Horror genre and politics.

[futurepres]

Are horror movies more left or right wing?

[© tweed]

I vote left wing because the most visible fan of horror movies in my life is a (cultural) Marxist English lit professor.

[dead0man]

Well, it's a male genre, and more specifically, young male.  (and probably white, lower or middle class, young male)  I'd guess mostly politically apathetic with a fairly normal left/right split otherwise....maybe even leaning a little...dare I say, libertarian?

I could be projecting a bit though.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

The main theme of (slasher) horror movies is that if you have pre-marital sex, you will die.  Sounds right wing to me

[courts]

The themes and conventions of horror tend to be pretty reactionary. It's always about the hostile intruder, the slut or drug addict getting gutted, etc. The only horror movies I can think of that had any detectable left-leaning themes to them are pretty much Candyman or certain Zombie movies.

[Associate Justice PiT]

The main theme of (slasher) horror movies is that if you have pre-marital sex, you will die.  Sounds right wing to me

     I was about to say this. Slasher flicks are morally very traditionalist. Still, horror films in general tend to paint strangers as unseemly if not outright dangerous, which seems to fit into a more conservative worldview. On the other hand, the police are typically portrayed as being useless, which might be more liberal.

[courts]

The main theme of (slasher) horror movies is that if you have pre-marital sex, you will die.  Sounds right wing to me

     I was about to say this. Slasher flicks are morally very traditionalist. Still, horror films in general tend to paint strangers as unseemly if not outright dangerous, which seems to fit into a more conservative worldview. On the other hand, the police are typically portrayed as being useless, which might be more liberal.

No, that's ultraconservative too. The government are inept but well meaning at best. The only way that you can deal with the hostile intruder in your house is with that loaded sawed off in your pickup or closet, and even that might not do the trick!

[Eraserhead]

Hard to say. Many zombie movies certainly give off pro-environmentalist type vibes.

[Associate Justice PiT]

The main theme of (slasher) horror movies is that if you have pre-marital sex, you will die.  Sounds right wing to me

     I was about to say this. Slasher flicks are morally very traditionalist. Still, horror films in general tend to paint strangers as unseemly if not outright dangerous, which seems to fit into a more conservative worldview. On the other hand, the police are typically portrayed as being useless, which might be more liberal.

No, that's ultraconservative too. The government are inept but well meaning at best. The only way that you can deal with the hostile intruder in your house is with that loaded sawed off in your pickup or closet, and even that might not do the trick!

     Yeah, you're right. Skepticism of the police could be either liberal or far-right conservative, but the alternative solutions that horror movies suggest would put them more in line with the latter group.

[Bacon King]

As far as zombie and vampire movies go, this Cracked article is pretty interesting.

As for slasher films in general, they tend to have a lot of conservative themes: traditional morality, individualism, and such. And the black guy's always the first to die, of course.

[dead0man]

And the black guy's always the first to die, of course.

Also true in Sci-Fi (and probably other genres).

Hard to say. Many zombie movies certainly give off pro-environmentalist type vibes.

And the first zombie film (in the modern sense) was very liberal for its time, what with the black guy being in charge and all.

[AndrewTX]

Any movie made by George A Romero, the ultimate master of horror, is leaning far to the left.

[Insula Dei]

What's the political slant of Torture Porn, in your opinion?

(Saw was pretty good in that genre, but the sequels are one of the great artistic tragedies of our era.)

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Fear is right-wing by nature.

[Username MechaRFK]

Both.

[King]

The religious right doesn't watch any movies except for Top Gun and Z grade Christian fare, so they're all majority-left by default.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Left-wing due to the T&A.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

For the most part, right-wing, even though this is rarely exactly or entirely intentional. This goes back a long way; Dracula is full of some deeply unpleasant implicit arguments and values.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Hmmm... I may have found a new love of slasher films after reading this thread. Honestly, I always wanted to be the guy smart enough & paranoid enough to have the shotgun, the bunker, the whatever in case of the zombie apocalypse or the renegade killer. However, how are slasher films pro-traditional values?

[Username MechaRFK]

Hmmm... I may have found a new love of slasher films after reading this thread. Honestly, I always wanted to be the guy smart enough & paranoid enough to have the shotgun, the bunker, the whatever in case of the zombie apocalypse or the renegade killer. However, how are slasher films pro-traditional values?

Teenagers have sex, do drugs, then suddenly gets killed by some unknown serial killer. Sounds very social conservative to me.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

For the most part, right-wing, even though this is rarely exactly or entirely intentional. This goes back a long way; Dracula is full of some deeply unpleasant implicit arguments and values.

This. Anyone willing for some H.P. Lovecraft or Edgar Allan Poe quotes on race?

[Insula Dei]

For the most part, right-wing, even though this is rarely exactly or entirely intentional. This goes back a long way; Dracula is full of some deeply unpleasant implicit arguments and values.

This. Anyone willing for some H.P. Lovecraft or Edgar Allan Poe quotes on race?

That's 50% of the charm, though. Who knows what people will think of the name of your cat in a 150 years time?

Anyway, of course the example of this tendency that I myself find the most charming to encounter is the rampant anti-Catholicism in the Gothic novel. Though this is indeed nowhere as bad as the way Stoker writes about the Gypsies.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Though this is indeed nowhere as bad as the way Stoker writes about the Gypsies.

That was one of the things I was getting at... urgh.

[Serenity Now]

Which you would pin this one down as?



Details: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0760187/