The rise of Horror movies critically and at the box office

Horror movies have seen a dramatic rise in both critical acclaim and financial success. The genre has long been one of the safer box-office bets for studios wringing big returns out of modest budgets. Now, in an industry still recovering from the pandemic, that reliability has become a beacon.

Because of this dependability, Michelle Martinez, a senior instructor at Arizona State University’s Film and Media Studies program, sees horror as Hollywood’s lifeline. “That’s how we persist,” she said. “Horror film has always been a ‘yes and’ sport. It’s always been low-budget. Nobody took it seriously until now, really.”

A gash is cut across the top of the chart and blood falls out of it into fifteen pools, one per year from 2012 to 2026. Pool depth is horror’s share of total domestic box office, rising from 5.9% in 2012 to 18.2% in 2026, on an axis reading 50% at the cut down to zero at the floor. The bright blood at the foot of each pool is that year’s #1 horror film.

Horror isn’t just succeeding at the box office; critics are taking notice as well. Sinners, directed by Ryan Coogler, set in Jim Crow-era Mississippi Delta in 1932, received a record 16 Oscar nominations and earned Michael B. Jordan his first Oscar for Best Actor, marking a distinct return for the genre as a critic darling. In the 1970s and 80s, the slasher subgenre dominated the scene after the success of Halloween in 1978. 

The rise of VHS helped horror movies with limited releases find much-needed permanent homes on video store shelves, giving audiences greater access and opening the door for films to become cult classics. At the 64th Academy Awards in 1992, The Silence of the Lambs became the first and currently only horror film to win Best Picture. However, the 2000s marked a lull for the genre until 2017, when Jordan Peele’s Get Out seemed to announce a shift.

Scatter plot of Metacritic score versus release year for horror films, with Oscar nominees and winners highlighted and a 5-year trend line.

All movies are built on balancing moments of tension with moments of release or relaxation for viewers. In horror movies, this becomes especially important. Moments of peace, even mundane ones, can lure the audience into a false sense of security. A lull can trick you into letting your guard down before the next high-tension moment/scare. 

With jump scares, there are often moments of silence or softness before the scare. After these moments, a sudden, sharp musical chord or loud sound effect known as the sting typically occurs at the same moment the threat/danger appears. 

“It might open with some gore just to set the tone or have a little early pre-scare just to prime you,” Martinez said. “So that you’re ready for the bigger build.”

A single horizontal strip spanning the 122-minute runtime of The Exorcist, with a vertical tick at each of its 11 cataloged jump scares. The first arrives 11 minutes in, three cluster in a four-minute burst around the 30-minute mark, the longest calm runs 25 minutes through the second hour, and the final two land 18 seconds apart with 10 minutes of film still to go.

Scatter plot of Metacritic score against jumpscares per hour for 695 horror films. Scores drift down as scare density rises, but the cloud is wide at every density. Oscar winners such as Alien, Jaws and Get Out sit high on the score axis at a range of densities.

Sound amplifies the menace of the movie, seen or unseen. The score, and other sounds that occur outside the world of the story, can be used to manipulate you into feeling tense in moments where you may not even notice it consciously. Sounds that do exist in the world of the film, whispers or floorboards creaking, suggest that something is not as it should be.

Lighting, too, is a pivotal choice for making horror work. Shadows and darkness keep things from the audience, letting them imagine the worst. Horror often uses what’s just out of reach to scare and disturb you.

The genre works well as a powerful lens for telling larger stories. Horror, like many other art forms, can reflect societal issues, offering a cathartic way to process hardship and trauma across different communities. By transforming real experiences into frightening yet safe scenarios, horror lets us confront hard topics in a controlled environment.

Carrie, a movie based on Stephen King’s novel about a bullied high school girl raised by a fanatically religious and abusive mother, is a front-of-mind example for Martinez. The 1974 novel and the Brian De Palma film are often connected to the landmark abortion rights ruling of Roe v. Wade a year earlier, as both express themes of bodily autonomy and the consequences of “the repressing of female power.”

Get Out serves as a social commentary on race and Black exploitation. Released in 2017, the film reflects the evolving discussions around race relations and systemic racism at the time.

And films like the summer blockbuster Obsession return to questions of autonomy and critique modern dating culture, turning the “Nice Guy” trope on its head. 

Horror can also give the audience a safe space to work through emotion. Martinez finds that in her classes, it comes up a lot.  “If you’re somebody that’s grieving and you go watch a horror film, it helps you push out that wave of grief,” She said. “When you have art that makes you feel […] It helps you reset. And I think for a lot of people, that’s why they really like it.  

With horror movies making a comeback in a big way, it’s easy to get swept up in the numbers and why they work, but for Martinez, it’s a bit simpler than that. Horror, she says, is a way to break out of the monotony of daily drudgery. “That’s what musicals do. That’s what horror does. It pinches you awake.”

Edited by

Julia Wolfe, Nick Zieminski