Reflecting on Terror, by Tyler Smith
It’s universally acknowledged that film has an impact on the larger cultural landscape. Clark Gable didn’t wear an undershirt in It Happened One Night and shirt sales nationwide plummeted. The Kennedy assassination was not widely considered a conspiracy until Oliver Stone produced JFK. SeaWorld was a thriving tourist destination that is now struggling to stay afloat after the documentary Blackfish. There are countless other examples that span all genres; action, comedy, musical, and so forth. The one exception seems to be horror. Where other films impact the culture, horror reflects the culture.
As far back as the 1920s, when German Expressionist films responded to the depression and malaise of post-war Germany, horror has been seen as an effective, but often disconcerting, mirror held up to society. We find it again in the 1950s, when Japanese filmmakers used extreme sci-fi/horror, in the form of Godzilla, to grapple with the grim effects of the atomic bomb. This nuclear terror could also be found in the United States, as theaters around the country were filled with images of giant irradiated animals wreaking havoc on cities and towns. Also a function of the Cold War, we would also see McCarthyism – that sad chapter in American history – reflected in Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which depicted mass assimilation and individual paranoia.
The ugly, nihilistic horror films of the 60s and 70s, such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Rosemary’s Baby, and I Spit on Your Grave, are seen as a response to the dispiriting events of the era. Vietnam, Watergate, and several tragic assassinations created a sense of disillusionment. This feeling that our institutions were not on our side could be seen everywhere in these films. The slasher movies of the 1980s were equally violent, but much more moralistic, reflecting the conservatism of the Reagan years.
As the hip detachment of Generation X began to dominate the culture in the 1990s, self-aware horror movies like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer dominated the box office. And during the George W. Bush administration, when torture was the subject of national debate, we saw the emergence of films like Saw and Hostel. These films established a new horror sub-genre commonly referred to as “Torture Porn.”
With the rise of smartphones – which put both a computer and camera in everyone’s pocket – the popularity of found footage movies, like Paranormal Activity, seemed inevitable in retrospect. But, as we moved into the 2010s, horror became much more introspective and thoughtful, exploring the role of past trauma in present fear. We saw this in The Babadook, Midsommar, and Hereditary. This seemed to reflect the national conversation about the sins of America’s past and how we should process them.
This brings us to the modern day and the surprising success of the Terrifier series. Originating from the world of extreme low-budget horror, The Terrifier became infamous for its unrelenting gore and gleefully nihilistic attitude. The second film, clocking in at a daunting 140 minutes, gained even more notoriety as a repulsive endurance test. These films appealed to a niche horror audience, for whom there is no such thing as too much blood.
When a third Terrifier film was announced, we all – rightfully – assumed that it would just be more of the same. However, upon the film’s release, an unexpected development occurred. Not only did Terrifier 3 get a wide theatrical release, but it became a box office hit, debuting at number 1. This was truly dumbfounding. Not since the slasher era had so violent a movie been so successful. And even those were heavily edited to accommodate the ratings board. Not so with Terrifier 3, which can be said to be one of the most genuinely uncompromising movies in recent memory.
What exactly does this mean? If horror movies are truly a mirror held up to society, what does this say about the time in which we now live? Certainly, there is a lot of anger and hate and dehumanization these days, mostly obviously occurring in the way we view our political opponents. Is this movie simply those feelings taken to an extreme?
One of my favorite definitions of film comes from the late Roger Ebert, when he called it “a machine that generates empathy.” Meaning that movies are uniquely able to put us in another person’s shoes and see the world through their eyes. If that’s the case, whom are we meant to empathize with in Terrifier 3, the killer or his victims? As nobody else really lasts that long, the killer is the only constant we have, forcing us to identify with him, whether we want to or not.
But, if horror movies are indeed reflections of us, perhaps we already empathize with the killer. Maybe the film isn’t meant to scare us, but instead be a conduit for the anger and hate that we have been feeling. Perhaps when we look in this mirror, we see ourselves as a maniacal clown, indiscriminately murdering people, all with a delighted grin on our faces. As we celebrate assassination attempts, or cheer on wars, or ridicule and bully those we disagree with, the popularity of these films begins to make more sense. Whatever the next phase of horror might reflect, the fact is that this is who we are right now, and this series simply calls ‘em like it sees ‘em. And that is truly terrifying.
