Dread is the modern condition – no wonder the Halloween franchise still resonates | Anna Bogutskaya

When the natural world feels out of control, horror stories let us experience fear and, most importantly, release it

During the past 18 months we’ve collectively experienced more anxiety than we could ever have imagined, which ironically makes it fitting that our appetite for horror has increased. Anxious times demand anxious films.

Indie film-makers responded to the lockdowns by making horror films that reflected our mood: Ben Wheatley made the psychedelic earth-horror, Into the Earth, seeped in pandemic paranoia, and Rob Savage tapped into the horror of Zoom calls with Host. Big franchise releases such as The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Spiral: From the Book of Saw and A Quiet Place Part II were pushed back to be released in cinemas, and did relatively well at the box office. But none have broken records like Halloween Kills, the 12th instalment in the long-running franchise, which was released both in cinemas and online. The film dominated the box office in its first weekend in US cinemas, taking in more than $50m. Streaming service Netflix also joined in, uploading six of the Halloween films in time for the new release.

Anna Bogutskaya is a film and TV critic, writer and broadcaster

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