Slasher films, perhaps the least predictable subset of horror films in terms of survival rate, reached their peak in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This era included classic films such as “Halloween” and “Friday the 13th.” While slasher films still have a presence in today’s world of cinema, there appears to be a new standard for horror movies.
The scary thriller is the most recent adaptation of the original horror movie model, incorporating psychological anxiety as well as gore. These movies can be quite enjoyable, and can even elicit a giggle or two. Nevertheless, many tend toward predictability, taking out the sense of anticipation that accompanies a foray into the unknown. What is left is often a dramatic storyline with some violence here and there. Why have horror movies become this way?
To explore this question, viewers can start by taking a look at some modern horror movies, including “Fresh,” “Don’t Worry Darling,” “The Menu” and “Scream VI.” Though a diverse selection of material, each movie conveys its own set of cliches and cheesiness.
The cannibalistic horror film “Fresh” hit Hulu’s streaming service on March 4, 2022. Essentially, a young woman falls for a cannibalistic, black-market seller who hits on women to lure them to his cabin dungeon as prey.
The first cheesy element of this film is that the main protagonist, Noa, is somehow different from all the other girls. Unlike the other girls, Noa has a real romantic connection with the man who eventually kidnaps and drugs her on a weekend away. Of course, the seemingly ordinary girl is special. She proves to be the exception by convincing her kidnapper that there’s an actual spark between them. The next calculable piece falls into place; he believes her compliance to be love and understanding. Hence, he invites her to a dinner he cooks out of fresh human meat, where Noa eventually gets him into a vulnerable enough position to temporarily subdue him and attempt to escape with her fellow dungeon roommates.
The all-too-foreseeable tropes of the movie, like Noa’s distinctness and her kidnapper’s gullibility, could serve a higher purpose than just setting Noa up to win in the end. It’s possible that giving Noa the competence to play along in order to gain his trust allows for a more complex and intuitive female protagonist. It also grants Noa the ability to connect with her fellow prisoners and gather information that could help get them all out. Noa’s playing along supplies a drawn-out sense of apprehension for viewers as well, which could be another function of the so-called cheesiness.
The kidnapper’s ineptitude at keeping Noa in his grasp may even have an intention of its own. For we know, this could be a deliberate attempt by the film creators to devise an enticing game of cat and mouse. Generating a sense of back-and-forth builds anticipation, which the audience needs in order to be satisfied during the movie.
The next example, “Don’t Worry Darling,” came out in theaters on Sept. 23, 2022. This movie had its own deliberations and drama, but there are some clear-cut cliches that exist within the film.
Once again, there is the idea that the main female protagonist, Alice, is unique when compared to her fellow housewives. She has strange visions and hallucinations, and keeps humming the tune of a song she’s apparently never heard before. The classic “You’re crazy” ensues from her partner Jack, her best friend Bunny and even her doctor. Essentially, nothing is as it seems. In the midst of it all, there is the trope of the husband who is doing what he is doing in the name of loving his wife; she should understand his actions come from a place of care. It reeks of old, borrowed cheese from the movie “The Stepford Wives.”
Alice’s divergence from the stereotypical woman in her neighborhood, as it expands throughout the film, is ultimately the only way she can get back in touch with reality. If she was just like everyone else, there would be no movie. Though, in reality, she comes across as an average girl, the universe she lives in makes her disparate from the rest.
The purpose of Jack’s contradictory treatment of his wife goes to show the lengths he would go to in order to keep them together. In the end, the viewer clearly knows that Jack was wrong for what he did, but they can also understand and sympathize with his desperation given the previous state of their marriage. This is to say, the cheesiness in this movie, all revolving around Jack and Alice’s desire for each other, is in some ways warranted.
Defining appetite in yet another way, “The Menu” was released on Nov. 18, 2022. Essentially, a bunch of rich people with sins of their own attend an invitational ten-course meal hosted by a renowned but disgruntled chef on a remote island. The main protagonist, Margot, is the only one who, as guessed, is unusual among the crowd. She is a relatively broke actress who was hired by a foodie so he can go to the dinner accompanied.
Aside from Margot’s contrasting nature when compared to all the guests, there is another central component that contributes to the cheesy predictability of the film — the head chef has a soft spot for Margot and sees through her act. He knows she wasn’t meant to be there, but alas, his plans must go on. However, Margot finds his weakness and exploits it, allowing her to fulfill the quintessential role of the “last girl standing.”
Similar to Alice in “Don’t Worry Darling,” Margot survives solely because of how she is different; in this case, she survives because her humble origins resemble those of the head chef. The variance in her character has meaning. As for the head chef’s understanding of her position, it is crucial for the viewers to understand who Margot really is and why she ends up being the exception. Despite the expected, however, the ending is not as easy to guess as it would seem.
The most recent release in this series of films is “Scream VI,” which reached theaters on March 10, 2023. Carrying on the sequence of stab movies, this one most closely resembles the original slasher film. However, out of all the movies presented, this is by far the cheesiest.
It utilizes almost every horror trope: people being attacked when they think they’re most safe, unnecessary romances that raise the stakes, a final girl and the current murderers avenging the last movie’s villain. Truthfully, there are so many cheesy subplots that it would take an exorbitant amount of time to go into them all.
Perhaps the build-up of blood, from literally every character, had to be balanced with some predictable endings in order for the movie to be digestible. From an economic stance, how would the movie progress if all the main characters were killed off? Surely this was something the creators of the franchise thought about when deliberating the plot. Although the film practically oozes cheese, especially for a horror film, it retains the suspense and jump scares of the classic horror saga.
The list of cheesy horror movies is not limited to those named here. Indeed, there are definitely more than four movies on that roster. However, perhaps it’s best to question why a movie is apparently cheesy or cliche as opposed to critiquing it first. There are a multitude of reasons why predictability and mushiness might need to be in that movie. Moving forward, enjoy horror movies for their classic attempts rather than their eye-roll-worthy moments. In other words, don’t deliberate over just the bad parts, take it all in.
