Maybe more than most types of cinema, horror movies are enslaved by the whims of general popularity. Different subgenres and moods ebb and flow out of the public consciousness — teen meta-slashers in the ‘90s, torture porn and J-horror remakes in the 2000s, ghost stories and found-footage in the early 2010s — and since the late 2010s, horror has been in the thrall of “elevated” indie horror.
Ushered in by the success of movies like The Babadook and Hereditary, “elevated horror” is defined by a strict adherence to didactic allegory and melodrama. While some folks love the trend and some folks hate it (the quality of the movies themselves varies wildly), there has been a noticeable push to expand what contemporary horror offers. In the last two years at least, for every arthouse horror film there’s been a Final Destination: Bloodlines or a Terrifier 3 to break up the monotony — but there’s one director in particular who has seemingly made it his mission to return horror to the abrasive grotesqueness of its heyday. And his 2023 release does just that in a way you can’t help but admire (through your fingers).
