falling in love with horror
the story of how my least favorite genre became my favorite + the ultimate guide to get started on horror
I can’t remember exactly when I started liking movies or when I started to take them seriously. But as soon as I did, I made a huge list of all of the movies that I needed to watch as a cinephile in training (I’m not too fond of that term, but I will use it on this piece for the lack of a better word). Yet, there was a genre that I used to avoid at all costs: horror.
Most people who don’t like the genre don’t like it because they hate jumpscares or they can’t stand gore. On the other hand, I didn’t like horror movies because I thought they weren’t serious movies. I thought all of them were bad—full of jumpscares for shock value and plot holes. But, boy, was I wrong. Now, I can confidently say horror is one of the most interesting genres to exist.
I guess I owe my horror initiation to my friend Diego, whose favorite franchise is Scream, and wouldn’t stop talking about it at any opportunity he had. He left me no other choice but to watch it. The first four I watched alone, and the fifth one we watched together on Google Meet, like the geriatrics we are, because we live in different cities and couldn’t be bothered to find a better, most technologically advanced option to watch a movie. The rest was history.
After Scream, I started watching other slashers. I got obsessed with the ones that had the final girl trope. Later, I moved on to movies about witches, vampires, and zombies. The more I watched, the more I learned to love the genre.
Not to sound like a pretentious prick, but enjoying movies is not the same as loving them, and I love them. Everything about them. The process of how they are made, what they represent, the effect they have on people, and most importantly, how they create new worlds for us to experience. Horror opened up a new world of opportunities for how to tell stories for me. It made me love film even more.
It also made me realize that horror has always been a genre that represents human’s deepest fears in the most maximalist and satirical ways. Most storytellers who create horror films do so to insert social commentary on the political climate they live in and on our society’s current anxieties into their stories. Aja Romano wrote an incredible analysis for Vox called ‘Horror movies reflect cultural fears. In 2016, Americans feared invasion’ in where they wrote:
“The best horror movies are almost always pulling double duty, serving up scares that also illuminate the anxieties that lie below the surface of our collective cultural norms.”
Horror is also reinventing itself. Remember how I said my introduction to horror was slashers, especially the ones with the final girl trope? Well, most of these movies had something in common: they punish female characters for being "promiscuous.” Historically, men have enjoyed seeing women suffer; it turns them on. Horror has served as an outlet to fulfill the fantasies where they can hurt women with no consequences, especially in the slasher subgenre. But now, female directors are taking over the horror genre and are creating some of the most interesting films we have seen in the last decade.
If you are as chronically online as I am (derogatory), you’ve heard about The Substance, a film directed by Coralie Fargeat and starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley. I went to watch it the other day in theaters, and before you keep reading, please do yourself a favor and go see it. This movie needs to be experienced in a cinema. None of that streaming bullshit.
If you are still not convinced to spend your money on a movie ticket, let me try to convince you. The story follows a fitness celebrity, Elisabeth Sparkle, whose fame is fading quickly by the day. Although fit and gorgeous, she lacks the most important quality a woman can have: Youth. The producer of her TV show decides she is over and fires her on her 50th birthday. They need someone new to replace her. Someone beautiful and hot, and most importantly, young. And he finds her. A better, younger, more beautiful version of Elisabeth. The catch? The younger version is Elisabeth. Part of her, at least.
I won’t give away the rest of the plot, but I will tell you this movie does a great job of showing the extreme measures women will take to look a certain way—painful and extenuous, not-at-all glamorous, procedures—that promise them eternal youth. Unfortunately, Elisabeth will soon realize that trying to stop a natural process like aging is not easy or pretty. In the end, she will wish to look fifty again. But she can never go back.
The Substance is a film about how demanding and violent the process of achieving beauty can be. It’s a commentary on cosmetic procedures and on how beauty and youth are capital. But maybe the most important message of the movie is that we are all worthy of being alive, no matter how we look.
This film doesn’t take itself too seriously, but it gets its point across, aggressively, I would say. There is little dialogue on it, but it never gets boring. Even in the goriest scenes, you can’t help but look. It demands you to look at how ugly the price of beauty is. Coralie Fargeat shattered beauty standards into tiny pieces. She took the elements of science fiction and horror and created a story about a beautiful woman becoming an even more beautiful younger version of herself, becoming the ugliest person she had ever seen. It’s poetic. It’s straightforward. It’s horror at its best.
At the end of the day, I fell in love with horror, mostly because it allows filmmakers to tell stories in ways other genres can’t by bending reality. By showing us our greatest fears and creating new ones of the old ones. It’s a cycle you can’t get out of. Or can’t you?
The ultimate guide to get started on horror (or to discover new horror films and shows)
I’ve gathered a list of my favorite horror movies and shows and classified them by subgenre. (This was in part inspired by some of the amazing lists of recommendations that elle does.)
I tried to include something for everyone. So, if you are someone who gets easily spooked, or on the contrary, you hardly get scared by movies, there is something here for you. As well for the romantics, who would like to watch a romance movie with some horror aspects.
Disclaimer: I don’t get scared easily. So, don’t take my recommendations to heart.
ENJOY!
For the ones who get scared easily— these are movies/shows that have some horror elements but don’t lean into the gore of it (for the most part)
Romance/Comedy
Lisa Frankenstein by Zelda Williams
Warm Bodies by Jonathan Levine
Supernatural
Practical Magic by Griffin Dunne
The Witch by Robert Eggers
Interview with the vampire (the AMC show)
Midnight Mass (Netflix limited series) by Mike Flanagan
Final girl trope
The Fear Street trilogy by Leigh Janiak
Ready or Not by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett
Drama
Yellowjackets (Showtime)
For those who want to be shocked and uncomfortable—these are movies that made me look away from the screen or shocked me to my core
Body horror
Titane by Julia Ducornau
Bones and All by Luca Guadagnino (counts as a romance too)
Revenge by Coralie Fargeat
Raw by Julia Ducornau

Thrillers
Us by Jordan Peele
When Evil Lurks by Demián Rugna
If you want a pt. 2, just ask! These are just some movies that had a big impact on me and that I usually don’t see people talk about. If you have any recs, please let me know in the comments!
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My eternal appreciation (Seriously)
Thank you for your love on my last post and for being so damn kind to me. I appreciate every single one of you. Writing this newsletter has become one of my favorite things to do, and I can’t wait to keep doing it every week.
Jordan Peele's Us is one of my favourite movies ever. It freaked me out so much from the background audio alone that I had to turn it off and come back in the morning. One of my favourites for commentary too
i love warm bodies like this is the movie on our on when i just meet someone and will determine if i like them based on their reaction