the Lambs being classified as horror (it is). What we got during this time was a hodge podge of differing types of films that didn’t’ know how to approach a genre in the midst of a metamorphosis for an audience that had become jaded.

That was until at least Scream dropped. Scream revitalized slashers, teen horror and immediately jumpstarted the industry. Immediately after Scream we got The Faculty, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Urban Legend, and Disturbing Behavior. Horror movies became interesting again with Scream. 1996-1999 quickly became dominated by teen horror. That’s what stands out to me the most about this decade.

2000s – Teem horror, torture porn, psychological horror, little bit of everything

Standouts

Cabin Fever

Final Destination 1 & 2

Jeepers Creepers 1

Saw 1 & 2

The Ring

Trick R Treat

Paranormal Activity 1

The Strangers

30 Days of Night

The early 2000s are truly an extension of the late 90s. Teen horror was all the rage from 97-99 and the early 2000s continued this trend. Films like Urban Legend, Final Destination, Cabin Fever, Jeepers Creepers and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre were all popular horror films focusing on high school or college-aged characters. These films stand out to me the most when I think back on the early aughts.

The mid-2000s are when things get interesting. Wolf Creek, House of Wax, and See No Evil were teen films that came out during this era but psychological films are what were most prominent to me here. The Ring 2 and The Grudge’s 1 & 2 came out between 04-06. This is when I believe that horror films attempted to be “smarter”. Admittedly, I’m relatively low on these but I do believe that they opened the door for horror films pushing past formulas and stereotypes.

The late 2000s continued to be a bit of a melting in terms of any definitive sub-genre. I felt that it was a little bit all over the place but that’s not an indictment. Trick r Treat is a phenomenal anthology film that debuted in festivals in 2007 and later had a widespread release in 2009. Also in 2007, is in my opinion, the greatest vampire movie that I have ever seen in 30 Days of Night. Next in 2008 is one of my favorite films of all time, The Strangers. These are not only stellar films of the 2000s but are all probably in my top 20 of all-time. We also got Cloverfield, Paranormal Activity 1, House of the Devil, and The Collector, all superb films, making this a highly underrated time-period.

2010s – Found-footage, elevated horror, Jordan Peele, genre evolution

Standouts

Get Out

Cabin in the Woods

The Witch

Paranormal Activity 2

A Quiet Place

The Conjuring

Sinister 1

It Chapter One

The Houses October Built

V/H/S

Horror experienced a metamorphosis in the mid-2010s. This is the era where I believe that writers and directors actively pushed back against the tropes and stereotypes that weighed the genre down. This is the era in which I think the genre re-invented itself. New ideas and better films started to be made. We also started to slowly see more and better representation during this decade. This evolution stands out to me the most.

If Jordan Peele’s Get Out is a watershed moment, then The Conjuring four years before it was the catalyst. The Conjuring is not only one of the most popular horror franchises of all-time but it’s also one that increased the quality of horror films. James Wan didn’t settle for a run-of-the-mill haunted house story but instead created a horror universe with multiple films that connect to one another. He obviously took a play out of the MCU’s playbook but where The Conjuring Universe differs, is that it is not nearly as formulaic as the MCU or as other horror franchises prior to it. The Conjuring is an impressive film that gave us strong acting and created a shift on what we could expect from a horror franchise.

The expectations of the decade continued to rise as we got unique movies by creators that take the genre seriously. It Follows is unlike anything that I have personally ever seen. Don’t Breathe hit theatres two years later and it’s one of the best films of the decade. It does about as great of a job as you can with the survival sub-genre. The film is highly tense, anxious and dread inducing. The fear is palpable. Get Out came out about 6 months later in 2017, redefining the genre. The next year saw the excellent sci-fi horror flick, A Quiet Place; led and directed by John Kransinski. The First Purge also dropped in 2018, which I believe is a pretty underrated film and which helped make The Purge series one of the better horror franchises of all-time. Two very good Stephen King adaptations, It Chapter Two and Doctor Sleep, came out the following year in 2019. Also in 2019 is Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, an adaptation of the popular children’s horror series. This film is surprisingly dark but more importantly very good and in my opinion, not spoken about as much as it should be.

The 2010s got stronger as the decade progressed. Horror truly earned its stripes here. The genre was scoffed at in prior years but I think the genre did a stellar job of earning the respect of non-fans during the late 2010s.

2020s (so far)

Standouts

The Invisible Man

Malignant

Fear Street (Trilogy)

X

Pearl

Barbarian

Scream 6

Terrifier 2

The Medium

The Sadness

The Menu

Three years into the 2020s and it’s hard for me to describe the decade thus far. I don’t know if there is a sub-genre that has really stood out or defined it to this point. What I can say is there is a strong argument to be made that we are currently in a golden age of the horror genre. I firmly believe that. The 2010s gathered steam and the early 2020s have continued the momentum of stellar films being made. What really has stood out to me is that we don’t see nearly as many trite and formulaic films being made as I became accustomed to. Found-footage had started to become redundant and unoriginal by 2017 or so, but even that has seen a recent jumpstart.

Horror in the High Desert 1 and 2, V/H/S/99, Deadware, and the Andy Baker Tape are all unique found-footage films of the early 2020s. The first Horror in the High Desert especially took a refreshing approach. It feels more like an episode of Dateline or First 48 with the investigative approach that the film utilizes. It does this extraordinarily well. It does it so well that you could mistake the film for a real life documentary of a missing person if you were unaware that it is a fictional film.

V/H/S/99 jumpstarted the V/H/S franchise with a surprisingly fresh and entertaining film. Deadware is a really fascinating film. The late 90s/early 00s are a highly underrated time-period that I hold immense nostalgic feelings for. I also have a fondness for early social media, online forums, and nascent forms of technological communication. Deadware has all three of these plus it’s a supernatural found-footage horror film; all things that I love. I would love to see more films in this vein.

The early 2020s is in the convo for one of the best eras in horror history. Coming just in the nick of time before COVID put the brakes on the world was the Elizabeth Moss led The Invisible Man. This is an excellent film and is a strong example of what a remake should look like. #Alive also came out in 2020. This is a unique take on zombie films. It’s easy for zombie movies to follow foreseen approaches, but #Alize is a protagonist unlike anything I’ve watched. They’re also in a very peculiar setting, distancing itself from other zombie fils. Asian horror is in the midst of a hot streak and this is another made basket.

Host came out summer 2020 in the middle of COVID. The creators wasted no time writing a COVID horror film; crafting, writing, filming, and releasing the film in less than 5 months. The haste had no effect on the quality as this is an excellent supernatural technological found-footage film. The singular zoom setting could be a dealbreaker for some, but this gives it both a modernity and relevance that makes the film more impactful.

Moving into 2021, is James Wan’s Malignant. That 3rd act is incredibly memorable. Things went completely off-the-wall and I mean that in the best way possible. The Fear Street trilogy dropped over a 3-week period in the middle of the summer. This was one of the best decisions Netflix has ever made in my opinion. Teen horror used to be a staple of the horror genre but that’s gone by the wayside in the last 15 years or so. Fear Street is a breath of fresh air for people who miss seeing the heyday of guys in a mask chasing teenagers.

Both The Medium and The Sadness are incredibly dark, and in The Medium’s case, is incredibly bleak. They are also two of the greatest horror movies of the 21st century. Horror fans absolutely ate in 2022. It’s possibly the best year that I have ever experienced as an adult. I won’t detail each one but 2022 gifted us: Scream 5, The Black Book, Terrifier 2, Nope, Bodies Bodies Bodies, The Menu, Barbarian, Hellraiser, and Smile to name some of my personal favorites. This is a very strong list of films. Every film listed is a new take on what horror could be. I can tell that everyone involved is passionate about their craft. I can also tell that they were given reign to make the stories that they wanted. I don’t get the sense that there were creative limitations that stymied these film’s potential. 2022 and later 2023 with the zany Cocaine Bear and the wicked Evil Dead Rise have given strong evidence on what horror could be when the safety is turned off and creators have the freedom to make the movie that them – and fans truly want to see.