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.

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.

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.