Horror, where to next? (On to the fantastical!)

     I'm not precisely sure where the horror genre is progressing to but I have a few speculations. I assume people are still slowing losing their interest in the supernatural and the spiritual. I'm thinking the horror genre will start to bleed more and more into other genres like sci-fi and fantasy instead of staying purely gothic. I enjoy the gothic, but I find that the genre can too easily become corny. Incorporating the gothic formula into more believable scenarios would be a better choice. In fantasy, horror is subtlely manifesting into magical realism like in Harry Potter or any film from Guillermo del Toro. In SciFi, horror could potentially blast off knowing the way tech is advancing nowadays. With every new technological advancement and political movement, new horror scenarios are almost... expected. The horror genre, like any genre, tries to hang on to its demographic by appealing to current events and ways of thinking. We have to ask ourselves, what are we afraid of, and what are other people afraid of currently to predict how the horror genre may evolve.

     In North America, people seem to be afraid of artificial intelligence, corrupt politics, and old-school sci-fi horrors coming to life. The Purge films are taking on the horrors of the Trump administration with deportation and the horrors of exclusion. Black Mirror is playing with all sorts of sci-fi like transhumanism and sentient artificial intelligence. My favorite idea though for sci-fi horror is to the past, the 1950s. The horrors of 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, all could potentially come true. The horrors of mass surveillance are possible through the NSA, or any corporation, with the mass amounts of cameras and microphones in our devices. The hound from Fahrenheit 451 could potentially be created by using Boston Dynamics Big Dog robot their Cheetah robot. Just add syringes full of sedatives to the robot and have them hunt people down! There are countless possibilities of where horror could go, but the old school sci-fi route, to me, is the most interesting possibility.