The Sensory Themed Horror Trend Has To End
Look, I do not hate on them. I don’t even hate the sub-genre. Ok, let me explain.
The motive for this post is the latest Netflix concoction. The first trailer for The Silence is out, and the apocalyptic movie has Stanley Tucci and Kiernan Shipka in the lead roles. The release date was set for April 10th, and was actually aghast at how similar this movie was to A Quiet Place and Bird Box.
After reading the synopsis and watching the trailer for The Silence, I can safely say that the only difference here is the addition of the sinister cult. Everything else is parity much the same. White family trapped in a post-apocalyptic world? Check. Aliens that hunt humans by sound? Check. Deaf character? Check. Hey even the car ride from Bird Box was duplicated, but now with a different twist.
The surge of sensory horror films has been steadily creeping up in the past decade. It’s not just about Bird Box and A Quiet Place. Heck, even Jordan Peele’s Us was tackling the loss of speech in his characters. Hush and Don’t Breathe are some of the older movies that feature sensory horror elements, but I’m flat out suggesting that this trend has to stop.
It’s not that they’re not fun to watch, far from it. I’m sure Netflix will find an audience for them as well. No. They’re not original anymore, and that’s my biggest pet peeve about them. The lack of fresh ideas in this sub-genre really brings down the overall quality, and everything seems like a copy of a copy. Let’s take The Silence as an example. Some might call it rip-off, and some might call it a watered down version of The Quiet Place. And both sides would be right. Look, the movie will premiere in the beginning of April, and I’ll have a more compelling argument for this after I watch the movie, but until then… I’m calling them out.
But the point of this movie (even from the standing point of just watching the trailer) is the fact that the sensory horror movies are just milking the cash-cow by this point. They’re not original, and they’re just rebooting old ideas. The sensory horrors are way past their expiration date and from this point it’s just sad to watch the demise of a once beloved horror sub-genre. At this point the sensory horror movies are just a trend that has to stop in order to maintain the shred of dignity and integrity that’s left in them.
Everything ?? already played out, and nothing new is left to see in them. Don’t believe me? Watch the trailer for The Silence and see it for yourself.
