A Quarter Century of Horror: Societal Fears Captured by Horror Movies of the Last 25 Years

It is perhaps the basest of human instinct to fear what we do not know—it’s honestly arguable that a few of the other fears listed below can be distilled even further down to this common root—and what do we know less than what we are unable to see?

Thus, ghost horror has been a mainstay in the genre from its inception, and it will probably never go away. 

However, what makes this century a bit different from years past is the direction ghost movies have taken.

As society has grown less delicate about the portrayal of religion, possession movies have absolutely surged, most notably with Paranormal Activity (2007) and with James Wan’s blockbuster Insidious and Conjuring franchises that kicked off in 2010 and 2013, respectively.

There are plenty of other creative takes, too: The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), a legal-thriller meets possession movie, Evil Dead (2013), an insanely gory remake of the Sam Raimi original, and even Deliver Us From Evil (2014), a police procedural meets possession movie.

Point is, this particular fear is evergreen, and thus, these movies will always be, too. 

Bonus points if you can claim they’re based on a true story.

On the heels of Y2K and still reeling from 9/11, the largest terror attack in American history, the early 2000s reminded the world that nobody is invincible, nor are our infrastructures infallible, thus inviting minds to consider the possibility of societal collapse. 

What movies best represent the panic of potential chaos, fear of a mass loss of loved ones, and the degradation of life as we know it?

 Zombie films of course. 

28 Days Later (2002), Dawn of the Dead (2004), and 28 Weeks Later (2007) set the new century off to a strong start, showing us the ways that crisis can be both divisive and uniting.

And most importantly, how crisis does not discriminate. Movies like Zombieland (2009), The Crazies (2010), and World War Z (2013) continued to add to this cannon in years to come, each in their own way. 

And while the specific iconography of the zombie has tapered off with time, movies about societal collapse have not.

Films like John Krasinski’s 2018 directorial debut A Quiet Place and its subsequent franchise or Netflix’s Bird Box, also from the same year, with their sound-hungry death angels and visual viruses, serve as proof of the continued pervasiveness of this fear. 

If large-scale societal collapse dominated minds in the early 2000s, smaller-scale and insular paranoia found its footing in the 2010s.

Are the people we interact with on a daily basis really who they say they are? Or are there more sinister intentions hiding beneath quaint surfaces? 

The Purge (2013) and the franchise that followed investigate this fear head on, showing us the violence that festers inside our neighbors and what the world might look like should they be given the chance to exercise it without consequence.

Jordan Peele’s revelatory hit Get Out (2017) forced the world to confront racial tensions within our society that most previously chose to pretend did not exist.

Ready or Not (2019) challenged class structure, showing us a beautiful bride in a bloody wedding dress as she is hunted down by her new husband’s wealthy family for sport. 

As the eternal political chasm within our country has grown larger and larger, movies like this addressed a real fear on many minds: do people who smile and wave at me every day really care about me behind closed doors? 

With the dawn of social media, screens have become the new mirrors. We are constantly analyzing our bodies, our personas, and stacking ourselves up against our “friends.”

Because of our endless and instant public exposure, avoiding signs of aging and staying on trend are collective priorities in ways they’ve never been before.

Naturally, this anxiety has invaded horror, especially in the 2020s. 

Most recently reflected in Coralie Fargeat’s mind-fuck body horror The Substance (2024), movies that investigate society’s emphasis on aesthetic value go back to the late 2010s.

Some take the approach of The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014) or Relic (2020), showcasing the horrors of getting old.

While others, like A Cure for Wellness (2016), and The Neon Demon (2016) show the lengths people will go to in order to preserve their youth and appeal.

Penultimately, X (2022) and Pearl (2022) of Ti West’s X trilogy sort of do both, representing how far individuals will go for relevancy and what happens when they don’t get it.

Spoiler alert, murder.

As Dr. Ian Malcolm so graciously puts it in the 1993 blockbuster classic Jurassic Park: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.”

Technology has moved at lightning speed since the dawn of the twenty-first century, and not necessarily just the fancy-schmancy stuff, we’re talking technology that you and I interact with every day.

How soon after the dawn of Airbnb or Uber were we all hopping in the cars or beds of perfect strangers?

Movies like (the more realistic)The Rental (2020) and (the more sensationalized) Barbarian (2022) remind us of the dangers of something that seems so banal to us, when only a few decades ago to pay to sleep in a stranger's home would have been unthinkable. 

Creep (2014) touts the dangers of aid-request sites like Craig’s List or Task Rabbit, Spree (2020) warns of the risks of rideshares, and there are plenty of movies that capture the new monster we created with social media, including Dashcam (2021), Deadstream (2022), and Talk to Me (2022).

Ease, convenience, and connectivity are good things, but then again, you can always have too much of those.

It’s easy to imagine what we’ll see from the horror genre in years to come. We can expect to continue to see possession horror, and if that’s your jam, check out Steven Soderberg’s foray into horror releasing in theatres this month called Presence. 

There will be climate horror and horror about AI. If you’re into the latter, Companion, releasing at the end of the month and featuring Sophie Thatcher of Yellowjackets, might be for you. 

And the existing genre of social media horror will probably evolve. (Think films that investigate the long-term impact and effects rather than the dangers of).

No matter what our collective worries, we’re lucky to have horror help us process them.