With so much uncertainty about, well, just about everything, horror remains a constant. Call it cold comfort, but we’ll always have something to fear. What we do with that fear is the big question.
Some choose to create and utilize what scares them as a profound motivator, not only for themselves but for others too. As the tagline for encourages, “Create something to fear.” This isn’t to say that more frightening times lead to the creation of better art.
What these motivating fears do permit are . While semi-feel-good horror movies in which characters overcome trauma with at least a piece of a happy ending can be great, this year’s films often showcased that feeling bad is a necessary reality, too. Some wounds don’t heal, some demons can’t be defeated, and sometimes our healing and victory may only be temporary.
Hurt was the overarching, though never all-encompassing, theme of horror movies that stood out to me in 2024. It’s perhaps no better distilled into a single image than Demi Moore’s Elisabeth Sparkle tearfully smearing the makeup on her face, pulling at her features, and twisting them into an expression of self-hatred in Coralie Fargeat’s . I emphasize looking at the year of horror through the lens of hurt, , rather than simply pain, because hurt isn’t simply what we feel.
It’s what we can do to ourselves and each other physically and emotionally as we face the pressures the world puts on us and the pressures we put upon ourselves and others. We.
