CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
Horror is my favorite genre of film. As a kid, I found scary movies both terrifying and intriguing, I’ve always loved film but I was particularly drawn to dark and spooky stories that kept me up with nightmares. Despite being scared of horror movies, I couldn’t stay away. I remember the first time I saw Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980). The film scared me so badly that for a year I couldn’t go into the bathroom unless I had made sure there wasn’t a zombie woman in the shower. It also became my favorite movie. What was it I loved so much about a film that left me that frightened? The Shining was unlike anything I’d seen before and I wanted to know everything about it. Kubrick opened my mind to the deeper meaning of films; The Shining was the first movie I watched with a critical eye. I learned that everything you see on screen, from the elevator of blood to hotel room 237, is intentional. Film is an art form, and it tells a story beyond what happens in the surface plot. I love the horror genre because it provides a space to safely experience your real-life fears. It is the genre of the taboo, almost nothing is off limits. The horror genre is not afraid to confront the dark realities of humanity.
Horror films aim to critique culture by highlighting our fears and anxieties. Additionally, I believe a great horror film does this while also being visually stunning. The macabre beauty that the horror genre possesses is due to its gothic origins. For me, the two aspects of horror cinema that make it my favorite genre are the gothic aesthetics and political messages. This is why, for my senior undergraduate thesis, I will be exploring the recent decade of the horror genre: the 2010s. In this study, I will conduct a comparative film analysis of three 2010s horror films: The Babadook, The Invitation, and Crimson Peak, in order to identify the filmmakers’ use of gothic influence, iconography, and intertextual reference. I aim to examine the aesthetic, tone, and style of each film. I will use my findings to draw conclusions about the cultural themes that emerged during the era. This chapter is the introduction to my research and in it, I will outline the purpose and rationale for my study. Furthermore, I will define the necessary terminology for understanding my research and provide a description of my methods.
