I’ve never had an issue with this terminology. Hard to argue there are different strata of budget, production values or artistic aims. I love cheap B-horror movies and I also love the “elevated” type too and everything inbetween, and I don’t understand why I should feel bad making the distinction. As well, even though the term is relatively new, the concept has existed a long time…Psycho and The Exorcist are basically “elevated horror” of their day. When people are offended by the term, they seem to be under the presumption that it impugns other horror genres and people are using it derisively, but I’ve rarely (never?) seen it used in that context…it’s generally just a convenient shorthand. So it seems like people are offended by their own assumptions and not actual usage cases
To me, it’s not my assumption but that of the person using the phrase who apparently believes that horror needs any elevation in the first place or that such a thing is even possible.
Even if you limit the term to budget, it works. Of course it is possible to elevate a budget and production values, but that does not imply there’s anything wrong with low budget. That is something I think you are bringing to your interpretation, along with the word “needs.” It is totally possible to use the term and not think “un-elevated” horror is bad or that it needs to be elevated. I feel like this is a self-fulling prophecy, the outcry imbued the word with a meaning that was not there before people complained
Toni Collette was already well known for starring in a horror film prior to “Hereditary”: “The Sixth Sense”.
I think a lot of the reputation slashers have for “puritanism” comes from conflating Halloween & Friday the 13th, when they are actually quite different (the “final girl” of the latter is far from virginal). Scream is presumably partly to blame. Horror is my favorite genre, but I don’t care that much for slashers (aside from the original Halloween) because so many are just trash made without the skill that a James Wan puts into his jump-scares. My own politics are well to the right of David, but I would say there is one sense in which horror is an inherently conservative genre (which is not to say the makers & enjoyers of it are politically conservative): everyone participating in it is alive, and horror reminds you that you could be dead. That’s a change which is scary.
Kudos to all three of you, this was a really fantastic episode!
Thanks!
– David
I’ve never had an issue with this terminology. Hard to argue there are different strata of budget, production values or artistic aims. I love cheap B-horror movies and I also love the “elevated” type too and everything inbetween, and I don’t understand why I should feel bad making the distinction. As well, even though the term is relatively new, the concept has existed a long time…Psycho and The Exorcist are basically “elevated horror” of their day. When people are offended by the term, they seem to be under the presumption that it impugns other horror genres and people are using it derisively, but I’ve rarely (never?) seen it used in that context…it’s generally just a convenient shorthand. So it seems like people are offended by their own assumptions and not actual usage cases
To me, it’s not my assumption but that of the person using the phrase who apparently believes that horror needs any elevation in the first place or that such a thing is even possible.
– David
Even if you limit the term to budget, it works. Of course it is possible to elevate a budget and production values, but that does not imply there’s anything wrong with low budget. That is something I think you are bringing to your interpretation, along with the word “needs.” It is totally possible to use the term and not think “un-elevated” horror is bad or that it needs to be elevated. I feel like this is a self-fulling prophecy, the outcry imbued the word with a meaning that was not there before people complained
Toni Collette was already well known for starring in a horror film prior to “Hereditary”: “The Sixth Sense”.
I think a lot of the reputation slashers have for “puritanism” comes from conflating Halloween & Friday the 13th, when they are actually quite different (the “final girl” of the latter is far from virginal). Scream is presumably partly to blame. Horror is my favorite genre, but I don’t care that much for slashers (aside from the original Halloween) because so many are just trash made without the skill that a James Wan puts into his jump-scares. My own politics are well to the right of David, but I would say there is one sense in which horror is an inherently conservative genre (which is not to say the makers & enjoyers of it are politically conservative): everyone participating in it is alive, and horror reminds you that you could be dead. That’s a change which is scary.