There are reasons to believe that horror might be dying, but I assure you it isn't. There was a wave of remakes in the early 2000's. Some people say it was because Hollywood ran out of ideas. I tend to believe it was because they could do more with those good or great stories today.
B Jr said, "The horror genre is redefining itself." and "Hollywood is throwing things out there to see what sticks."
It sounds to me like they're running out of ideas, but again, I assure you the horror industry is not dying. People have a built in need to feel scared. It makes them feel like as bad as their life is, it could be worse. Horror is the escape from reality. If Hollywood is running out of ideas, then that will benefit writers like me.
I predict a wave of horror adaptions from books to the big screen. I know a lot of writers who write in the genre. The ideas aren't exactly new, but it's my opinion that a story doesn't have to be original to be a great tale. Most writers strive to be original, but when that fails they just want to tell a good story.
In the 1970's the horror movies were truly born. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Last House on the Left, The Exorcist, and Halloween all broke barriers that hadn't been crossed before. People were horrified in ways that only the print form of horror could do. The horror books began to get more scary in the 70's. Stephen King would get started in that decade, although he would become more recognized in the 1980's.
The 80's brought on icons of the Freddy and Jason, but it brought on a bunch of ridiculous horror too. The industry had exploded. People were buying it trying to find that next great scare. Carrie and The Shining had found box office success, and Stephen King's books became a well they continued to go to for the next best thing. Not every one of them worked out, but more did than didn't.
The 90's found Jason and Freddy used up, just like many other 80's follow-up movies, Halloween H20, The Bride of Chucky, The Amityville Dollhouse. Stephen King adaptions were not making the big screen as much as they were made-for-tv-movies. In fact it was King's non-horror stories that had success in the 90's. The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. The original Scream saved the decade from being a total loss.
The early 2000's were fueled by remakes, and pretty good ones in my opinion. Now though it seems the genre is headed for the next big thing. Whatever that might be, I can assure you horror isn't dead or dying.
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