Horror never used to be my thing, when I was younger I thought it was a bit crap (shocking ignorance, I know). Cheesy and not scary. But in recent years I’ve opened up to it all and now consider myself an ever-growing horror buff.

It helps that the last three years has seen a resurgence for the genre. There have been some incredible horror films, books, and video games that have come out and, as far as I’m concerned, the genre is revitalised. Thus, as Halloween beckons, let me put on a spooky hat and delve on into the mayhem.

Why I Now Love Horror

Now, in England the whole Halloween shindig wasn’t a big deal when I was growing up. I know Americans have that pelted into them from day one, but it’s only become a corporate pastime in the UK over the last 10 years or so.

Yeah, I was snotty about the genre, dismissing it as low-brow. I’m not impressed with myself about that and I apologise.

There’s no doubt some horror texts rely on cliched cheap shocks and unnecessary levels of violence, but when done right it can be just goddamn outstanding. And a big turning point for us recently was with Ti West’s modern classic Pearl (2022), such a clever film and with a phenomenal central performance by Mia Goth.

This has been the big breakthrough for us, the wealth of brilliant independent horror films over the last five years exploring meaningful psychological dismay through horror.

That peaked in 2026 with the surprise smash hit Obsession, a film so laden with dread it’s agonising to watch.

Plus, last year we all had the fantastic dark comedy/drama Weapons. The guy who wrote and directed that, Zach Cregger, then came back in September 2026 with his take on the popular Resident Evil games. And it’s fantastic fun.

This spate of activity in the film industry, alongside our first readings of some Stephen King books, plus delving deeper into very smart people’s take on the genre, has sealed the deal.

One is N.J. Gallegos who is a “horror author by day, ER doctor by night” (see the brilliant and darkly amusing Eat Your Heart Out, which launched earlier in 2026). As with many modern writers, she’s tied her love for horror in with the queer community to write impactful new texts. For us, it highlights what horror is often actually all about and why it’s been so liberating for people.

Another is Dr. Mark Kermode, who has a PhD in all of this. He’s the UK’s leading film critic and co-host of the podcast Kermode and Mayo’s Take. His favourite film is The Exorcist (1973) and horror is his favourite genre, he’s even done a Secrets of Cinema documentary about all of this. Behold!

In a March 2024 feature for The Guardian, Dr. Kermode argued horror can be a positive force in a world filled with fear:

“Whatever their nightmarish trappings, all of [Wes] Craven’s finest works can be read as down-to-earth allegories, often dealing with failing families and social inequality. In The Hills Have Eyes (1977), which took inspiration from the legend of Scottish cannibal Sawney Bean, the tables of ‘savagery’ and ‘civilisation’ are turned when a suburban family meet their mirror-image match while touring across the deserts of Nevada. Similarly, in 1991’s The People Under the Stairs (on the set of which I saw first-hand how much care Craven took of his young cast), the gothic horror masks a satirical tale of gentrification, greed and class conflict. No surprise that, alongside his genre films, Craven also directed Music of the Heart (1999), a moving biopic of Roberta Guaspari, a music teacher celebrated for her pioneering work in Harlem, which earned Oscar nominations for best original song (Diane Warren) and best actress (Meryl Streep).”

As with other film genres, horror is a legitimate way to explore and study the human condition.

That’s the scholarly side of it all, then, but why now for Mr. Wapojif into his 40s? Let us peel off the bandages and examine what went from a life of purity to a deranged world of axes and screaming.

Why Neurodivergent and Progressives Turn to Horror

You think back to the early ’70s when the Rocky Horror Show was on in London’s Soho district. Then it got its famous 1975 film adaptation, did nothing at the western box office, then was resurrected by progressives into a subversive smash hit famed for its midnight screenings.

Inspired by Tim Curry’s gloriously bisexual outsider Dr. Frank-N-Furter, it gave the “unconventional” people of the world a voice. One where rigid, repressed Conservative ideologies of “traditional values” and other social norms aren’t a reflective structure for life given human complexity.

You can think of all those queer people over the last 50 years who’ve watched Tim Curry’s performance of Sweet Transvestite and felt empowered. It’s a glorious thing (even if some of the film’s wider messaging now feels a little problematic).

In that world of unusual monsters, screaming, and gore, progressives (notably left-wing leaning folks) have found something that resonates. And if you’re neurodiverse, as I am (Mr. Wapojif), in the autism community, in horror there’s a sense of the “monster” as an allegory for the philosophical concept of the Other.

If you feel alienated in a right-wing capitalist society that we live in, where the Extrovert Ideal and obnoxious behaviour is celebrated and rewarded, in horror you can find a cultural outlet.

Various figures across horror break bodily, behavioural, and sensory norms. For neurotypical people, we can watch a “monster” get punished in horror films simply for existing. It doesn’t look like normal stuff, its behaviour is a bit weird, so it must be punished.

I’ve seen this recently in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, where the cyclops Polyphemus will be viewed by many cinemagoers as an antagonist. He eats some of Odysseus’ men after they invade his space, but then is savagely attacked by them and injured. I’ve seen many online comments sympathising with the beast, a shepherd who enjoys making cheese, whose life is ruined by a marauding bunch of battle hardened egomaniacs.

Not that this is about letting evil characters off the hook.

In Pearl, returning to that again, Mia Goth’s character is mentally ill and needs help. She’s wallowing in a world of delusions, convinced she’s going to be a famous Hollywood actress, but what’s important to stress is you understand why she’s doing what she’s doing. The societal support structures aren’t there to help her.

The film is set in the 1950s and it’s lucky she isn’t institutionalised. Her mother seems to be wary of that and trying to protect her from the state, urging her to lead a lowkey and mundane life. It goes wrong and Pearl goes on an insane killing spree.

This is political. Conservatives are very keen to blame the individual and tout “personal responsibility” as the solution, but how can there be personal responsibility when support structures are so lacking, as they have been across the last century and inro modern life.

It’s notable, too, in the 1980s our prime minister Margaret Thatcher moved to essentially ban horror, introducing the Video Recordings Act 1984 to crack down on “video nasties”. Tabloids such as The Daily Mail and Christian activists like Mary Whitehouse argued horror films corrupted kids and threatened societal collapse.

This is a key part of the genre for me, it’s not about providing answers to societal woes and revelling in gore for the sake of it. More, it’s examining the consequences of a failed state. Whether its Annie Wilkes in Stephen King’s book or Pearl, this is what happens when there’s systemic rot and when people just don’t give a damn.

Is there any coincidence I suddenly became interested in all this after getting my autism diagnosis in 2022? Seems much more than that, I’d argue.

Horror is an uncompromising genre where themes of bodily autonomous loss, alienation, isolation, gaslighting, and more are explored in candid fashion. Viewers are encouraged to feel massive emotions during a viewing, which is why people are prone to screaming during certain films.

It’s scary, sure, but there’s something rewarding coming out of that and processing your feelings.

Closing Thoughts: Spooky Subversions as a Cathartic Release

The subversion of social norms I think is where everything is at. A lot of neurodiverse people are left-wing. Not all. I’ve come across some severely horrible far-right people online who are autistic. Yet in horror films you’ll frequently find “radical” politics served as a Trojan horse, with capitalism critiqued alongside patriarchal control and other outdated societal structures.

Plus, me being a big fan of absurdity and subversive dark humour, the genre is packed with it.

Alongside the ability to explore human psychology, and deconstruct rigid/oppressive socioeconomic and political structures, I can now blood splatter my way further into the genre and likely come out the other side beaming. Wish me luck.