The Problem With “Elevated Horror”
The term “Elevated Horror” is often used as yet another way to belittle horror.
What is Elevated Horror?
"Poster Posse x A24 Tribute" by Poster Posse is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
First of all, let’s start with what “elevated horror” really means. Elevated Horror is a term used to describe horror films that are generally considered to be more respected and dignified than most. They tend to have a more intense and philosophical feel than the movies one would usually think of as horror. For example, films like Ari Aster’s Hereditary or Jordan Peele’s Get Out. They often feature an adult lead dealing with their own demons and tend to have a darker tone, as opposed to a bunch of teenagers running from a murderer. The term really only started being used in the 2010s, and A24 horror films tend to be at the forefront of it.
Why is this harmful?
You may be wondering what’s wrong with this, these films have made major strides for the horror community. And, yes, these films are amazing. However, using the term “elevated horror” is like saying “It was a horror movie, but it was good.” The reason that people in the horror community hate this phrase so much is because it suggests that only a select few horror films are well done, but that the rest are all just silly little movies with no deeper meaning. It’s a completely underhanded compliment.
For years, many have looked down on horror as being a laughable genre that lacks the emotion of other genres. But, when a horror film that is undeniably great is released, it’s a different type of horror simply because it’s good. Additionally, few award shows even have a horror category like when Get Out was nominated for best Comedy in the 2018 Golden Globes (Now, maybe I was watching a different film, but I thought Peele’s masterpiece was more terrifying than hilarious, but maybe that’s just me).
A myriad of people also refuse to admit that certain horror films even are horror simply because they’re well-made. In fact, if you look up The Exorcist on Google, it’s listed as Thriller/Mystery. Yep, the film with the girl that gets possessed and vomits everywhere and turns her head all the way around is apparently not horror. There are so many horrifying films that aren’t considered horror. I would even go so far to say that a film like No Country For Old Men is horror, but I digress. I believe this happens because people look at horror films as money-grubbing attractions full of meaningless scares, and don’t always look at what the films are trying to say.
When The Witch got such a positive response, I thought surely people would start to take horror seriously. But, here we are in 2020 and people are still arguing that Silence Of The Lambs was only a thriller, and most major award shows still don’t have a horror/sci-fi category.
There’s No Such Thing As “Elevated Horror,” And Here’s Why
At its roots, “elevated horror” is really just a phrase for “good horror.” The same could be applied to literally any other genre, so why not also have “elevated drama” or “elevated comedy”? Because that would be silly; a film can be good and be a drama or comedy, so there’s no reason to categorize it differently from the others in the genre. Moonlight isn’t an “elevated romance” because it’s the same genre as The Room. The term is only used because horror is so unappreciated. Every genre has good and bad films, but that doesn’t make the good films an entirely different genre from the bad.
Plus, it only recognizes certain films as artistically well-done, and completely ignores countless other amazing horror films. Where do we draw the line between what is and isn’t “elevated”? Are films like John Carpenter’s Halloween or George A. Romero’s Night Of the Living Dead not amazing works of art as well? What about American Psycho or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre?
The term literally only comes from the ideal that most horror films are bad, and that’s just simply not true.
If you still don’t agree, here are ten films that are not considered “elevated horror”, and are still amazing:
-VFW
