In recent years, we’ve seen countless genre mashups in the superhero world – Logan’s a western, Guardians of the Galaxy’s a space opera, Spider-Man: Homecoming’s a high school comedy – but, Blade and Hellboy aside, there have still been very few in the way of superhero horror films.
That’s set to change. With Venom and Neil Marshall’s Hellboy on the way and New Mutants promising to be the start of a trilogy of superhero horror films, Hollywood is finally embracing the dark side of the superhero myth. Let’s take it a step further and look at some horror subgenres that would work in a superhero film.
Body Horror
This has got to be the obvious one. From Hulk to Wolverine, so many family favorite heroes feature horrendous body modification. 2015’s failed Fantastic Four reboot was pitched as a Cronenbergian body horror; but, whatever happened during production, that certainly wasn’t the movie we got. Take a werewolf movie or The Fly-style approach, and you’ve got the perfect disturbing vehicle for a metamorphosing character.
Kaiju Monster Movie
Picture a kaiju attack in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The rest of the Avengers are off-world, so it’s down to Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man’s alternative form, Giant-Man, to take on the rampaging monster. In sports movie style, he keeps losing each bout, to the point that he has to risk his life and go bigger than ever before in the final showdown. This would also be a chance for a cinematic universe superhero film to finally play up the civilian aspect and tell part of the story from an onlooker’s perspective.
Animal Monster Movie
Another villain-inspired approach would be to take one of the mutated animal rogues and craft a Jaws-like animal monster movie. The CW’s The Flash has pitted Barry Allen against both Gorilla Grodd and King Shark, but it’s about time an animal antagonist graced the big screen. Something small-scale that played up the escalating terror of a predator attacking a small community would deliver on the horror in a way the Arrowverse’s beat ‘em ups have lacked.
Serial Killer Film
Batman may be the world’s greatest detective, but he’s never been given the full detective versus serial killer film treatment. Even when he was tracking down the Joker with interrogation and ballistics in The Dark Knight, we always knew the clues would eventually lead back to The Clown Prince of Crime. But, what if someone were to make a Se7en-esque Batman film. It would suit the Bat’s introspection, and finally deliver a classic film noir version of the character, in contrast to Christopher Nolan’s Heat-like neo-noir take.
Supernatural Film
Reframe Carrie as a teen supervillain (or antihero) origin story. Deliver a similar slow buildup to really delve into the character before some kind of trauma triggers their psychic powers in the third act. On the flip side, a slasher film set-up could activate supernatural powers to defeat the killer and create a vigilante horror hero. It worked well in Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood.
Admittedly, most of these films wouldn’t necessarily suit a mega-budget superhero tentpole – especially if they fully embraced their violent roots – but, seeing as though studios seem so thirsty for spin-off potential, I think using the horror genre to craft lower budget side stories would bring fresh blood to the superhero movie. As always, there’s just so much Hollywood can learn from our genre.