The 2010 Renaissance of Horror
Looking back on the last year of the 2010s, it’s clear that the years between 2010 and 2020 were a new renaissance for horror cinema. New horror films that have been pushing the boundaries of the genre keep coming out.
Within the last decade, we’ve had Cabin in the Woods, The Conjuring, The Babadook, It Follows, The Witch, Get Out, and now Hereditary. We have seen the return of classic genre mainstays in the form of the new Halloween sequel and IT adaptations. Horror for families has returned with The House with a Clock in its Walls and Goosebumps. Foreign horror from across the world can be seen from any country. Physical media has become popular again in the form of Vinyls, deluxe Blu-Rays, and figurines. And even on television, horror has returned full-force, as seen with The Bates Motel, The Walking Dead, The Haunting of Hill House, and Channel Zero. In the 2017 Academy Awards, two films that can be categorized as either horror or monster films, Get Out and The Shape of Water, walked away with huge awards.
And that’s just scratching the surface.
What happened? Why did the Horror Renaissance happen in the 2010s? What makes this new decade so much better than any other to come before? And why does any of this matter?
