5. A Pioneering Genre
If you look at horror as a genre, it is very schizophrenic. On the one hand, there are tried and tested formulas that horror directors know will work and they stick within those limits. Italian cinema was particularly guilty of this during the 1970s and 1980s with their cannibal, zombie and Nazisploitation movie cycles which just ripped each other off and presented nothing new to the lexicon of cinema. America did a same thing in the 1980s with a seemingly endless string of look a like slashers. However, horror at its best can push the limits of its genre like no other. It can break new ground and enter radical territory. Films like Man Bites Dog, Sante Sangre, Martyrs, Frontiers, Antichrist - are all at the cutting edge of what the horror genre can achieve and the impact it has on the viewer. Their extreme nature enables them to bust open taboos and explore subject matter that has never been touched before. Horror films are becoming increasingly pioneering in their objectives.