#horror commentary

BRIDE OF CHUCKY

1998

For real though, the horror genre is already so oversaturated with people who dont understand why horror is important. Why add to the slop? Horror already has a reputation for not being taken seriously as art, and these people who just think that something looking freaky to them is the scariest part are infuriating to me. Creating an atmosphere, creatures, stories, these are all things that take intention. Without that intention, you’re just basically giving someone in a live audience a paper that says “yoire supposed to be scared now” instead of the theater creating that environment that would elicit that reaction. The tropes that AI generates aren’t inherently without value, and they can be done effectively, but without the intent behind anything(art IS intent) it will always fall flat.

It falls flat because the intent is what helps form an agreement between the audience and the author. The audience agrees to suspend disbelief and be afraid in exchange for the story that the author intends to tell, or the warning that is to come. Whatever the themes are, horror works because of this agreement. AI, devoid of intent and unaware that these ideas can intersect in a valuable way that creates a dialogue between the audience and the creators, is incapable of creating real horror. For example, the AI does not understand WHY the twitching and exaggerated expressions are frightening, it just knows that the “horror” category it has been fed has these patterns consistently and that it can use the visage of children’s characters. Its somewhat abelist, as well, as oftentimes these depictions include disabilities without having greater purpose to them. They’re just “scary” because its different. In my opinion, its unethical to depict a disability in a way that is devoid of the human experience because disabilites are inherent to the human experience. These need to be treated with respect and an understanding of people, especially when many disabled people have their own stories to tell that DO appropriately depict their own experiences while being effective commentary on systems that people who are disabled have to deal with. The subculture of horror also already has a major preexisting issue with ableism, and the AI content that bloated with these existing issues will eventually be fed back to itself and regurgitate more and more extreme versions of these problems.

our spirits are used as monsters in settler fiction, or turned into cryptids. even by those who consider themselves allies, it's acceptable to treat our spirits as fun concepts, but not real. but today, following the heartbreaking discoveries by Penelakut Nation, I'm thinking about that horrible, undying trope of the "Indian burial ground." this trope leans on the guilt/fear that our ancestors' wrongful deaths curse the very ground.

In horror, that there will be revenge for the genocide of Indigenous peoples is a *terrifying* idea.

I'm thinking about the unmarked graves we will continue to find, and all the children we never will name and bring home. I'm thinking about the ignorant, uncaring response from settlers, more concerned about the revenge -- from ancestors or living -- than the cause of these graves.

SINNERS

2025

THE LONG WALK

2025

One of my tactics to distract myself from my daily job’s mundanity is to listen to YouTube videos, and recently I’ve been listening more to horror movie reviews. Although the hype has died down somewhat, The Substance has still been getting review videos. I went to see it myself – probably the cheapest movie ticket I’ve purchased in the past decade (which I promptly ruined that by ordering food…