Beyond the boundaries of jump scare: OTT platforms and the discourse of elevated horror
Faculty Advisor
Date
2025
Keywords
horror films, 21st century, jump-scare methodology, revival of horror
Abstract (summary)
The way horror films attract audiences from all over the world reflects a universality tethered to the genre’s structural identity that depends on transgressive acts that produce fear. Horror fans are audiences whose existence is defined by this affinity to explore the realm of fear and the thrilling experience derived from it. But what really satisfies a horror fan? Is it the occasional viewing of narratives that offer repetitive “out of the blue” jump scares or the experiments that try to portray new formats of horror? In the present time, it is not only the structural changes but the medium of distribution that affects the viewing experience of horror.
In the 21st century, one can find horror films that do not follow the typical jump-scare methodology to evoke fear getting more attention than those that adhere to it. (Changes in the media environment and global entertainment industry have led to such productions receiving more recognition and appreciation on an international level. An emerging context where perspectives and stories from non-Western worlds gain visibility has both challenged and redefined the attitude of horror in general. The most observable aspect of this is arguably the deconstruction of the emotion of fear. Questions related to what constitutes fear and what contributes to its construction are essential to a more critical definition of horror, and more crucially they add insights into the renegotiations that surround its redefinitions. Subgenres like techno-horror, ecohorror, and body horror have found new relevance in the changing social, cultural, and political scenarios, and their significance is more pronounced in terms of the psychological effect they produce. Real-life conflicts associated with technological expansion, ecological degradation, global disasters, and violence related to gender, race, and religion are traumatizing enough to nourish fear, and horror based on such tears affects the mental health of characters. Some critics define the 2010s as the decade of “grief horror,”' where the portrayal of psychological degradation through narratives that emphasize loss and grief contextualizes a new mode of elevated horror cinema that focuses on evaluating imminent threats of suffering that do not merely come from the external but, on the contrary, are part of the psyche of the subject who suffers.- Films like The Babadook (2014), It Tollows (2014), The Witch (2013), Mother! (2017), Hereditary (2018), Midsommar (2019), and The Lighthouse (2019) are noted for their treatment of subjects different from the conventional Western notions of horror. Such films often experiment with the genre of psychological horror and can be cited as examples of the “revival of horror” with a new ideology of horror that goes deep into discussions about topics rather than just scaring the spectator with momentary cheap thrills.
Publication Information
Raj, S. J. & Suresh, A. K. (2025). Beyond the boundaries of jump scare: OTT platforms and the discourse of elevated horror. In S. Petridis (Ed.), Streaming horrors: Essays on the genre in the digital age. McFarland.
DOI
Notes
Item Type
Book Chapter
Language
Rights
All Rights Reserved