Horror for Teens Is Not Horrible
The scariest beasts are those left to the imagination: In the darkened corners of a room, in the vacuum of space — terror tends to lurk in the periphery, where it taunts us with what we do not (or worse, cannot) know. One unfairly maligned horror-movie feature, when used wisely, can aid with such artful restraint: the humble PG-13 rating.
Many horror nerds look down on the PG-13 scary movie, viewing it as watered-down or wimpy. These fans often turn genre viewing into a contest in which the one who can stomach (or even delight in) the most deviant content wins: You cannot call yourself a real horror fan unless you have seen all three sequences of “The Human Centipede.”
Yes, one of the most powerful things the genre can do is subvert social norms, and it is difficult to push boundaries when you are pitching to a broader or younger audience. But it is not impossible. Sam Raimi’s “Drag Me to Hell,” about a cursed loan officer, contains Mr. Raimi’s overthe-top camp sensibility, yet limits some of his signature gore. It opts for softer grossouts like bugs and vomit instead of heavy blood and guts, but it does not sacrifice impact.
The genre is a great tool for more than just provocation, though. The latest PG-13 horror from Blumhouse, “Imaginary,” plays with the perception of things that are seen but not heard, or heard but not seen — a figure just at the corner of a frame, a child responding to the directions of a sinister imaginary friend.
Milder horror is also well suited to the horror-comedy subgenre. A recent horror-comedy, “Lisa Frankenstein,” is a perfect example of tackling terrifying imagery with levity: The film lights up its murderous leads in neon, a bloodied ax topped with a glittering ’80s bow. Like many other horror-comedies, it is able to explore darker themes — teenage isolation, sexual assault and death — with a dash of humor that makes the sharpness of these subjects more approachable, but does not dull their edge.
But the paramount goal of PG-13 horror, and the reason it is often viewed with disdain, is to appeal to newcomers to the genre, namely teenagers. We
often view content marketed toward teens as not for adults, but in doing so we abandon young viewers to wade through the schlock on their own. It is time we stop asking for less PG-13 horror, and start asking for better PG-13 horror — no longer treating teenagers as the lowest common denominator.
The first horror movie I saw in theaters was the 2009 PG-13 remake of “The Stepfather” starring Penn Badgley. Is it a good film? No. But each tired trope was brand-new and electric to me at 13.
PG-13 horror movies are what enabled me, and hopefully a future generation of horror nerds, to embrace more and more of the genre. Sometimes it takes practice and repetition to become brave.