Horror movies continually adjust its tropes to fit the decade's interests and climate to keep themselves fresh. Some trends like the giant monsters of the '50s fell out of favor and became niche favorites for most of their history, while others like the slasher killer continually found relevance.
No matter how many times the horror genre evolves, some old and even archaic tropes will remain. This isn't just because of the filmmakers' nostalgic obligation; these clichés and conventions shaped the horror genre into what it is today. That, and they still manage to get a fun fright or two from horror novices and veterans alike.
10 Legacy Sequels Are Getting Better
Legacy sequels and soft reboots may be contentious subjects, but their financial success and popularity among their defenders can't be denied. The horror genre saw its fair share of belated sequels in the late 2010s. To even the most dedicated fans' surprise, these legacy sequels were better than expected.
Hulu's Hellraiser and Prey revived their respective franchises after long periods of dormancy, and Blumhouse's Halloween trilogy was a blockbuster success. Even something as polarizing as Netflix's Texas Chainsaw Massacre was successful and popular enough to warrant a sequel. Fans can expect more legacy sequels to come out soon.
9 Period Horror Movies Are A Growing Trend
Horror movies set in the past aren't anything new, but they've grown in prominence in recent years. For example, The Lighthouse and The Witch are two of the most revered period horror movies. What's more, historical horror movies caught up to audiences' interest in the recent past.
To wit, The Conjuring Universe's movies took place between the '50s and '80s, The Black Phone occurred in 1978, and IT's first half is firmly set in 1988. These movies were all blockbuster hits, and they benefited from the audience's nostalgia. Period horror movies set in a more familiar past are slowly becoming the next horror trend.
8 Campy B-Horror Movies Are Still In Style
Campy and colorful movies are generally seen as relics that had to be outgrown. The horror genre is one of the last places where this unapologetic style is still celebrated and welcomed. This mostly has to do with horror never forgetting its niche roots, even if it earned some legitimacy thanks to "elevated horror."
Day Shift, Studio 666, and Werewolf by Night are just some of the many recent schlocky movies that found love from horror fans. The most well-known champion of horror camp is Rob Zombie. Even if movies like House of 1000 Corpses and The Munsters are acquired tastes, Zombie's signature style will never go out of style in the fandom.
7 Teen Horror Is A Fun & Important Gateway Into The Genre
Horror movies have always been something of an outsider's niche. No horror subgenre encapsulated this better than the teen horror movie. Unlike their more "mature" counterparts, teen-centric horror movies didn't take themselves too seriously and prioritized morbid entertainment above all else.
Movies like Bodies Bodies Bodies, the Happy Death Day duology, Tragedy Girls, and more aren't just irreverently fun; they're important gateways into the horror genre. These movies are many younger viewers' introductions to horror, and they carry on the legacies of yesteryear's entertainingly juvenile slasher movies.
6 Horror Movies About Curses Are Still Scary
Curses are one of the most universal horror stories. The mere idea of an evil presence being passed from one person to the next is enough to scare anyone. Horror movies about curses never fell out of the mainstream, and they only became more popular and relevant in the age of the internet and other technological advancements.
For every old-fashioned movie about curses like The Bye Bye Man, It Follows, or Smile, there's a modernized equivalent. Movies like Truth or Dare, Unfriended, and the V/H/S anthologies upgraded the classic curse by using the internet to spread them. As a result, the premise of a curse is still as frightening as it was in the past.
5 Old-Fashioned Ghosts & Hauntings Still Scare Fans
The ghost story is one of the earliest forms of horror fiction to exist, but it tends to go in and out of style. Movies about haunted houses and demonic possessions petered out after their peak in the '70s, but this disappearance was temporary. In the 2010s, the ghostly subgenre came back thanks to The Conjuring series and more.
Insidious arguably started this resurgence, but it really took hold when The Conjuring became a billion-dollar franchise. Since then, The Conjuring expanded with more old-school ghostly movies like Annabelle and The Nun. Similarly, the genre found new life through hit spectral dramas, like Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House.
4 Gory Kills Never Lose Their Novelty & Terror
Bloody deaths and visceral depictions of violence are an integral part of horror movies. Gore and torture alone don't guarantee a good horror movie, but when used properly, they give audiences the best and most unforgettable nightmares.
Terrifier 2, for example, is a low-budget splatter movie, but it became one of 2022's biggest horror movies thanks to word-of-mouth. Some viewers fainted during Terrifier 2 screenings, and this convinced more people to watch Art the Clown's sadism. Terrifier 2 is only the latest example of a gorefest finding its passionate audience.
3 An Iconic Horror Killer Will Always Find A Fanbase
Recently, Esther from the Orphan movies and Pearl from Ti West's horror trilogy, X, Pearl, and MaXXXine, became horror icons. Meanwhile, Jigsaw from the Saw movies is still the undisputed horror legend of the 2000s. This is only the most recent iteration of the horror fandom's tradition of finding the next horror icon.
The idea of a horror icon may seem timeless, but it only came to be in the '80s. This was the golden age of slashers, and these movies' villains became stars. Slasher villains like Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, and more dominated the genre for decades, but the next generation of horror stars is finally getting the attention they deserve.
2 Self-Aware Horror Movies Are Still Relevant
Regardless of genre, meta-storytelling may feel oversaturated today. However, horror's brand of self-awareness is a true original that will always have its fans. For instance, The Cabin in the Woods and Scream's belated sequel proved that breaking the genre's rules and conventions is always a good idea.
After the original Scream exposed the genre's unspoken rules and brutally subverted them, horror movies were never the same. This led to a tidal wave of self-aware horror movies, where the killers and victims knew they were in a movie. Although this trend slowed down after the early 2000s, it never really left.
1 The Slasher Victims Fight Back
Horror movie victims and "final girls" who fight the killers and sometimes win are so commonplace these days that it's hard to remember when their archetype was actually revolutionary. Despite this, horror fans still love it whenever a would-be victim finds the resolve and wits to turn the tables against an unstoppable monster.
This was part of the 2018 Halloween reboot's appeal, and it was the entire point of subversive slasher movies like The Strangers: Prey at Night and You're Next. Most recently, Prey, the legacy prequel to Predator, earned high praise for pitting the Predator against the seemingly weak yet strong-willed Comanche warrior, Naru.