I was watching a review of the old THX 1138 film last night.
And it reminded me of other reviews of horror from different generations.
Many people say that horror in media often reflects what the people fear the most at a given time in history.
In the 50s we had space invasions. Aliens invading and killing everyone. Or the body snatchers. Manchurian candidate. War of the worlds. People’s fear of society spies and brain washing. Nuclear weapons.
Later 50s we started getting creature features.
Unknown monsters lurking in the shadows.
In the 60s we moved to psychological horror and fear of terrible people living next door. Neighbors and community members who hid who they really were. Hidden rot. Rosemary’s baby. Psycho.
People were really paranoid about satanism and spies.
70s and early 80s. Vietnam war.
Slashers. Being chased by an unstoppable enemy. An enemy with an unknowable persistent motivation.
Mid to late 80s also saw a boom in dark scifi.
Showcasing a common belief/fear that China and Japan would dominate the world. Alien. Blade runner. Both of these styles relied heavily on the idea of Asian culture becoming dominant and even modern cyberpunk continues this trend.
Alien and blade runner, are set in the same universe and start to tackle issues of how capitalism devalues human life.
This may have been one of the first films to really make that a big part of the plot.
But aside from these two, the 90s bright back slashers.
2000s had more supernatural horror.
But now we have came back to the 80s fear of capitalism.
People are realizing again that the direction things are going is not only a dystopian one, but one that is closer than ever before.
They realize we are so close to losing to corrupt billionaires.
Even the new alien earth showcases the world being owned by a few companies.
We see every aspect of human life be comodofied. Sold. Bought. With the expectation that you should want to sell whatever you have.
Media in games like fallout and the actual cyberpunk 2077 games shows how much people fear these outcomes.
Where you can only get medical care if you pay for expensive subscription.
Where you can be auto evicted by a computer.
The whole idea of fallout is companies manufactured nuclear Armageddon to take more control from the people. And when the people tried to rebuild. They bombed them again. All while the rich lived in life extension tanks. Or had their brains put in robots.
The zero dawn horizon is a pretty depressing game about how a robotics company made murder bots. That were fueled by organic matter. Made a back door for government to access. And then they were coded wrong and literally ate everything on the planet.
This shit is real though. That’s why these games and shows hit so hard.
We know these delusional billionaires really are planning on doing shit like that.
I just see the fear we all have being more prominent in gritty media. And the fact that it’s there says a lot about the state we are in.
I was watching a review of the old THX 1138 film last night.
And it reminded me of other reviews of horror from different generations.
Many people say that horror in media often reflects what the people fear the most at a given time in history.
In the 50s we had space invasions. Aliens invading and killing everyone. Or the body snatchers. Manchurian candidate. War of the worlds. People’s fear of society spies and brain washing. Nuclear weapons.
Later 50s we started getting creature features. Unknown monsters lurking in the shadows.
In the 60s we moved to psychological horror and fear of terrible people living next door. Neighbors and community members who hid who they really were. Hidden rot. Rosemary’s baby. Psycho. People were really paranoid about satanism and spies.
70s and early 80s. Vietnam war. Slashers. Being chased by an unstoppable enemy. An enemy with an unknowable persistent motivation.
Mid to late 80s also saw a boom in dark scifi. Showcasing a common belief/fear that China and Japan would dominate the world. Alien. Blade runner. Both of these styles relied heavily on the idea of Asian culture becoming dominant and even modern cyberpunk continues this trend.
Alien and blade runner, are set in the same universe and start to tackle issues of how capitalism devalues human life.
This may have been one of the first films to really make that a big part of the plot.
But aside from these two, the 90s bright back slashers. 2000s had more supernatural horror. But now we have came back to the 80s fear of capitalism.
People are realizing again that the direction things are going is not only a dystopian one, but one that is closer than ever before.
They realize we are so close to losing to corrupt billionaires.
Even the new alien earth showcases the world being owned by a few companies.
We see every aspect of human life be comodofied. Sold. Bought. With the expectation that you should want to sell whatever you have.
Media in games like fallout and the actual cyberpunk 2077 games shows how much people fear these outcomes.
Where you can only get medical care if you pay for expensive subscription.
Where you can be auto evicted by a computer.
The whole idea of fallout is companies manufactured nuclear Armageddon to take more control from the people. And when the people tried to rebuild. They bombed them again. All while the rich lived in life extension tanks. Or had their brains put in robots.
The zero dawn horizon is a pretty depressing game about how a robotics company made murder bots. That were fueled by organic matter. Made a back door for government to access. And then they were coded wrong and literally ate everything on the planet.
This shit is real though. That’s why these games and shows hit so hard.
We know these delusional billionaires really are planning on doing shit like that.
I just see the fear we all have being more prominent in gritty media. And the fact that it’s there says a lot about the state we are in.