00:00Hello friends.
00:01Zombies, vampires, and post-apocalyptic YA have all taken over Hollywood at one point
00:05or another in the last decade and a half.
00:07So what's next?
00:08This week on Heat Vision Breakdown we explore its so-called elevated horror, seen in films
00:12like Get Out and A Quiet Place is the next thing on Hollywood Studios' minds.
00:19Fifteen years ago this week Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later hit US theaters and scared the
00:24crap out of a young Pat Shanley, seriously.
00:26The critically acclaimed film made zombies cool again for the first time in decades,
00:30largely in part by replacing the stumbling drunk guy searching for a burrito stand, Living
00:34Dead, seen in films of yesteryear, with the athletic, rage-fueled, infected neo-zombies
00:38on display in Boyle's film.
00:4028 Days Later kicked off a trend that built upon the legacy of zombie godfather George
00:44A. Romero and paved the way for the successes of Robert Kirkman's comic series The Walking
00:49Dead in 2003 and its subsequent domination on TV seven years later.
00:53Not to mention movies like Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake in 2004, Robert Rodriguez's
00:57Planet Terror in 2007, and even comedic fare like Zombieland and Shaun of the Dead.
01:02This new crop of films, capitalizing on the nation's newfound zombie fever, showcased the
01:06diversity of tones as our real world concerns shifted.
01:09So hot was the zombie craze that even Brad Pitt got in on the action with the 2013 film version
01:14of Max Brooks' novel World War Z, which might just be the loosest adaptation of any book
01:18since Kubrick pissed off Stephen King with his version of The Shining.
01:21Here's Johnny!
01:23The popularity of specific genres come and go in circles.
01:27Just within the past ten to fifteen years we saw the rise of paranormal romance, which
01:30sounds more like a mad lib than an actual film genre, popularized by Stephanie Meyer's
01:34Twilight, and the subsequent sequels that elevated the art of filmmaking to levels hitherto
01:38who I'm dreamt of.
01:39They're so good.
01:41These led to a host of related book series and film adaptations that failed to capture
01:44the magic of K-Stew and R-Pat's world-shaking romance.
01:49Beautiful Creatures, The Mortal Instruments, Vampire Academy, these are all things that happened.
01:53But they didn't really move the needle.
01:55Television shows that this ilk fared a bit better.
01:57True Blood and The Vampire Diaries are successful examples, but eventually interest waned.
02:01Probably right around the time...
02:08A more recent story could be told with teen post-apocalyptic novels and their adaptations.
02:13While The Hunger Games launched Jennifer Lawrence into superstardom, movie versions of The Divergent
02:17series, The Giver, and The Fifth Wave franchises fell hard.
02:20I guess after being forced to read 1984 and A Brave New World for Mrs. Krumski's junior
02:24year English class, kids were a bit over dystopia.
02:27It's not just high-concept science fiction and genre films that can spark imitators trying
02:30to cash in on the latest fad, however.
02:32In the mid-2000s, dance flicks were everywhere, from 2004's You Got Served to Step Up in 2006,
02:38which gave the world Channing Tatum to Stomp the Yard in 2007.
02:43You had to think twice before bringing a rug into a theater in fear that it would be cut
02:45up.
02:47Elevated horror is just the latest buzzword to hit Hollywood.
02:51Films like It Follows, The Witch, Get Out, A Quiet Place, and Hereditary have been cited
02:55as signaling a change within the horror genre, somehow helping it transcend its supposedly
02:59base origins.
03:00I guess everyone just forgot about 1973's The Exorcist, because horror has always held room
03:04for elevation.
03:05William Friedkin's masterpiece earned 10 Oscar nominations, and was also the first horror
03:10film up for Best Picture.
03:11It lost to The Sting, which, incidentally, is one of my favorite movies of all time.
03:14While The Exorcist would certainly fall under today's distinction of elevated horror, even
03:18certain schlock and slasher films can be viewed from a heightened perspective.
03:22From the first movie to the latest, we can mark points of sophisticated horror with something
03:26to say.
03:27Be it Carrie's indictment of bullying and ostracization, The Thing's rumination on the effects of extreme
03:31isolation, or The Fly's chilling warning about not mixing Jeff Goldblum's DNA with
03:36that of a common housefly.
03:38Seriously, do not do that.
03:40That's disgusting.
03:42Taken in the modern context from the 2000s onward, elevated horror didn't begin with widely
03:47released features, but rather with indies like The Descent, Lake Mungo, Martyrs, Resolution,
03:52and Honeymoon.
03:53However, such films failed to resonate in such significant ways as Jordan Peele's Oscar-nominated
03:57thriller Get Out, or this year's critical darling A Quiet Place.
04:01Now with A24's Hereditary making Oscar voters pee their pants right alongside the general
04:05movie-going populace, the genre of elevated horror has become official.
04:20And that means you can expect a lot more of it in the near future.
04:24There are hints of this trend continuing.
04:26Paramount is already plotting a sequel to A Quiet Place, while Hereditary director Ari
04:30Astor is working on another horror film, tentatively titled Midsommar for A24.
04:35Meanwhile, Blumhouse, the studio behind Get Out, and Damon Lindelof are teaming for the politically
04:39tinged The Hunt, which will take the conflict between right and left wings to a more extreme
04:44and violent level.
04:45The question of what makes certain types of films resonate with audiences in particular time
04:48periods is a philosophical conundrum that has baffled studio heads for decades, but it
04:53can be boiled down to one simple axiom.
04:55If a film resonates with audiences, you can be sure that Hollywood will try to recapture
04:59that magic for as long as they can.
05:01And that's why there are eight Saw movies.
05:03300 years old.
05:04What other trends are you seeing in film and TV?
05:07Let us know in the comments right down there.
05:08I heard that superheroes are really taking off.
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