![]() ![]() We’re now generations beyond Carpenter’s iconic slasher film, a major benchmark in horror history-not quite a big bang, but definitely a boom. Without Halloween, there is no Scream without Scream, there is no Blumhouse. It also inspired a steamer trunk’s worth of film theory, set a course for dozens of careers, and lit a torch for a future generation that would recontextualize and reinvent these films. This year marks 40 since John Carpenter’s Halloween, a film that kicked off a wave that redefined the genre, inspiring copycats and extremists, commercial juggernauts and crass exploitation pictures. How ‘Halloween’ Brought Horror to the Suburbs and Inspired a Legion of Copycats We can’t look away from horror, even when our natural instinct is to do just that. There are few genres as malleable and sensitive to the times as horror, few that have springboarded more great filmmakers to acclaimed careers, and fewer still that serve movies at their highest purpose: to make viewers feel and think, in a kind of emotional unison. They aren’t proper.īut the ability to communicate anxiety and smuggle ideas about the state of modern life makes horror an ever-renewable resource. In some ways, that’s the point-they are the darkness behind the door, the awfulness in the far reaches of our imagination. But regardless of whether you think a shark, a cannibal, and the ballet are equally terrifying, horror movies are among the least respected forms of entertainment in the world. ![]() ( The Silence of the Lambs in 1992.) Using a strict interpretation of the genre, only three of those movies are true horror films. Here they are: The Exorcist, Jaws, The Silence of the Lambs, The Sixth Sense, Black Swan, and last year’s Get Out. In the Academy Awards’ 90-year history, horror films have been nominated for Best Picture just six times, out of a possible 546 nominees. Here is the number for John Carpenter: zero. Here is the number of Oscars that were awarded to Alfred Hitchcock for Best Director: zero. ![]()
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