Editing Horror film (section)

== Reception ==

=== In film criticism ===
{{See also|Vulgar auteurism}}
Critic [[Robin Wood (critic)|Robin Wood]] was not the first film critic to take the horror film seriously, but his article ''Return of the Repressed'' in 1978 helped inaugurate the horror film into academic study as a genre.{{sfn|Peirse|Martin|2013|p=7}} Wood later stated that he was surprised that his work, as well as the writing of Richard Lippe and Andrew Britton would receive "historic importance" intellectual views of the film genre.{{sfn|Peirse|Martin|2013|p=7}} William Paul in his book ''Laughing Screaming'' comments that "the negative definition of the lower works would have it that they are less subtle than higher genres. More positively, it could be said that they are more direct. Where lower forms are explicit, higher forms tend to operate more by indirection. Because of this indirection the higher forms are often regarded as being more metaphorical, and consequently more resonant, more open to the exegetical analyses of the academic industry."{{sfn|Paul|1994|p=32}}

Steffen Hantke noted that academic criticism about horror cinema had "always operated under duress" noting that challenges in legitimizing its subject, finding "career-minded academics might have always suspected that they were studying something that was ultimately too frivolous, garish, and sensationalistic to warrant serious critical attention".{{sfn|Hantke|2007}}

Some commentary has suggested that horror films have been underrepresented or underappreciated as serious works worthy of [[film criticism]] and major films awards.<ref>{{cite web |last=Barber|first=Nicholas|title=Is horror the most disrespected genre?|url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180614-is-horror-the-most-disrespected-genre|access-date=2021-12-20|publisher=BBC|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Davis|first=Clayton|date=2020-10-02|title=Horror and the Academy: 13 Times the Oscars Could Have Embraced the Genre|url=https://variety.com/2020/film/awards/academy-awards-horror-movies-the-exorcist-1234786184/|access-date=2021-12-20|website=Variety|language=en-US}}</ref> As of 2025, only seven horror films have been nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Picture]], with [[The Silence of the Lambs (film)|''The Silence of the Lambs'']] being the sole winner.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-01-23 |title=Oscars 2025: Is the Academy finally taking horror seriously? |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/oscars-2025-academy-taking-horror-seriously/ |access-date=2025-01-23 |website=faroutmagazine.co.uk |language=en-US}}</ref> However, horror films have still won major awards.<ref>{{cite web |date=2020-02-25|title=15 Horror Films That Won Major Awards|url=https://screenrant.com/horror-films-won-major-awards-get-out-rosemarys-baby/|access-date=2021-12-20|website=ScreenRant|language=en-US}}</ref>

Critics have also commented on the [[Gender in horror films|representation of women]]<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Linz|first1=Daniel G.|last2=Donnerstein|first2=Edward|author-link2=Edward Donnerstein|last3=Penrod|first3=Steven|year=1988|title=Effects of long-term exposure to violent and sexually degrading depictions of women.|url=http://doi.apa.org/getdoi.cfm?doi=10.1037/0022-3514.55.5.758|journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology|language=en|volume=55|issue=5|pages=758–768|doi=10.1037/0022-3514.55.5.758|pmid=3210143|issn=1939-1315}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Clover|first=Carol J.|date=1987-10-01|title=Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film|url=https://online.ucpress.edu/representations/article/doi/10.2307/2928507/82266/Her-Body-Himself-Gender-in-the-Slasher-Film|journal=Representations|language=en|volume=20|issue=20|pages=187–228|doi=10.2307/2928507|jstor=2928507|issn=0734-6018}}</ref><ref name="Spines">{{cite magazine|last=Spines|first=Christine|title=Chicks dig scary movies |url=https://www.ew.com/article/2009/07/24/chicks-dig-scary-movies|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|access-date=15 April 2012}}</ref><ref name="Nowell">{{cite journal|last1=Nowell|first1=Richard|year=2011|title='There's More Than One Way to Lose Your Heart': The American Film Industry, Early Teen Slasher Films, and Female Youth|journal=Cinema Journal|volume=51|issue=1|pages=115–140|doi=10.1353/cj.2011.0073|jstor=41342285|s2cid=144874450 |id={{Gale|A277106285}}}}</ref> and [[Disability in horror films|disability]]<ref>{{Citation |last=Sutton |first=Travis |title=Avenging the Body: Disability in the Horror Film |date=2014-09-09 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118883648.ch5 |work=A Companion to the Horror Film |pages=73–89 |editor-last=Benshoff |editor-first=Harry M. |edition=1 |publisher=Wiley |language=en |doi=10.1002/9781118883648.ch5 |isbn=978-0-470-67260-0 |access-date=2022-09-30}}</ref> in horror films, as well as the [[Race in horror films|prevalence of racial stereotypes]].<ref>{{cite web |date=2019-02-07|title=From Blacula to Get Out: the documentary examining black horror|url=http://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/feb/07/horror-noire-documentary-black-horror|access-date=2021-12-21|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Means Coleman|first=Robin R.|url=http://archive.org/details/horrornoireblack0000mean|title=Horror noire : blacks in American horror films from the 1890s to present|date=2011|publisher=New York : Routledge|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-415-88019-0}}</ref>

=== Censorship ===
{{Expand section|date=January 2022}}
Many horror films have been the subject of [[moral panic]], [[Film censorship|censorship]] and legal controversy.

In the United Kingdom, [[Film censorship in the United Kingdom|film censorship]] has frequently been applied to horror films.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kermode|first=Mark|chapter=The British censors and horror cinema|date=2001|chapter-url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203996768-5/british-censors-horror-cinema-mark-kermode|title=British Horror Cinema|publisher=Routledge|doi=10.4324/9780203996768|isbn=978-0-203-99676-8|access-date=2021-12-22|editor=Steve Chibnall, Julian Petley}}</ref> A moral panic over several [[Slasher film|slasher]] films in the 1980s led to many of them being banned but released on videotape; the phenomenon became popularly termed "[[Video nasty|video nasties]]".<ref>{{cite web |date=2014-07-11|title=Film censorship: How moral panic led to a mass ban of 'video nasties'|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/film-censorship-how-moral-panic-led-to-a-mass-ban-of-video-nasties-9600998.html|access-date=2021-12-22|website=The Independent|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Looking Back at Britain's Moral Panic Over Slasher Flicks|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/video-nasty-frankie-mullin-045/|access-date=2021-12-22|website=Vice (magazine)|date=9 December 2014 |language=en}}</ref> Constraints on permitted subject matter in [[Cinema of Indonesia|Indonesian films]] has also influenced [[Indonesian horror|Indonesian horror films]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Heeren|first=Katinka van|date=2007-06-01|title=Return of the Kyai: representations of horror, commerce, and censorship in post-Suharto Indonesian film and television|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13583880701238688|journal=Inter-Asia Cultural Studies|volume=8|issue=2|pages=211–226|doi=10.1080/13583880701238688|s2cid=145086314|issn=1464-9373}}</ref> In March 2008, [[Film censorship in China|China banned]] all horror films from its market.<ref>[http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/shdaily_opinion.asp?id=353593&type=Opinion China Bans Horror Movies] – ''Shanghai Daily'', March 2008.</ref>

In the U.S., the [[Motion Picture Production Code]] which was implemented in 1930, set moral guidelines for film content, restraining movies containing controversial themes, graphic violence, explicit sexuality and/or nudity. The gradual abandonment of the Code, and its eventual formal repeal in 1968 (when it was replaced by the [[Motion Picture Association of America film rating system|MPAA film rating system]])<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hunt |first1=Kristin |title=The End of American Film Censorship |url=https://daily.jstor.org/end-american-film-censorship/ |website=JSTOR Daily |access-date=June 30, 2022 |date=February 28, 2018}}</ref> offered more freedom to the movie industry.