Without understanding societal fears and the events, cultural and political, taking place within each decade, we cannot understand horror, and all art, produced at these times.
At first, art imitates life. Then life will imitate art. Then life will find its very existence from the arts. -Fyodor Dostoevsky
Like most things, horror changes with society, but instead of trying to adapt ideas to cater to a wider audience, as they continuously change, horror always comments on societies underlying fears, exposing the darkest parts of ourselves and giving us a place to express and explore these ideas free of judgment.
If you pay attention to the movies made to scare people and the events of each decade, you’ll notice a parallel. Horror mirrors what is happening within society at the time, displaying the same, unspoken fears everyone subconsciously held. Through each time period manifestations of the issues plaguing society are presented on screen.
2011 people scared death religious horror people fearing god life after death trump elected for president, racism increased it follows shame, fear of childbirth and norm of slut shaming women, similar to the 60s movies
current horror movies- children, cyber horror, supernatural, horror comedies, gore, remakes