Haha, yeah, it's pretty bizarre to think about how little we do with the genre now. I think some of these franchises get more engrained into history as time goes on. Like they become part of the culture, like Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolfman... When I first saw Halloween, it wasn't even 20 years old and I considered it old, but a classic. In 20 years, these things will become even more revered. Even if we were able to move on from these common franchises, we probably wouldn't. All the best stories (let alone horror stories) have already been told, so if we're not rebooting these franchises, we'll surely be ripping them off still.

I figure the genre is due another massive dry spell at some point sooner than later. It certainly deserves it. With all the remakes, sequels that ignore past sequels, parodies, throwbacks and dozens of shark and Amityville movies being made each year, the oversaturation and quality being so few and far between, is probably only leading to an overall decline in interest.

40 or 50 years from now though? I'm thinking the state of cinema would be the least of our worries by then.

I would honestly say the horror genre has been on a steep decline since around 2015-16. Until 2020 there were still a few gems to be found but nothing like the quality of 2000-2015 IMO. Since 2020 it's pretty much sucked but nothing like the decline of comedy. Comedy and horror have suffered due to things can no longer be offensive or the outrage mob looks to cancel and the system bows. You can't even have a final girl these days cause they only kill off male characters...if the last person standing at the end of a horror film is a woman it's likely she was the only female character in the film. Horror like comedy is doomed...buy physical media cause soon streaming services will be editing classic horror due to it be being too offensive for modern audiences.

One thought that I have had, at times, on the future of horror, is that it might tend to become less popular as real life gradually and steadily becomes more and more horrifying. Many people seek out horror movies when their real lives are boring and unexciting. They are just looking for a little zing, a little thrill, a little change of pace, etc.

I know that we don't all agree here about climate change, but I personally think we might be less than ten years away from truly horrifying conditions, maybe even famine to go along with all the droughts and extreme high temperatures. And it won't be cyclical either, it will just keep getting worse and worse, and the fact that it will very clearly, very simply keep getting worse FOREVER will become more and more obvious to more and more people. At dark times in the past, people turned to musical comedies and dance movies, like Fred Astaire stuff, etc. Maybe in the near-to-medium term future, people will do something similar to that, adjusted for cultural changes... like, maybe more people will become attracted to retarded, light, fluffy, Lifetime channel or Hallmark channel romances. Now, THAT's horrifying, lol. Seriously, if your life is already so horrifying that you just can't handle any more horror, many people will just say "screw horror" and seek out ways to feel happy, even lame ways.

On another hand, horror movies are like comfort food. Old friends you pay a visit to when you need some feel-good assurance. So the future of horror is still pretty likely to be... the current stuff, still being regurgitated.

Decensitization is inevitable with further generations milking the genre to death. Pun probably intended. If you want to get cynical though, you have a valid point about real-life horrors eventually outshining the genre. Glad we're not there yet.

Yes, for us, DEFINITELY, horror will always be comfort food. I will probably turn MORE toward horror movies, not less, as we move into the future. But, just for the general public, I suspect it might become less popular, at least to some extent, for the reasons I mentioned.

I saw a review of the Terrifier movies on some Youtube channel, and the reviewer made some pretty good points about where horror could be going. He was talking about how the Art the Clown character almost feels like a throwback, just because he has a face and a personality. So many horror movies in recent years have been about houses with vaguely malevolent, yet unseen paranormal presences. Maybe in the future, near or medium term, there will be a new wave of horror villains with recognizable faces, personalities, maybe defiining articles of clothing like Jason's hockey mask, Michael's William Shatner mask, or Freddy's glove and hat.... I just mean characters that can be quickly identified and assessed, to some degree, with their own backstories and rules that they can be expected to follow.

I really am hoping they make more possession horror films cause lately it's a sub-genre that's been lacking from Hollywood.

Are you excited for the new Exorcist?

No not at all really. Just acting the facetious cunt or in other words... just me being me.

I've been watching a few films of the mid 60s recently, and its amazing the change from say 1965 to 1975. Or you don't even have to go a full decade, the change from 1968 -> 1973 or so is massive.
Its the same with music in that time period, as we all know music underwent a massive change/improvement in the late 60s.
It just wasn't the arts but there was a massive culture change in mutliple facets of society


Unfortunately I very much doubt we will see such a change ever again.

The films of Herschell Gordon Lewis would be a good example of that. He was able to have gore in those early ones (1963-67) like Blood Feast and Color Me Blood Red only because nobody ever thought to make rules against it, but also on the condition that the films contained no nudity or profanity. Aside from the obvious, they all come off very squeaky clean and are definitely towing a line. Fast forward to 1972 with the release of The Gore Gore Girls, and we got titties, profanity, vulgar humor, and an all around trashy tone never seen before. Even The Wizard Of Gore from 1970 seemed to be still towing that line. Strangely, Gore Gore Girls is my least favorite of all those gore movies, although it's a shame he threw in the towel just as things were getting trashy.

You mentioned reboots of Halloween. One thing they COULD do, although it would probably not always be un-stupid, would be to make new Halloween films that are set on Halloween in the years between the established sequels. Like, any year that didn't have a sequel, between 1978 and... whenever they want, say 20, 30, or 40 years after 1978. They could have him escape and go on rampages, and have it be consistently covered up somehow. Like, maybe there could be an acolyte in that Cult of Thorn that works in the mental hospital, who has some kind of supervisory job with authority over the hospital's security and surveillance. He could set Michael loose every Halloween to go on some new rampage, and all the movies would be set in our past, so Michael wouldn't be just ridiculously old. They could even have fun with period-specific pop music, clothes, technology, etc.

OK, I'm not saying this would be a GOOD idea. It's just something that could happen in the world of horror in the future.

Pitch it to these guys
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2056594/