On Modern American Horror
The Three Faces of Modern American Horror – A Reflection on Horror We have entered the spooky month of October and, to celebrate this scary season, I would like to reflect on the current state of the genre of cinematic horror. More specifically, I would like to reflect on Modern American Horror and its recent tendencies. Horror is, in my opinion, one of the most fascinating genres of cinema and this is because it’s the genre that reflects most directly the concerns of people in a determined time and culture. An example of this is the dominance of horror films in the ’50s and '60s that dealt, one way or the other, with issues related to the nuclear threat and the Red Scare, both associated with the Cold War – examples of this are The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Tarantula (1955), both tapping into the general paranoia of American society of the period. Horror films tap directly into people’s fears and that’s why they are so effective and interesting. In this s