The horror genre has over past years seen a steady increase in popularity, with several successful films at the box-office in 2017, like It, Get Out and Annabelle: Creation; followed by A Quiet Place, Halloween, Insidious: The Last Key, The First Purge, Hereditary and The Nun in 2018. Box office figures show that A Quiet Place (2018) brought in $336 million, The Nun (2018) $364 million worldwide and David Gordon’s Halloween achieved the $255 million mark (The Numbers, 2019). In television and streaming services for the same year there was also a large viewership of AMC’s The Walking Dead (2010-), the Netflix series Stranger Things (2016-), Castle Rock (2018-), and American Horror Story (2011-), with other series such as Game of Thrones (2011-2019), and its dark tropes becoming one of the highest rated programme in television history, while attracting a highly acclaimed cast and numerous awards.
For many critics 2018 was a banner year for horror; and part of a horror renaissance which began in 2017. The idea that horror films or programmes, considered by some to be a low form of popular culture entertainment, could contain deeper meanings or subtext, went against the trend of many horror films made in the early 2000s which appeared to revel in torture and gratuitous violence. The Saw Films (2004 – 2017) for example, were one such genre of horror with graphic violence dominating the franchise. More recent horror films like Hereditary (2018)however, are as much focused on family drama as horror, while A Quiet Place (2018) is part thriller and horror. In the film Get Out (2017) this film contained serious social commentary as it contained as much a socio-political thriller themes as horror. Skal (2016) suggests that genre cinema tends to become popular when times are tough, like The Exorcist (1973) which was made in the wake of the Vietnam war and political turmoil in the United States.
The trend of serious subject matter in horror continued in 2019 with film productions such as It: Chapter Two, Annabelle Comes Home, Midsommar, Pet Sematary, Ready or Not, and Us bringing further popular acclaim to the genre. Horror also continued to thrive on television programmes in 2019 with the new additions such as Black Summer, The Passage and Chambers, which run alongside current offerings like American Horror Story (2011-), Stranger Things (2016-), The Terror (2018-) and Supernatural (2005-) to name a few.
The horror genre is thus being utilised as a tool to explore “social and political anxieties of the cultural moment” (Cherry, 2009, p. 214), and thus is a site for contestation, exploration and expansion to discuss present-day fears.
In this collection we seek to examine how horror in film and television create platforms to address distinct areas of modern-day concern. Firstly, the apocalyptic lens to address environmental or natural disaster like that of television series The Rain (2018-) where a virus which is present in the rain threatens all humanity. The second section questions the place of ritual, religion or curses in horror as a means of considering individual faith or belief within communities and how this plays out in contemporary society. These strong strains of family dysfunction presented in many contemporary horror films demonstrates humanity and the family in crisis. Hereditary (2018) is one such film, as is Midsommer (2019), while both dealing with family curses and the impact and threat of cults. Lastly, we look at horror as a representation of present-day anxieties and concerns regarding leadership and political control by using films such as The First Purge (2018). In all sections we are particularly interested in how contemporary horror reflects the horror of modern-day life, be this political, a biological or natural threat and why horror is reflecting these cultural anxieties more than other genres.
This collection aims to examine these key areas and to ask what this says both about society and the direction of contemporary horror and as such we are seeking chapters for consideration in this proposed collection include but are not restricted to:
- Horror, Terrorism and war
- Apocalyptic film/tv and Horror
- Viral contagions in horror
- Horror, Environmental disaster in film or television
- Horror and Modern America
- Horror and genetic manipulation
- Horror and the Hunt
- Horror and the impact of Trump
- Horror and wasted Humanity
- Horror and social commentary.
- Horror and Dystopian society
- Horror and the Apocalypse.
Please send a 300-400 word abstract for consideration by 6 th December 2019, together with a 50–100-word academic biography to Dr Sarah Baker at sarah.baker@aut.ac.nz
Preference will be given to proposals received by end November 2019. All notifications of acceptance will be emailed no later than 27th December 2019. If an abstract is accepted, essays can be expected to be between 6,000 and 7,500 words in length (including references). Lexington Books have expressed interest in the book. Further inquiries should be sent to sarah.baker@aut.ac.nz
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