Portfolio Post 3 (Week 2): Culture Reflection

 How the Home Invasion Genre Reflects Culture and Societal Fears

        The emergence of home invasion movies began first in the 60s but has continued to flourish with modern day films such as Don't Breath, Hush, and the Purge Universe. Much of the subgenre's success and popularity can be tied to the political climate specifically starting in 2016. In relation to Donald Trump's political palapalooza one key factor of his campaign was his demonization of foreigners or more specifically immigrants that are residing in America without proper paperwork. His ability to make working class American's terrified of the unrealistic idea of foreigners invading upon their lives is reflected in the home invasion subgenre. Intruders quickly grew to the top of the list of fears for many citizens. Horror movie creators were able to recognize the opportunity and take advantage of what is hot and popular in the American social scene. White male actors, producers, directors, and writers seem to fill up spots in the writers room which further perpetuates the illustration of Caucasian's societal anxieties filling up the movie screen. 

        A common trope of home invasion movies, as seen in Funny Games (1997) or The Purge (2013), is a battle between classes where the antagonist is of working class decent whom decides to take out their built up rage against biased economic equity on the wealthy. Often times the protagonists end up defeating the lower middle class in some standoff between statuses that serves as a misconstrued, confusing, and immoral message that the upper-middle class remains superior. As Aja Romano wrote "Since the popular home invasion films Them (2006) and The Strangers (2008), horror film’s home invaders have usually donned creepy hoods or masks to carry out their terrorizing acts (as if having your home invaded wasn’t scary enough already). This extra fear factor seals the trope as basically a giant metaphor for xenophobia: fear of a faceless Other, a literal foreign element entering your self-contained domain." To conclude American's own biases and anxieties can be marketed into a horror subgenre based on what is trending in relevance to political agendas and whatever sellable commentary a film can produce.

Citations

Romano, A. (2016, December 21). Horror movies reflect cultural fears. in 2016, Americans feared invasion. Vox. Retrieved January 31, 2023, from https://www.vox.com/culture/2016/12/21/13737476/horror-movies-2016-invasion