Alex Davis
The terminology surrounding horror has always been an interesting one, with the genre often split into numerous subgenres and the merits of each heavily debated. How does body horror compare to gothic horror, or slashers to psychological horror, or ghost stories to giallo? These are the kind of discussions that you might well see on horror forums and websites, but importantly none of them are eschewing the word horror itself, or trying to distance themselves from it. These are presented as exciting branches of a broad and exciting genre.
But, as horror has continued to evolve and change, there are many that argue that some films are worthy of a label a little ‘above’ horror. We’ve seen posthorror, elevated horror, arthouse horror, smart horror and horror-adjacent coined with ever more frequency, especially within the film industry – where movies such as The Babadook, Raw, A Quiet Place, Hereditary, Midsommar, The Witch, It Follows and Get Out have all earned more than one of those monikers.