Introduction to my obsession with horror

Catherine f -

Hello! My name is Catie and I have long been interested in the topic of horror and how it reflects our society. I love horror in every form, from books and comics to movies and games. I grew up consuming as much of the genre as I could, from children’s TV shows such as Scooby Doo and Goosebumps, to books like American Chillers. Overtime, I became more and more interested in the genre and everything that goes into it. In highschool, I started getting a lot more chances to do research projects on a topic of my choice and that topic was horror. I spent time researching why people enjoy the genre as well as specific avenues of representation and the way that horror impacts our society. This project allows me to put everything I have learned to use. I love the horror genre and feel that it is often misunderstood and overlooked, limited to one very narrow idea of what horror is. That’s why I want to use this project to create a mini documentary exploring why this genre is important within our society and the impact that it has. I will be researching, scripting, and editing everything myself and aim to share my love of horror with everyone following along.

I hope you will follow me on this journey of exploring the genre as well as finding out what it will take to create and edit a documentary. I will be interviewing people with an interest in horror and splicing those together with clips to create an interesting way to convey the information. A documentary allows for an interesting and more interactive way to convey information to an audience, especially when the topic is very visual itself.

Thank you for reading and I hope you will find this journey as interesting as I do!

Below is the Senior Project Proposal. Feel free to read it for more information.

Senior Project Proposal

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Comments:

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    Cindy H
    Hi Catie! As someone who has never really explored horror, your project sounds like the perfect way for me to start :) I was specifically interested about different types of horror. You mentioned that horror often gets simplified into one narrow idea, so I was wondering if you have other 'categories' of horror that you've thought of or other people have categorized? Essentially, are there subgroups of types of horror underneath the umbrella genre of horror? Thank you! I'm excited to learn more about the film genre I know the least about :)
    February 23, 2025 at 11:21 pm - Reply
      catherine_f
      Hi Cindy! I’m looking forward to you following along with this project. As far as categories of horror, there are endless ways to narrow it down. Some of the most common would be slashers and supernatural horror as well as “high-brow” horror(I’m not particularly fond of that term though). It can also be narrowed down by specific representations. When I mentioned a narrowed view of what horror is, a lot of people tend to only think of slashers or particularly gory movies when thinking about horror and don’t acknowledge the wide range of movies that actually fall under this genre or the technical aspects and merits of some the gorier films. I truly believe that if you look hard enough there is something in the genre for everyone. Thank you for your question!
      February 24, 2025 at 9:37 am - Reply
    riley_b
    Hello Catie! This project sounds super interesting. I am looking forward to learning about horror and why it's so important, especially since I have trouble watching it myself and yet am endlessly fascinated by it.
    February 24, 2025 at 9:24 am - Reply
    liam_k
    Hi Catie, this project looks really cool and fun. As someone who has watched minimal horror movies / shows, do you have any recommendations to introduce me to the genre? Thanks!
    February 24, 2025 at 10:20 am - Reply
      catherine_f
      Hi Liam! It’s hard to recommend a movie to start with but I’d say maybe Alien or The Ring. It’s very dependent on what bothers you personally. Those two movies are both very good and not very gory but you could also start with some of the well known movies or go with a sub genre you know you like such as sci-fi or supernatural horror. It all really depends on what bothers you and what kind of movies you typically enjoy.
      February 24, 2025 at 10:38 am - Reply
    katie_b
    Hi Catie! I found it very interesting when you mentioned that horror often reflects our society. Are there any specific themes or trends in modern horror that you think are particularly significant in today’s society?
    February 25, 2025 at 10:06 am - Reply
      catherine_f
      Hi Katie! That’s a great question and the answer is absolutely! In the last three years alone we have gotten a pretty significant amount of AI horror movies like Megan, Afraid, and Companion. During quarantine there was an uptick in rentals of movies like Contagion and World War Z. This has continued with new zombie films as well as a popular zombie franchise, 28 Years Later, is set to come out soon. After the overturning of Roe v Wade we got several supernatural horror movies regarding possession and lack of bodily autonomy with movies First Omen and Immaculate releasing the same week as well as a new Exorcist film not long after and recently the movie Cuckoo in 2024 which had very similar themes.
      February 25, 2025 at 11:29 am - Reply
    Kellie Hintze
    Hi Catie! As a fellow lover of horror movies, I'm looking forward to seeing the ways your documentary explores this complex genre. Will there be an opportunity to view your completed film?
    February 25, 2025 at 3:32 pm - Reply
      catherine_f
      Hello! Thank you for the comment. There will be a showing of the finished product it just may have to be a different day than my presentation.
      February 25, 2025 at 6:03 pm - Reply

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