Introduction: The New Smart Horror Film
Horror film aficionados tend to be quick to point out that there have long been smart, artful, sophisticated horror films, so that terms applied by many critics to many horror films of the twenty-first century—such as “smart horror,” “sophisticated horror,” and “elevated horror”—are perhaps inappropriately dismissive of the horror films that came before. Examples such as James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980), or any of the horror films produced by Val Lewton in the 1940s all make it clear that many horror films prior to the twenty-first century are anything but “dumb,” “simplistic,” or “degraded.” At the same time, it is fairly obvious to almost all observers that something new is happening in twenty-first century horror and that horror film—partly driven by the rise of inexpensive digital special effects and the success in horror film of upstart film studios, such as A24 and Blumhouse—has entered a sort of Golden Age in which horror film, far from the marginal genre that it has sometimes seen to be, is now one of the central driving forces for innovation and creative in world cinema.
In this course, we will look at a selection of some of the most important of these new horror films, examining each in terms of its own qualities as a work of art but also as an example of broader trends. We will begin with a viewing of all three of the recent films directed by Jordan Peele, which together epitomize the increased social relevance that has often marked the new horror films—while also demonstrating that socially relevant horror films can attract a large popular audience.
In Part II of the course, we will look at three horror films that place particular emphasis on film as art, both visually and in terms of the complexity of their messaging.
Part III of the course covers two of the new folk horror films that have recently revolutionized that subgenre of horror by bringing new attention to aesthetic quality and complexity, as well as intelligent messaging.
In Part IV we will examine two recent body horror films, one by body horror master David Cronenberg, and one by his son Brandon Cronenberg.
We will then complete the course with a look at some of the new horror films from international women directors, illustrating both the new prominence of women horror directos and the way horror has recently become much more of a global phenomenon.
Course Schedule
PART I: Jordan Peele and the New Social Horror
PART II: The New Art Horror
PART III: The New Folk Horror
PART IV: The New Body Horror
PART V: The New International Women Directors