Into the new millennium, horror films have retained their power to shock and outrage by continuing to plumb our deepest primordial terrors, to incarnate our sickest, most socially unpalatable fantasies. They are, in what amounts to a particularly delicious irony, a "safe space" in which we can explore these otherwise unfathomable facets of our true selves, while yet consoling ourselves with the knowledge that "it's only a movie."
At the same time, the genre manages to find fresh and powerful metaphors for where we're at as a society and how we endure fractious times. For every eviscerated remake or toothless throwback, there's a startlingly fresh take on the genre's most time-honored tropes. And for every milquetoast compromise, there's a ferocious take-no-prisoners attempt to push the envelope on what we can honestly say about ourselves.
