Happy NewYear! We’re finally out of 2020 and into 2021 (phew!) and along with new hopes for the upcoming year come new speculations for what’s to come in the horror world.
The most obvious trend would be to continue what was trying to be done last year; we had already discussed the multitude of movies and other media that were put on hold because Ms. Rona in our 2020 Year in Review. Now it’s those movies’ time to shine! That means though, that we will see horror elements, both good and bad, come back again for another year. For example, with Candyman we’ll most certainly get an awesome continuation of the famed legend but it’ll come with the racial baggage of last summer.
Even with new movies, I think we’ll see a lot of the same themes and aesthetics we’ve been seeing for the past 2-3 years. Ari Aster-type movies in particular have been popular; Hereditary and Midsommar have proven that extremely heavy feelings like grief and anxiety can be just as potent as fear, adding to the uneasiness of his films. While the types of movies won’t change much, I think we’ll see more of a switch from the term “elevated horror;” though these types of films would definitely fit the bill to be named as such (thought-provoking, allegorical or having a message deeper than being scared, often psychological, etc.), I think they’re well-loved enough to be called something else to avoid the negative connotation — kind of like being called “eccentric” instead of “weird” or “unconventional” instead of “hipster.” We’ll call this elevated nouveau. We as an audience have grown a bit smarter if you will, and are beginning to thrive on movies that make us think or start hard conversations.
And since production companies were forced to quarantine along with the rest of us, we’ll keep seeing smaller-budget films that may or may not be done in one room, over the computer, or in some other space-constrained fashion à la Host. This also means projects from smaller companies reaching more people, like Terrifier 2; with a limited number of big-budget releases, we have to go elsewhere to find our entertainment, sometimes even having to make it ourselves.
Unfortunately, we probably won’t see a return to form for Halloween and horror events for another couple months. So conventions may be outright cancelled or opt for a digital version, and haunted attractions will continue with an extremely limited number of people (or again, be outright cancelled).
In all honesty, it’s incredibly hard to predict what we’ll be seeing, making, and doing this year. 2020 was a whirlwind that changed not only entertainment, but the world, drastically. So while we can imagine a world where we get all these things (low-budget bangers, psychological madness, in-car-only haunted attractions etc.), no one really knows for sure. In a way, it’s like we’ve entered a post-apocalyptic movie and must learn to survive with the bare minimum. Let’s just hope we continue to support the industry any way we can.
