Modern day horror has evolved further than we think.
The genre of horror has sparked controversy on its own. Explicit content, intentionally harrowing and inhuman themes and plot lines- the amplification of the things we already fear most. In books, film, television serials and more, it seems as though there is always an audience looking for a good rush of adrenaline.
Aside from supernatural beings and creatures such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula or the Duffer Brother’s Demogorgon from hit Netflix show Stranger Things, there is a long list of entertainment oriented media based on the fears sparked by technology and how it is rapidly developing- or simply how we use it.
From Ray Bradbury’s There Will Come Soft Rains to the entire basis of the Black Mirror franchise, we see the use of technology being used with inherently negative and concerning connotations- and this brings up the observation and question as to how far the use of technology as a horror theme really goes, and more specifically in this modern generation, how social media is the new Bloody Mary.
The definition of social media is as tricky and serpentine as the definition of horror or a horror movie- the pair together allow room for a range of different media being labelled as one or the other. “A horror film is one that seeks to elicit fear in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films additionally aim to evoke viewers' nightmares, fears, revulsions and terror of the unknown and macabre,” states Wikipedia on the true meaning of a horror movie. Buzz-phrases in this definition include ‘elicit fear’ and ‘unknown and macabre’.
The term social media is used loosely now, as is the term ‘scary movie’; the true definition and criteria required for a platform to be considered a social media is detailed as a web/internet based site or application which enables users to share concepts, build connections/network, share information, and communicate- while this is not a cohesive list, this definition is apt for the term in the way it is used by moviemakers.
In the last three decades, the theatres have been hit with groundbreaking scary movies over and over again.
There are quite a few movies such as Unfriended, The Den, and Nerve that raise a few good questions concerning how social media works, how it is utilised, additionally how it shapes involvement. For instance, the movie Unfriended gives us a peek into cyberbullying. The movie revolves around a group of teenagers named Blaire, Mitch, Jess, Adam, and Val, who take part in an online group chat session- they are abruptly joined by a user with the display name "Billie227." Considering it's a technical glitch, the friends carry on their discussion, until Blaire starts getting messages from somebody claiming to be Laura Horse Shelters, a classmate who committed suicide precisely one year earlier. As Blaire tries to uncover Billie's character, her friends are constrained to stand up to their darkest privileged insights and lies. This is the evolution of the ‘stranger danger’ teaching, where one now no longer has to worry about a strange man offering their child sweets and kidnapping them alone, but also about the spread of personal information being leaked, explicit images, ‘grooming’, cyberbullying, and even manipulation to do terrible things- as seen by the internet craze ‘blue whale’.
The use of social media in horror movies often revolve around the key fears of invasion of privacy, sexual abuse and human trafficking, pedophilia, blackmail, addiction, and the specifics that come with being stalked. All very real-life monsters that might have a much harsher effect on the audience than a possessed doll- solely due to the fact that these things can happen to absolutely anyone, and can be amplified by the usage of social media. In contrast to older horror films involving nuclear threats and metaphors for unemployment and immigration, this new set of films reflect the sudden ability to track, locate, see, hear, and learn about a person miles away from you through the tap of a few buttons. These new age horror movies mirror the fears brought on by the existence of social media and the human nature to be social and want to socialise. This is where we see the gruesome dark side of the internet, which can hardly be called an exaggeration.
With the more generic idea of social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat we see this more popular type of social media enter the playing field in Black Mirror- a Netflix Series dedicated to futuristic hypothetical concepts- and how they can go south. Extremely south. In episode two of series five, titled Smithereens, the plot explores the use of social media and how much can hide behind a password. It also delves into the similar tones of kidnapping and suicide as seen before, but also brings to the table a more surveillance based plotline, where the social media app in the show (titled Smithereens as well) provides data and information about their users.
This concept of a data leak causing turmoil is one that reflects very real cases in our lives today, in light of the Facebook Data Leak, where countless users’ information and personal data was acquired without consent so they could be shown political advertisements. This is an example of a corporate breach of privacy, although one of the more hard-hitting examples would be the act of ‘doxxing’- a federal offence where a person’s exact location and information is published to the public, inherently making them vulnerable to anyone with malicious intent.
As a real life issue, these things translate into horror films in very specific and more relatable ways; usually in the form of a stalker.
In light of the dangers of social media, a case highlighted in the media back in 2012 outlines how a teenager named Amanda Todd committed suicide - due to a horrible situation with cyberbullying. Being only 12, she was being used by an older male that threatened her to show her body in an online webcam chat in order to prevent her parents from getting killed. When those images were leaked, Amanda kept receiving endless hate comments and threats from almost all social media platforms. This history would haunt her and keep rising to the surface, no matter how many times she moved. Furthermore, she didn’t just get bullied online, but in real life as well- after this incident, she decided to publish a video on YouTube explaining her story to the whole world, in particular emphasising cyber-bullying which was quite new to people back in the days.
Today this video spreads awareness and helps us understand the dangers of social media and how precautious we should be when publishing certain content by making our profiles public.
Though many of the functions of social media services preserve and control established socio-cultural and political norms, they also possess the inherent capability to distort our sense of society just enough to allow instances of horror to slip through.
So, is social media the new bloody Bloody Mary?
Look in the mirror. What do you do on the internet?
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