Every few months since the invention of leisure, some “enlightened” individual or other has grandiosely declared, “horror, my friends, is dead.” In flocks, we assemble to mourn our lost companion, trading drinks for stories of heroes and heroines, of visionaries and heretics. But mourn not my friends, for the truth is that horror will never die. So long as we have reasons to be scared, fear as a genre will survive. It’s primal; it’s edifying; it’s eternal. What is true, however, is that the horror genre, much like many things in this world, comes in waves. Each crash on our sandy screens is a brand-new exhilaration, but even as it mingles with the shore it recedes. We forget then, in the comfort of the ebb, what it was that knocked us back in the first place. We get bored. We become complacent; but there is always another crash—another deadly wash of salt in our lungs.
“But children – children, we have a problem. Horror is dead. I mean, look around you! Our vampires glitter! Our zombies have become soap opera stars! Our slashers have grown dull and old. We put Freddy on a lunchbox! We put Lovecraft in a coloring book! We have overconsumed and overproduced, and we have taken what was forbidden, what was dangerous, and we have made it common.”
So, while horror has, in fact, been popularized and commercialized, great films are still churned out for anyone looking. In just this past year, we were blessed with a modern homage to genre giants in the new Halloween; two stellar sci-fi scares in Annihilation and A Quiet Place; Nic Cage’s unexpected return to our good graces in the psychedelic metal trip that is Mandy; and a nostalgic coming-of-age killer-thriller called Summer of 84. So, while it’s true that our monsters of old have lost their edge and dropped scary for cult, horror itself will continue to be a beating, thriving machine so long as we as a species continue to create and to fear.
In many ways, the very act of debating the life and death of a genre is, of course, a facet of fandom; and it is this culture of fandom which drives this month’s Kills-approved horror film. Author and Director, Owen Egerton’s Blood Fest (not be confused with the similarly plotted, but significantly less loved, Hell Fest) is a dark millennial slasher about horror fans—for horror fans. Produced by Rooster Teeth, Blood Fest premiered at SXSW in 2018. Since then, it has had a limited release, and recently it played throughout Germany as part of the Fantasy Film Fest (White Nights).
The plot of Blood Fest, though not as original as it pretends to be, is undeniably interesting and well executed. Keeping with the millennial-horror trend of fan-service and self-awareness, which we can trace back to Scream, Blood Fest presents victims who are as versed in the rules of horror as the viewers are.
“If you know the rules, you just might make it.”
The film follows Dax. As a boy, Dax witnessed the murder of his own horror-loving mother by his father’s deranged, copy-cat-killer psychiatric patient. His father’s response was a quest to eliminate horror as an entertainment genre. Dax, of course, took a different route. Inspired by his mother’s own love of the genre, Dax finds comfort in scares that he knows are confined to the screen. Despite his father’s efforts, he grows up to be a true super-fan. So, when the Interactive Horror Festival, Blood Fest, comes to town, he and his two best friends find a way to go despite Dax’s father’s protestations. The problem is that at Blood Fest, there is no more screen between media and consumer. Festival founder, Anthony Walsh is here to make a ‘real’ horror movie, and every Blood Fest attendee has a chance to be the star. In this way, Egerton puts his characters in the cherished what-would-I-do-if-I-were-in-a-horror-movie fantasy scenario. At the same time, he attempts to tackle the safe space between the individual and the screen. Of course, we’ve already seen this invasion in other films, like Scream—or more literally, The Ring.
“This is what horror gives us. Horror begets horror.”
Armed with his expert knowledge of the genre and the basic rules most of us have come to know, Dax and his friends set off to survive the twelve different horror park zones. Among others, they are joined by Dax’s slasher hero from the fictional Arbor Day films and his ex-girlfriend, a young actress who is a bit too excited to be playing “Topless Girl #4.”
Reminiscent to Cabin in the Woods by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard, this genre mash of horror and gore is remotely recorded and controlled by a crew invested in making the next great horror movie and the professed evolution of a stale genre. Equally witty, but more gory, Blood Fest is much like Cabin the Woods, but with a change in setting and a different motivation. Both films, in their own way, ask the question: Why do we have horror? Blood Fest, in the safety of a hor-com, looks at the broader significance of fear and violence not just on the individual, but on our culture.
If you’re versed in millennial meta-horror, then you might find yourself feeling like you’ve seen this film before, but the film remains creative, entertaining and most importantly, another love-letter to a genre from its hordes of fans.
So, what do you think? Is horror really dead? Also, did you like, love or hate Blood Fest?
