Editorials
8 Terrifying Uses of Technology in Horror Films!
We are all incredibly reliant on technology. Be it cell phones, social media, television or even our own automobiles, we use technology every day. It makes perfect sense that horror films would use technology against us in an effort to scare us. Here are eight films that used technology as the focus of at least one major scare (or even centered the whole plot around it).
A Nightmare on Elm Street – Telephones (Land Lines)
Leave it to Wes Craven to turn a land line into one of Freddy Krueger’s nightmarish playthings. While the mouth-phone may not be deadly, it certainly provides quite a shock (and a little bit of playfulness) to the proceedings.
Ringu – VHS Tapes
Ringu really used VHS and televisions to scare the crap out of people in 1998. You think you’re going in to watch a movie about a cursed tape and then BAM! Out comes Sadako from the TV screen and you’re scarred for life. I would argue that the 2002 American remake is even scarier, but that seems to be a point of contention with many horror fans.
One Missed Call – Telephones (Cellular)
Takashi Miike’s One Missed Call may have come after the phenomenons that are Ringu and Ju-On, but it is no less frightening. In his 2003 horror film, victims receive a voicemail on their cell phones dated two days in the future. The voicemail is a recording of the victim’s own screams and eventual death. While the notion of a killer cell phone is a frightening one, the character’s deaths are also pretty twisted. The characters are killed in various ways, but the death always concludes with the victim spitting out a red candy and dialing a number on their cell phone. Natsumi’s (Kazue Fukiishi) death by contortion (below) is particularly gruesome.
Unfriended – Skype
Unfriended sure was a divisive movie, wasn’t it? While it’s not one that I would call scary, it was a helluva lot of fun! Sure, none of the characters were likable, but the whole point of the movie was to see these five awful teenagers meet gruesome ends. Be it by bleach, curling iron or blender, they all met some gory fates, and it was all by way of a ghost using Skype or some form of social media (it was nice to see a film actually use Facebook and not some $0.99 version like Bookface or something like that) against them. I don’t really understand the people who don’t enjoy this movie at least a little bit. It’s a bunch of millennials getting butchered by a social media ghost. What’s not to enjoy?
Kairo – The Internet
In case you couldn’t tell, Japanese horror was all about technology at the turn of the century. Kairo uses the internet to ignite one of the most depressing apocalypse stories ever told. In the film, ghosts enter the physical world through the internet, Upon coming into contact with these spirits, humans get a glimpse into the afterlife (it’s nothing but loneliness) and lose the will to live. They become nothing but black stains on the walls.
Videodrome – Television
David Cronenberg’s Videodrome is one messed up movie. Other than the fact that there’s a scene with a stomach-vagina-VCR hybrid, you get a living, breathing TV that draws you into its screen. In the film, the titular television series is supposedly being broadcast from Malaysia (but not really) and it depicts the brutal torture of people in a small room. It turns out that “Videodrome” carries a signal that causes viewers to develop a malignant brain tumor. Now that’s something that will make you never want to turn on your TV again.
Christine – Car
Leave it to Stephen King and John Carpenter to make a car terrifying (King would try this again just three years later with Maximum Overdrive). While the basic plot of Christine (a car is possessed by an evil spirit) is fairly silly, Carpenter is still able to make it somewhat scary.
The Den – Chatroulette
One of the biggest surprises of 2014 was The Den, an absolutely terrifying (and underrated) film about a graduate student (Melanie Papalia) who starts a Chatroulette-type social media site called “The Den” in an effort to talk to as many strangers as possible. It turns out that this isn’t the best idea, as she eventually witnesses a murder during one of her sessions and becomes the target of a psychotic killer(s). You’ll never want to video chat again.
“Elevated Horror.” Of all the combinations in the English language, that one is the most insufferable.
It represents almost a decade of scary movies that, for the most part, took themselves too seriously. Horror responds to the moment, so its “why so serious” lean makes sense as we scuttle through the “worst of times” equation of Charles Dickens’ famous opening lines. But there’s still an opening and a need for a lighter approach; one that not only has fun with its audience but takes the piss out of a genre that is seemingly letting its newfound “respectability” go to its head.
Wes Craven believed devotees see horror films to let out their fears one primal scream at a time. At their core, these movies are roller coasters; they bring us as close to the edge as possible before pulling us back into a safety net of reality. The need for a bigger and badder coaster increases during times when the size of that net decreases.
There’s a thrill that comes from imagining being in a foot race with a madman, or outthinking the hordes of zombies on the other side of the door, plus the scavenger humans coming behind them. There’s even a rush that comes from imagining how one might deal with possession to see good triumph over evil in the end. It’s all about building tension and releasing it through catharsis. That cathartic release usually sounds like screams followed by laughter, which signals relief. Genre heavy hitters over the past 10 years offered very little of that respite when the credits rolled. Films like Hereditary, The Witch, Talk to Me, and even Smile (pick one) keep that tension going after the screen fades to black.
Hereditary
As the genre became obsessed with creating trauma metaphors, that lack of release made sense. Anyone with even a small sample size of traumatic experiences knows those emotions don’t magically resolve themselves in an allotted run time. But how much trauma can one take? Especially when there’s a mess going on outside that few of us can escape from. Movies offer that off-ramp, no matter how short.
Everything can’t be, nor should it be, “elevated.” Audiences need thoughtful explorations of life’s ills via monsters as much as they need murdering masked maniacs with kitchen knives. And no, it doesn’t have to go any deeper than that. Sometimes, a knife is just a knife, and it’s still worth our time and respect. As weird as it sounds, that simplicity is comforting not in spite of the trauma but because of it.
The worst of times should manifest more than just anguish. People need to laugh just as much as they need to think seriously about this moment in time. Even the Scream franchise forgot the meta rock upon which it built its church when the latest foray sacrificed the subtle comedy for serious drama. Scary Movie returned at the perfect moment. It provides the necessary laughs, but it’s not a cure-all.
This isn’t a call for Scary Movie imitators but a return to a mainstream landscape where Killer Klowns from Outer Space sat with The Serpent and the Rainbow, nestled neatly with the latest Nightmare on Elm Street, which took nothing away from The Vanishing.
They Live
Even They Live, John Carpenter’s horror sci-fi satire sandwich, kept its tongue firmly in cheek while discussing serious ideas still relevant in 2026. Yes, a film about aliens taking over the world through subliminal messaging only visible through coded sunglasses is, in fact, a tad silly. Carpenter understood that mainstream horror can’t become so self-important that it never looks itself in the mirror and laughs at that inherent silliness.
The thing is, horror historically excels at poking fun at itself. Most of the Scream franchise, The Cabin in the Woods, or The Blackening show adoration without kowtowing. They recognize tropes and trappings but invert them for an audience already in on the joke, but one that also finds solace in said conventions. This keeps the genre on its toes; once something gets parodied, it’s usually time to evolve. That breeds new ideas and fresh filmmakers, which not only strengthen the genre’s collective voice but also amplify it.
Get Out, as “elevated” as some critics want us to believe it is, is a cathartic, populist scary movie that spoke to an untapped audience rather than speaking down to them. Backrooms is one of the biggest horror hits in years, partially because it’s fine-tuned for modern-day teenagers instead of their parents. Movies like these tell everyone the genre is open for business; open for innovation and, yeah, open for new ways in which people can lovingly poke fun at with a wink and a nudge.
Horror needs dread as much as it needs laughter.
Catharsis is just as important as tension, and pulpy populism has the same merit as more high-brow material. Respectability shouldn’t come at the expense of an experience akin to walking through a haunted house. At a time when joy seems in short supply, horror should look to its past to map out its future, and make things just a tad brighter for audiences.
Backrooms
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