Week 4: All Kinds of Weird

I think out of all of the recent horror films, about 75% of my favorites could be considered part of the emerging “New Weird” genre. There have been so many great films that have broken the mold as far as typical horror goes and if this trend continues I believe that the horror genre itself could be renewed as a whole.

The New Weird is a broad category so it can span across the entire horror genre and include a variety of films. That variety is showcased well in Cabin in the Woods. I love that the film begins as a typical slasher horror but slowly you begin to notice that everything is not as it seems until suddenly the whole genre is flipped upside-down and there are so many exciting elements that leave you guessing till the end. Another good example is Insidious because it begins with a typical haunting/ ghost story but as the story progresses it explores the idea of “The Further”, an opposite astral plane in which those gifted with the ability can explore on their own accord, with great risk of attracting unwanted attention of malevolent spirits of course. These movies show that horror movies have great potential to switch things up by exploring new themes within familiar or established territory.

I think that something is considered “weird” when it starts challenging a set of stereotypes for specific themes and sub-genres of horror like Cabin in the Woods and Insidious did by incorporating elements like sci-fi and fantasy into them. They took something we’re familiar with and twisted it in a way that makes us think or makes us have to re-evaluate how we view a certain subject. After reading some of H.P Lovecraft’s works I believe that movies will begin start following the direction that Cabin in the Woods took and begin pulling inspiration from old horror themes such as Lovecraft’s old Gods or even older horror fiction.

Because in the end I think we like weird things because they tend to be like nothing we’ve ever seen before, things that we would’ve never thought to put in a book or on screen. No one wants to see the same story over and over again, so we need to expand our horizon and continue fill the horror genre with the "New Weird".