WhenEli Rothannounced that he was finally makingThanksgiving, horror fans everywhere could finally get excited about this much-awaited project. The idea for the movie went all the way back to 2007 when Roth made a grungy-looking trailer for a fake horror film calledThanksgiving, which wasshown in theGrindhousedouble featuredirected byRobert RodriguezandQuentin Tarantino. While the full-length feature film didn’t have that grindhouse aesthetic of the 2007 fake trailer, it did have tons of gore. That’s not all that shocking — this is Eli Roth we’re talking about — butwhat was a surprise is that critics loved it!Thanksgivingcurrently has an 82% on Rotten Tomatoes, something unheard of for a slasher.
This isn’t an isolated incident. Last year’sTerrifier 2somehowhas an 86% ratingfrom critics on Rotten Tomatoes, while 2023’s bloodyEvil Dead Risewas lauded by critics and horror fans alike.Saw Xgarnered more acclaim than any other sequel in the franchise.When Evil Lurksissitting at a very impressive 99% with critics. Even more “elevated” horror films, like this year’sTalk to Me, embraced the gore wave with one brutally unforgettable scene. Whilegore never went away in horror, it’s suddenly back out in the open, celebrated not just by fans, but by those who have always turned their noses up to any horror movie with blood and guts. There are many reasons why this could be, but at the heart of it is how these movies use gore to elevate the plot rather than a replacement for it and the place we as a culture find ourselves in following a deadly pandemic that took so much away from us.
Thanksgiving
After a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy, a mysterious Thanksgiving-inspired killer terrorizes Plymouth, Massachusetts - the birthplace of the infamous holiday.
While Gore Never Disappeared, It Was Replaced by “Elevated Horror” and PG-13 Movies
Gory horror movies found their audience in the late 70s, with zombie movies likeGeorge A. Romero’sDawn of the DeadandLucio Fulci’sZombi(you’ll never forget that splinter in the eyeball scene!). It really took off in the 1980s thanks to the slasher era, as each entry tried to outdo the one before it.John Carpenter’sHalloweenwas a near bloodless slasher built on atmosphere, but a few years later, with theFriday the 13thfranchise and its imitators,such asThe ProwlerandThe Burning, body counts and clever, disgusting kill scenes became the norm.Critics likeGene SiskelandRoger Ebertmight have hated it, but horror fans loved it.
In the late 80s, the slasher era died, and going into the 90s, horror, in general,died out with it from a popularity standpointoutside of a few big releases likeCandymanandScream, Horror was now a genre that both critics and audiences looked down upon. That didn’t mean gory horror movies faded away though. In the 2000s, Eli Roth found a career out of making audiences sick to their stomach thanks to the over-the-top brutality ofCabin FeverandHostel; andJames WanandLeigh Whannell’sSawcreated a new horror icon with Jigsaw, but many of those films were dismissed as nothing more than “torture porn.”
Horror made a comeback in the 2010s, but it wasn’t from relying on sequels to past favorites or by turning up the blood and guts even more. Instead, the most critically acclaimed movies, simply referred to as “elevated horror,” looked to be above such seemingly empty goriness, aiming instead for horror that focused on characters and atmosphere rather than kills. There is nothing wrong with that.Films such asJennifer Kent’sThe BabadookandJordan Peele’sGet Outare masterpieces, but critics seemed to think that was the only kind of horror that was worthy of praise. For the masses, studios fed us PG-13 horror that didn’t look to offend. Movies likeEscape RoomorLights Out, for example, are filled with quality scares, but they’re also tame and aimed at a younger audience. Gore was there but shoved to the sidelines as if it was something to be ashamed of.
Gore Has Made a Horror Comeback in the Past Few Years
In the last few years, though,gore is suddenly back at the forefront of horror again, and just as important, it’s become a subgenre celebrated rather than one we’re told to be ashamed of. Where did that start exactly? In 2022,a new horror icon was born with Art the Clown. Now, Art the Clown was already a known entity to hardcore horror fans thanks to his appearances inAll Hallow’s EveandTerrifier, butTerrifier 2turned up his mayhem to insane levels. DirectorDamien Leonegave us a nearly two-and-a-half hour-long slasher film with a killer clown doing things we’d never seen before. One scene fromTerrifier 2is non-stop torture, as Art scalps a woman, rips her limbs off, and then as if that wasn’t enough, he pours salt and bleach on her as well. Rather than people protesting the movie, there was instead a request for more, becauseTerrifier 2wasn’t a simple gore flick, but a dark horror comedy as well.. The little film found a theatrical release, where itearned a surprising $15 worldwide at the box office.
2023 brought us a ton of critcally and fan loved gore. After garnering attention through the festival circuit, this summer saw the release ofthe critically acclaimedAustralian horror flick,Talk to Me. Its plot and style are definitely more in line with “elevated horror,” but it combines subgenres, giving us a slow-burn elevated film about grief mixed with something terrifyingly disgusting. In one scene, a teenage boy named Riley (Joe Bird) is taken over by an entity who pounds his head over and over into every hard object it can find.Talk to Medoesn’t try to censor the brutality even though Riley is still only a kid, resulting in a harrowing scene of gore and violence that is had to stomach even for a seasoned horror fan. And yet,Talk to Meis considered by many to be the best horror movie of the year, withthat particular scenebeing singled out as its best.
So, why is gore all of a sudden being celebrated in 2023? It probably has something to do with the fact that, unlike the splatter films of the 2000s, these movies aren’t defined by their horror.Evil Dead Riseisa more contained film about the connection of family, while also showing a mother being possessed and killing people in the most bloody ways imaginable.Thanksgivingis a thrilling slasher with a whodunnit at the center that also happens to heap on the gore.Talk to Meis another powerful entry in the “grief horror” subgenre but with one absolutely vicious scene involving extreme violence on a young teenager. The plot ofWhen Evil Lurkspromises yet another possession movie, but through its unpredictability and dark, gut-wrenching gore, becomes something completely unforgettable.
After nine entries, fans and critics had grown bored of theSawfranchise, butSaw Xwas widely celebrated. It was as gory as ever, with traps ripping its victims apart, but a returning John Kramer (Tobin Bell) was seen as a hero rather than a villain, and the plot spoke to something deeper; the woes of our healthcare system. While many felt that the horrors of the 2000s were replacing plot with gore, these recent horror movies are instead using blood and guts to complement and elevate other elements of its plot and style. For a horror fan to love these movies isn’t shocking, but why have mainstream audiences and critics come to the dark side?
Why Is Gore So Popular in Horror Again?
Horror trends move in cycles. In the 70s, with so much confusion going on in the world thanks to Nixon and Vietnam,religious horror was our outlet with classics such asThe ExorcistandThe Omen. The sense of betrayal turned into more angry releases with films likeThe Texas Chain Saw Massacre. In the 1980s, with the AIDs crisis telling us that sex equaled death, gory slashers with the same trope were prevalent. In the 90s, as the news calmed, so did our horror, but that changed drastically in 2001. In a 2007 interview withGroucho Reviews, Eli Roth, while promotingHostel: Part II, spoke about horror and 9/11, saying of teenagers living during this time, “These kids are seeing these images, and they’re really fuckin' scared. And it is no accident they’re flocking to these movies and screaming at the top of their lungs.” Horror and gore became an outlet for being scared to death by reality.
Look at what horror was popular in the 2000s. It wasCabin Fever, theHostelfilms, and theSawfranchise. All of these films centered on stories told with intense bloodletting. And then there is theFinal Destinationfranchise (every film but the first came out after 2001), which centered on death and the disgusting ways we could die. It made audiences face their post-9/11 mortality but in a way so over-the-top that it was a release to watch the horror unfold. Horror post 9/11 was visceral and emotional, whether it be deadly serious or a bit silly. Now,gore, once seen as the lowest form of horror, is again celebrated. We’ve hit another cycle, another trend that will probably dominate the genre for the next few years. That acceptance and craving more than likely comes from our response to COVID. While we were all locked up by a pandemic, terrified for our health, and the world falling apart, it was only a matter of time before gore was going to splash across our screens again. By 2022, the world reopened again, and we settled into our new normal, but nothing would be the same.
Gore is that ultimate release after going through so much.If horror is therapeutic, blood and guts have become our therapy, just like they did in the past. The big difference now is that we want it combined with the recent era of “elevated” horror, where character and atmosphere are still emphasized. We want gore, yes, but smart gore. As the madness in reality continues, look for gore to continue to be our outlet. There hasalready been an announced sequeltoTalk to Me, and theteaser trailer for next year’sTerrifier 3shows Art the Clown dressed as Santa Claus, then hints at him slaughtering a small child with an axe on Christmas Eve night. Viva la gore renaissance!
Thanksgivingis in theaters in the U.S. now. Tickets are available to purchase on Fandango.
