![]() Maybe the aversion some viewers have to both is a fear of losing control: of laughing so hard you snort or having to turn away in fright, of embarrassing yourself. These two genres, horror and comedy, are those most often expected to provoke an immediate, visceral reaction from audiences. What scares people, and makes them laugh, says even more see “Ready or Not,” “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” “What We Do in the Shadows,” and “Teeth” for starters. What scares people says a lot about them, as the debates about “Get Out,” “The Purge,” “They Live,” “Society,” and similar politically charged titles have revealed. Viewers forget all the time that, as Anna Karina’s “Pierrot Le Fou” character Marianne Renoir says: “There can be ideas in feelings.” ![]() How can films that fire your adrenal glands, send shivers down your spine, raise goosebumps, and quicken your breath - that inspire such an intense physical reaction - also be cerebral experiences? The answer is obvious enough. The general gist is that these exceptions to the “horror is bad” rule engage your brain more than just showing brains: eaten by zombies or splattered against the wall. But even now the specter of “elevated horror” (see that concept’s lambasting in Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett’s “Scream 5”) looms over discussions of artier explorations of dread and terror - Ari Aster’s “Midsommar,” Luca Guadagnino’s “Suspiria,” Rose Glass’ “Saint Maud” - that are clearly distinguished from, well, non-elevated horror. In this time of geekery and craft reigning supreme, film critics and academics no longer reject horror movies with the knee-jerk certainty some once did.
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