The Misguided Anger Towards The New Horror Creative Pipeline

One of the notable trends happening in the film industry in the last decade is the rise of new talent crafting the most acclaimed horror films within the genre. Whether they have backgrounds in comedy like Jordan Peele or Zach Cregger, or making stuff on YouTube like Markiplier, Chris Stuckmann, Kane Parsons or Curry Barker, they have put out some of the most loved or, at the very least, buzziest horror flicks of recent memory. With that said, there has been a fairly vocal minority online that has been making a fuss about how this new trend has been happening, and has taken up more space within mainstream film markets. Some call it the future of filmmaking, pointing to how Markiplier is handling his own distribution and physical releases of his smash hit adaptation of The Iron Lung, or how new, talented filmmakers who are sharpening their teeth on horror seem to have bothered some narrow-minded filmgoers. My question is why? Of all the things to be mad about in this world right now while everything is collapsing around us, why are some people mad at creatives with known talent from comedic or YouTube origins? First, this misguided anger is nothing new now that we are now seeing a way for people with talent or creative ambitions to enter the proper filmmaking pipeline. Before we had comedy duos or YouTube, some of the most well known directors were cutting their teeth with music videos from the 80s-90s when the music video industry was at its peak, and then even before that, many filmmakers who are considered masters of their craft worked with so-called schlockmeisters like Roger Corman or at companies like Troma and honed their artistry making horror movies with them. It’s not even just filmmakers either; many editors and composers also would get their start either in horror or horror-adjacent films.

Despite the fact that these films can get a larger budget depending on the project, they tended to be considered as a low-budget affair. Horror or horror-adjacent films would cost less than sci-fi, action, or fantasy adventure films, and if crafted well enough or creatively marketed, they would gain big returns. Great filmmakers would learn to roll with the punches of smaller budgets and the limitations that come with them, and that trend hasn’t stopped for decades. Seeing creatives from the world of comedy jump into horror also makes sense in the process of crafting films. How many times have you heard that comedy is based around the execution of the setup, the follow-through, and the punchline? Most talented comedians or comedic artists follow this to a T because it is true. We have all seen jokes stumble or fall flat because of a wonky execution or a bad punchline. It’s why it makes sense that they would want to dive into filmmaking with the horror genre. 

With horror, while the main goal is to scare folks while providing an imaginative and fun experience, it follows a lot of the same rules that comedy does with the premise, the follow-through, and the punchline that can symbolize the twists, turns, scares or the kills that happen within the film-watching experience. If you are a really cool filmmaker, you can find a means to splice horror and comedy together seamlessly to make for an experience that keeps the tension at a tight grip, but has enough downtime to make that grip even more fraught. It doesn’t hurt that horror has some already built in comedic aspects through the absurdity of the premise of being scared of the unknown. It’s okay to laugh when a horror film like the recently released Obsession has a legit funny moment like the second One Wish Willow being used incorrectly to try and save the lead. It’s called dark comedy for a reason. 

The weird complaints I hear about how many horror directors are coming from comedy or YouTube and that’s bad for some reason, confuses me. With the music video and commercial  industry basically being non-existent, from where are you expecting film creatives to emerge? Acting like it’s a jarring mix-up for horror to accept comedic individuals is a ridiculous reaction. After all, that’s how the team of Radio Silence got its start. After making a horror short on YouTube, Radio Silence got picked up to do an anthology short for the very first V/H/S film. These creatives aren’t industry plants that seemingly came out of nowhere. They have to cut their teeth somewhere, so why is new talent working in horror movies causing such a fuss? Again, if you want new, talented directors they have to start somewhere! Is it because horror is becoming much more mainstream and financially profitable for an industry that has been slowly killing itself due to focusing on just big 500 million blockbusters and nothing else? Are you mad because you also have a YouTube channel, and you haven’t been picked to make a movie for Hollywood? While the YouTube-to-horror filmmaking pipeline won’t always make a great movie, and not every YouTuber is going to be some brilliant untapped creative genius, they need some way to express their art and creativity. People acting like we are still in the era of really bad YouTube original movies need to get their head out of the past and realize that those movies sucked because the YouTubers who made these movies sucked or were never talented in the first place. They are basically not allowed back into Hollywood, and the industry is going to be picky with who will be chosen to direct or pitch movies. 

Sure, I agree with a lot of the criticisms. For instance, I wish it weren’t just a bunch of guys getting this opportunity. Major film studios need to invest in other genres like action, comedy, and romance without directly sending them to streaming. More non-white filmmakers should be given this opportunity without studios pulling stunts like basing the entire future of these filmmakers on one movie doing well or not. 

Expecting filmmakers to get their start by suffering for their art or going broke for it is an archaic and truly asinine expectation. Most creatives aren’t going to be picked out of the blue and then instantly be regarded as untapped potential. They will probably have been doing projects online that got executive interest in greenlighting new shows and films, due to how they had the obvious chops. Sure, maybe someone does something like make a micro-budget throwaway with friends and see if it blows up, but there has to be somewhere to put it. So why not on YouTube? Everyone has to start somewhere.