For those in Gen Z, life can be a bit of a monster — an uncertain economy, regular school shootings, a global pandemic.
That’s why, with “Obsession” and “Backrooms,” they have twice recently been lured to the theater with the promise of made-for-them scares — a reminder of how hard but satisfying it can be when filmmakers dream up horrors for a generation stuck in a nightmare reality.
“The genre of horror has kind of shifted with Gen Z, where it’s exploring some darker real life concepts sometimes rather than just the gore and things like that,” Lauren Cook, a therapist and author of “Generation Anxiety: A Millennial and Gen Z Guide for Staying Afloat in Uncertain Times,” said.
“Obsession,” to be fair, has plenty of gore.
How can a plotline about a man (Michael Johnston) who wishes upon a magical toy branch for the unrequited love of his life (Indie Navarrette) to return his affections not involve some blood?
But the film, directed by 26-year-old YouTuber Curry Baker, also hits on deeper themes, including red pill culture that promotes the idea that men now live in a world that is systemically biased against them, calls for an end of feminism and longs for a return to what they perceive as traditional values.
There is also more than meets the eye in “Backrooms,” directed by Gen Z filmmaker Kane Parsons. The psychological horror film starring Chiwetel Ejiofor is about a furniture store owner who descends into his own heart of darkness in his shop. Inspired by Parsons’ YouTube series, it delves into themes of isolation, trauma and limiting possibilities, terms familiar to Gen Z.
“They enjoy the honesty that horror can bring. It’s not trying to sugarcoat things,” Cook said about Gen Z. “They can sit with that morbidity a little bit more than maybe previous generations have, where they want to plaster things and put a smile on it and I think that’s actually a strength.”
Those who were born roughly between 1997 to 2012 have had to wrestle with a lot of scary stuff.
The 2008 financial crisis served as an economic backdrop to their childhoods and a bleak job market, outlooked even bleaker thanks to AI, is their current reality. Then there were climate catastrophes like Hurricane Katrina, the normalization of active shooter drills at their schools and a worldwide pandemic. It’s been a lot.
Hollywood still thinks they can put a fright into them and is doing so in a way that is resonating deeply with that generation of moviegoers, according to Kaitlyn Ruano, a 23-year-old high school teacher who analyzes movies and TV on her site The Drama Drive-In.
Every generation, she explained, seems to be defined by their own horror subgenre — from the slashers of the 70s to movies like “The Craft” that came out during the “Satanic panic” of the 80s and 90s.
According to A24, the studio behind “Backrooms,” Parsons is the youngest filmmaker in Hollywood history to release a film that finished No. 1 at the weekend box office after Gen Z helped it rake in about $80 million in North America and $120 million worldwide during it’s opening weekend.
“Obsession,” backed by Focus Features and Blumhouse Productions, captured the No. 2 spot that weekend and has made close to $150 million since its debut on May 15 – an astronomical sum in light of the fact that the film only cost about $750,000 to make.
Both films success is in total harmony with Generation Z’s penchant for buzzy, curiosity-piquing content — see “Severance” as one example — that goes viral and brings audiences online to discuss.
“Obsession,” backed by Focus Features and Blumhouse Productions, captured the No. 2 spot that weekend and has made close to $150 million since its debut on May 15 – an astronomical sum in light of the fact that the film only cost about $750,000 to make.
Both films success is in total harmony with Generation Z’s penchant for buzzy, curiosity-piquing content — see “Severance” as one example — that goes viral and brings audiences online to discuss.
