Has horror lost the fun?

Doesn't anyone just want to have fun anymore?

If you Google "elevated" horror, the results pull up the usual suspects: The Lighthouse, The VVitch, It Follows, The Babadook, Hereditary, Midsommar, and Mother! There are others, of course. Metaphor movies, I call them. Stories that have a "deeper level" and are trying to "say something."

I don't mind a deep horror movie, except when the movie thinks it is smarter than the viewer (A24, I'm looking at you). I like to think at the movies. But what happens with these metaphor movies is that the story and the metaphor don't always work together. For example, Relic. The movie isn't about an evil force in a house. No, it's really about the trauma of caring for parents.

However, the metaphor falls apart during scenes of the children trying to escape the house, hunted by said evil force. If it's a story solely about the trauma, what is chasing them? There HAS to be some evil force in the house. See what I mean?

It's similar to The Babadook. A movie about grief. The creature is a metaphor for grief, and in the end, they keep it locked in the basement. So, what's in the basement? I get it. It's a metaphor. But the surface story doesn't really work with the metaphor story.

Midsommar. A re-telling of The Wicker Man. The heroine does nothing but cry for a third of the movie. It's a terrible movie. Let's be honest. Some creepy dudes invite you to their hometown, and you say yes. Right away things are off, but you stay anyway. There is nothing new in Midsommar. It's long. It's boring. And the ending is expected. There are no surprises in the film. And yet, critics fell over themselves to praise it.

Don't even get me started on The Lighthouse. A movie about farting. I get it. It's a re-telling of Prometheus and Proteus. Okay... And for those that don't know those myths? It's just a weird, weird little film. Even you know, is it a good movie? No. It is not.

Mother! What to say about this? The movie is an entire metaphor about Mother Earth. Here, the metaphor works, but is it a good movie? No. It Follows. Another movie critics fell over themselves to praise. A movie about STDs. Okay... So many things wrong with the logic of the film. The cursed kids do very little to escape their fate. Where's the research? Every time I see it, which isn't often, I'm annoyed all over again. So many actions don't make sense, and so many actions aren't even taken.

Horror used to be fun. It was an escape. Yes, horror often had a message and was often political. Two reasons I love horror. But not like these pompous "elevated" horror films. They're horror movies trying so hard NOT to be horror movies. I want movies that embrace being horror movies. I'm tired of movies that think they're better than other horror movies because they think they're intellectual somehow. How is Midsommar intellectual? It's another pagan ceremony, creepy cult movie. What's so deep about that?

I remember the thrills of seeing Jason Vorhees' latest kills. Cheering Michael Myers as he stalked Haddonfield. Laughing as Freddy Krueger haunted the nightmares of another round of helpless teens. Marveled at the balls of Silent Night, Deadly Night. Got creeped out by Black Christmas. Marveling at the meta of Scream. Every one of these films is iconic and fun.

Fun horror movies seem to be a dying breed. Heart Eyes, Smile, and the remake of Silent Night, Deadly Night are recent exceptions, as is the exceptional Thanksgiving. These are movies that are not trying to re-tell a Greek myth. They're just horror movies that are enjoying being horror movies. And, they're fun.

I think there's room enough for both breeds of horror movie, but I want more fun horror movies that have an actual budget and aren't poorly shot and poorly acted indie horror films. The '80s, the Golden Age of horror, saw hundreds of fun horror movies flooding video stores and theatres: The Stuff, Night of the Creeps, Chopping Mall, Night of the Demons, Prom Night, Terror Train. With the availability of technology to make a film with your phone, I'd expect more would-be filmmakers to be flooding the streaming services with fun horror films, but that isn't the case.

Elevated horror is here to stay, alas. But when movies like Thanksgiving come out, the best thing we can do is see it in the theater so we can send a message to studios — more of this, please!

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