Scary asylums! Creepy disfigured people! People being punished for ‘not moving on and letting their trauma control them’! Violent and dangerous ‘crazy’ people! Poverty coded scary old women who must be a witch!

While asylums are less common horror locations these days, it still doesn’t stop the genre from using pop psychology to frame itself as deep while simultaneously expousing harmful messages. Usually written by people with very shallow understanding of the themes they’re employing for cheap scares at the expense of some of the most marginalized groups.

Also this might be cringe taste but some horror I actually do like are Jordan Peeles movies, because the themes of those are things like “Wow racism is horrificly dehumanising” and “Animals should be respected.”

  • BeanisBrain [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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    2 months ago

    the system of involuntary institutionalisation and the myriad horrific abuses innate to it present very big, juicy targets for horror to hit and comment about systemic crimes and the horrors of healthcare under capitalism

    For an example of a work that actually takes this angle, check out The Heilwald Loophole.