Horror is in the medium of the beholder
Creative collaboration courtesy of social media video platforms is forging a revitalised breed of the horror genre
HORROR will always find us; the horror will always find a way into us.
The macabre manifestations of our need for terrifying catharsis stare back at us from every mirror we raise to ourselves; daring us to blink. The medium may change, the horror shifts with it; still, we come back for more.
Little wonder, then, that as we've transmigrated ever more of our daily reality into the eerie realms of social media, that the darkness within has followed.
We're not talking about the daily grind of social media's very real – and much discussed – toxicity, here. Be relieved at that.
We're talking about the other kind; the horror that's stalked us for as long as our species has huddled around the firelight, told stories of the creatures that lurk in the night; sought solace and protection in the company of our kind.
That's right, we're talking ghost stories, and uncanny tales, and every other breed of horror imaginable that we've crafted to nurture and satiate our thrilling fear of dread and malevolence.
Humans have always delighted in stories that chill the blood, tingle the spine, and set the viscera trembling. Technology hasn't changed any of that. But it has always offered new stages for horror to crawl into our souls and caper to our macabre delight.
Social media is no different; it is but another chink in our armour against the terrors of the night.
But enough of that, let's get to the meat and bones of the matter at hand, and turn to Dr Jessica Balanzategui, a senior lecturer in media at Australia's RMIT University, whose research focuses on horror and digital culture.
Creative dynamic
She believes social media platforms are revitalising horror in the audio-visual sphere, by enabling movie directors to foster a more intimate connection with their audience; a proximity that enables the horror to hone its edge.
“Social media platforms TikTok and YouTube are driving some of the most cutting-edge trends in horror film-making,” she said.
“These two platforms have cultivated an environment for emerging film-makers to develop distinct creative voices, and build the profile of their work in collaboration with an engaged community of platform users: a creative dynamic I call ‘participatory experimentation.’”
Balanzategui cites experimental horror film I Saw the TV Glow, by Jane Schoenbrun, as an example; one of the biggest critical hits at Sundance, it was hailed as both a masterpiece, and a major work of surreal, experimental horror.
According to Balanzategui. This film “harnesses the themes and aesthetics of wildly popular experimental horror genres on TikTok and YouTube”. The same can be said, she adds, of Schoenbrun's previous film, We’re All Going To the World’s Fair (2021), and two of 2023’s most acclaimed horror films, Skinamarink and Australian smash-hit Talk To Me.
“Two of the most popular and influential of these are the interrelated TikTok categories ‘Liminal Spaces’ – which has 4.9 billion views – and ‘Analog Horror,’ which has 2.3 million views,” Balanzategui added.
“These content trends are creating pathways for international horror film-making careers. Skinamarink – the feature film debut of Kyle Edward Ball, described by some critics as the best horror film of 2023, or even scariest of all time – gained international exposure after going viral on TikTok.”
Thanks to the popularity of his YouTube video, one young movie-maker – 16-year-old Kane Parsons – was contacted by “prestige” studio, A24 to direct his first feature.
“We are even seeing YouTube videos make the leap from social media platform to art events,” Balanzategui added. “An upcoming screening of YouTube video Heck from Skinamarink director Kyle Edward Ball at Melbourne’s Capitol theatre – an event I co-organised in association with a major exhibition at the Australian Centre of Contemporary Art – exemplifies the growing cultural impact and aesthetic legitimacy of these ‘weird,’ uncanny social media trends.”
Balanzategui says that TikTok is becoming a major site for such horror-making activity thanks “to its user-friendly bag of special effects”; tricks like retro-cam filters, green screens, face morphing, and body warping.
“Social media is cultivating trailblazing creative visions due to the culture of collaboration and participatory experimentation on platforms like TikTok and YouTube that often attracts millions or even billions of views,” she said.
“It’s an exciting time for the industry, because emerging film-makers can experiment with their creative visions via ‘participatory experimentation’ on social media, as well as creating pathways to careers, it is expanding the boundaries of the horror genre.”
Horror is everywhere around us; on our screens, our phones, our digital spaces, in the very culture that immerses us, daring us to breathe. Where we go, it follows, because we more than invite it within – we make it as real as can be.
Aficionados of the genre would have it no other way. It's a part of them.
Dr Balanzategui delved more deeply into the matter of horror and the digital space in her article Analog Uncanny, published in February 2024 on The Conversation.
MC