#Alan Moore on the Call to Action of “Modernist Horror”

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• Meg Shields
• July 29, 2020

Here’s writer Alan Moore with a definition of “Modernist Horror” and a compelling case for why genre film can be a call to action.

Fear defines horror, as a genre. In a literal sense that can mean things like a fear of chainsaws, home invasion, or knife-wielding men who wear Captain Kirk masks. But, if you look deeper, subdermal spooks speak to deep-set concerns we have as a species: a fear of what we’ve done, of what we’re doing, and of course, what we’ll do.

The term “modern horror” is sometimes deployed casually to mean “any horror movie that came out in the last ten years.” I’ve also seen it appear erroneously as a stand-in for “elevated horror.” But, when Watchmen author Alan Moore describes “modern horror” in a 2015 interview with John Higgs, he means “modernist horror.” And by modernist horror, he means a horror directed squarely at the future — a time when humanity will be able to organize all of its knowledge and either embrace illumination or flee into the reassuring shadows.

The video essay below pairs Alan Moore’s ominous definition with clips from future-facing horror like THX 1138, Videodrome, and Hardware. The result is both an evocative visual accompaniment to Moore’s description, and a chilling call to action. A reminder that “modernist” horrorshows do not always stay on the screen.

Watch “Modern Horror“:

Who made this?

Film editor and writer Benjamin Shearn created this video. His last feature, Ladyworld, screened at BFI London, Fantastic Fest, and TIFF: Next Wave, and it was presented as part of the Frontieres Showcase at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. This specific video, narrated by Alan Moore, is a part of Sheran’s new video essay series “Driftless Significance.”

More Videos Like This

• Here are some other entries in Driftless Significance: “On the Importance of Exploding Heads” and “Paul Verhoeven, A Celebration“
• A lot of what Moore says about “modernist horror” reminds me of the science fiction of the 1970s. It’s a subgenre whose brutal pessimism frequently careens into a horror-adjacent territory. Last fall, the Criterion Channel hosted a ’70s sci-fi collection, the trailer for which serves as a solid introduction and syllabus on where to start as far as the subgenre is concerned.
• Here’s the full 23-minute interview with Alan Moore (there’s a lot of Lovecraft talk)