Horror is the subject of much scrutiny and, ironically, most of that comes from horror fans themselves, for as the adage goes, “No one hates wrestling more than wrestling fans”. A key aspect of this scrutiny involves breaking horror into decades, and enough sub-genres to make metal music green with envy. Generation Terror is the latest offering from Sarah Appleton & Phillip Escott (The Found Footage Phenomenon), fresh from its World Premiere at Frightfest 2024. The movie focuses on the ’00s, one of the more maligned periods in horror, and is viewed by many as a footnote compared to the current boom era, and the gold and silver eras of the ’70s and ’80s. Generation Terror‘s many talking heads question whether these claims are correct, and ask if the immediate post-millennial generation has been fairly assessed.
The directors have chosen a diverse group for the cast of talking heads in this project, from modern genre stalwarts like Joe Lynch, Neil Marshall, Vincenzo Natali, Xavier Gens, and Christopher Smith, to writers and directors from franchises like Saw and Final Destination in the mix, and surprise appearances from directors Kôji Shiraishi (Occult and Noroi: the Curse), and Srdjan Spasojevic (A Serbian Film). Perhaps the most shrewd inclusion is the generation of film critics (authors), from both sides of the Atlantic.
Any era in horror is thought of most fondly by the people who grew up with those movies, and critics (and authors) like Amber T, Rose Smith, Ariel Powers-Schaub and Prince Jackson, are some of the new faces that represent that idea. They also inject a breath of fresh air as, alongside the usual faces and names, there’s a new generation of perspectives to consider – which is important because seeing the same faces in every documentary can make people disengage with the material, bored by seeing “them again”. Overly familiar faces can make some horror movie documentaries feel indistinguishable from one one another, therefore fresh faces make for a fresh documentary. Of course, you also get the impression that there was enough Joe Lynch footage for a version of Generation Terror that focuses solely on him to exist (not that I am calling him out – every documentary has one voice like that, no matter the subject).
Turning my weather vane of negativity and pessimism about this era into something more positive, and with a little more consideration – that alone is the greatest measure of Generation Terror‘s success.
The movie opens by speed-running through the ’70s and ’80s, before landing on the title that opened the door to the new era – The Blair Witch Project. After that it segues from one subject to the next, and much of the commentary is underpinned by the terror of living in a post 9/11 world, the anxiety and uncertainty caused by the George W. Bush presidency, and the perma-war in the Middle East caused by dubious decision making from Trans-Atlantic governments. This may give the impression that Generation Terror is an overly politicised documentary, but that would be incorrect as most horror outside of the bubble-gum and gore of the ’80s Slasher Cycle has political considerations. “Keep politics out of horror” is little more than a wishful thinking from certain corners of Twitter as the genre, by its very nature, is a direct reflection of society at any given time (just like sci-fi). Further depth on this comes from (as one of the voices suggests), these politically anxious writers and directors walking so that the current generation could run.
While previous documentaries by Appleton and Escott have touched on found footage and J-Horror, Generation Terror is less confined – spanning the Blair Witch Buzz, J-Horror, French Extremity, Torture Porn, and anomalous franchises like Final Destination and Saw. Unlike The J-Horror Virus (2023), and The Found Footage Phenomenon (2021), this isn’t a documentary to watch while taking note of all the different movies referenced to add to your watchlist later. It’s about the context that these movies exist within, and while it’s a very thoughtful and engaging piece, I feel that lacking those usual references and recommendations somewhat lets the air out of its lungs. Having that layer of discovery helps to pave over shortcomings with this form of documentary and keeps the momentum up – especially when the edit gets bogged down and stuck on topics for a little too long (with so many perspectives echoing one another, the pacing slows down to a crawl during the torture porn segment). Likewise, if Srdjan Spasojevic spoke in his native tongue (like Kôji Shiraishi), his inclusions would’ve been more energetic. Let’s be fair here, these are minor quibbles I am drawing attention to.
To loop back around to the topic of references and “recommendations”, one of the few movies that does break into the wider conversation of Generation Terror is Shiraishi’s accurately named and justifiably banned, Grotesque (2009). I don’t endorse censorship, to be clear it’s called “Grotesque” as it makes most studio financed Torture Porn feel like In the Night Garden. The dialogue surrounding that movie does a great job of encapsulating the renegade, punk-ish energy of an era of horror cinema that railed against the status quo of the studio system that defanged Western horror during the 1990s – if any notion is central to Generation Terror or its thesis, it is that.
A rhetorical alternative title for this documentary could be “Millenial Terror” as people of that generation came of age watching these horror movies, so revisiting them and the news of the time is nostalgic – while not necessarily in a positive way given the horrible uncertainty of the time, it’s a journey worth taking. Likewise, I became a fan of horror later than others as I was turned off by Torture Porn and French Extremism (I still am), but when it’s championed in such a thoughtful, eloquent documentary, by a selection of names from across the genre spectrum who are all genuine in their passion, it gave someone as cynical as me (about these things that is), pause for thought. Turning my weather vane of negativity and pessimism about this era into something more positive, and with a little more consideration – that alone is the greatest measure of Generation Terror‘s success.
Generation Terror had its World Premiere at Frightfest 2024
