Thoughts on Meta Horror and Horror Communities

For those of you that don’t know, Meta horror (in this case) refers to horror films that are extremely self-referential about themselves.  The perfect example of this is the Scream franchise, which I had recently revisited because I hadn’t seen it in a while, and it was on cable when I was extremely hung over one lazy Saturday afternoon.  Scream (Dir: Wes Craven – 1996) is a film that is extremely aware of what genre itbelongs in.  This doesn’t just mean that the filmmakers will use a quick wink or a nod to previous horror classics, I’m talking a full blown discussion by the actual characters in the film as to the fact that they are completely aware that they are acting out a horror film.

When the original Scream came out, it was a fresh and new take on what horror movies were.  The 80s and the early 90s had completely worn out the genre with unoriginal stories and clone after clone of once great horror films to the point where they had lost any scare or shock value what so ever.  Now, I’m not saying that there weren’t any gems in that era (Cemetery Man), but the Hollywood movie making machine was essentially done with the genre.  It had been bled dry to the point where nothing other than extremely low budget straight to video films were making any kind of return at all.  Kevin Williamson, coming strong off of the strength of his writing work on the show Dawson’s Creek wanted to expand on his resume and he wrote a smart and engaging horror film.  Shortly after, Wes Craven was brought on board to add some old school credibility to the project.  What does this backstory have to do with you and the horror community?  Just keep reading.

Scream was something new and original that got the audience back into the genre.  It was a completely self-referential film that essentially told you exactly what was going to happen, and then still managed to scare the crap out of you.  It’s a smart veneer that played on the history of horror films, and somehow managed to have a good horror film at its core.  This of course isn’t the first film that was able to make reference to the exact genre it is celebrating.  Movies like Shaun of the Dead and Tucker and Dale vs. Evil both use elements of their respective sub genres for laughs.

The reason that I thought of this topic is because I recently viewed Scream 4.  Now, without spoiling the movie at all, I will say that the movie is about 5o times more self-aware than the first Scream film.  Now, you see… as a normal genre fan, the idea that is probably going through your head right now is “How on earth can Scream 4 be more self-aware than Scream 1-3”.  Well good sirs, and attractive madams, It really is… a lot.  If Scream was the fantastically original reboot of the genre, then Scream 4 existed to do the exact same thing for the recent trend of horror sequels and reboots.

For the most part, the movie does work and it’s an enjoyable experience even for the most hardcore horror fan.  The question that I ask however, is do we really need the film at this stage of the horror genre?  Now if I did my job correctly (which I often don’t) then there should be a group of people reading this that say “Yes absolutely we do, the market is being saturated with terrible reboot after terrible remake and its time everyone become aware of how ridiculous it is”.  The other side of the coin is “No, not yet, there are some really great remakes that have been released in the last few years and I’m sure a few more gems will sneak out”.  Which side of the fence do I fall on?  Well, I’m still stuck in the middle.

I feel like the horror genre is thriving at the moment and it will for a long time.  Back in 1996 and earlier, the internet wasn’t around and the idea that you could talk to other horror fans instantaneously about the newest or even the most classic horror films that you love would have been thought of as a pipedream.  You knew that people like you were out there, but other than writing into Fangoria or heading onto Usenet (Newsgroups… no?  Well some of you fellow nerds get the reference), there wasn’t a whole lot of actual interaction there.  We’re at a point now where if you watch an obscure horror film from 1974 like for example Tourist Trap, you can post a thread on the wonderful horror-movies.ca forum and find 20 people who have not only seen the movie, but want to actively talk about it.  I swear to you that I am coming to a point, just hang in there.

When Scream happened, everyone felt that horror was dead because no one was talking about it and at the moment Hollywood knew that it wasn’t exactly the time to make horror films.  But the fans were out there, in their own pockets of friends or clubs that celebrated and appreciated the genre, we all just needed someone in high places to bring it to the forefront, and we got that with Scream.  Now, in the technological era, where I can find and chat with a friend that moved away back in fifth grade, tweet what I’m doing to any celebrity, and look up advanced routing protocols like OSPF for IPV6 in detail, we don’t need to have someone spoon feed us an answer to the remake problem, we already talked about that to the point where its old to us.

So what does that mean?  Where are we headed?  What does the genre have in store for us?  Well, it’s extremely hard to say.  My theory is that there will never again be a horror film that is a total game changer.  I’m speaking of a film like Night of the Living Dead or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, where these films were extremely paramount to the evolution of the genre and went on to influence horror films to this day.  To the massive groups of people who love to discuss horror films all day and all night,   talking about every possible scenario, every possible character, and every possible situation, what is going to come out of left field?  We’re not looking at a large group of mildly dense corn stalks in left field anymore; we’re looking at the Green Monster.