The term “elevated horror” first arose in the early 2010s and rose in popularity later in the decade. Elevated horror takes a more artistic approach to horror; these movies may still have jump scares, but they rely on drama and an overarching theme or moral message, playing on the audience’s emotions to instill a sense of dread and fear. This subgenre of horror has continued rising in popularity with movies such as “Midsommar,” “The Witch,” “Hereditary,” “Get Out,” “The Lighthouse” and “Mother!” making cinematic waves.

While these movies may be good in their own right, an argument can be made that their label is quite the opposite. Elevated horror is also known as arthouse horror. This alternative label is perfectly fine and should be the one used, but that does not stop people from using the less acceptable label of elevated horror. The elevated horror label is steadily rising in popularity, perpetuated by critics in their reviews of the increasing number of arthouse horror films.

It may not be clear right away why there is a divide between people on a thing as tiny as a label. Why do some people take offense to movies being called elevated horror rather than arthouse horror when the same films are being discussed? Because it is not the films themselves being debated — some people like the more artistic approach while some do not, and that is okay either way. Rather, it is the fact that labeling some horror movies as elevated is demeaning to other horror movies that are excluded from this label.

Movies such as “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” “Scream,” “Halloween” and “Saw” are not considered elevated horror. Why? They rely on jump scares and gore in how they present themselves. Yet they are still extremely popular horror movies, all of which have spawned long-running franchises and all of which changed the horror genre in some way. 

But they are not elevated horror. This makes them feel less than what they are. This makes them seem like less thought was put into them, less effort, less everything. This makes them appear as if they have no message, though they do, and simply because their creators did not go about sharing this message in a longer, more complicated manner. They chose, instead, to rely on good old-fashioned fear. Both of these methods are valid and good in their unique ways, but only one of them is widely respected. 

Blood and guts are beloved by many horror fans, but they are considered a simplistic way of getting basic reactions — disgust, revulsion, maybe a little bit of fear —  but nothing that sticks around. They are not thought to have a long-lasting impact like elevated horror is. Audiences do not go into those movies believing they will still be thinking about what they saw and felt months later. But that is not always the case, just like audiences do not always walk out of elevated horror films feeling a consequential impact.

Everybody is impacted by different things. For some, a more artistic approach is necessary. For others, more old-fashioned techniques are enough. So why is there a need to label one in a way that makes it seem better than the other? Not only does this condescend less artistic, but still valid, approaches to horror, it shames the audience that prefers the standard jump scare approach for loving a “less than” method.

It feels as if the people who first used the term elevated horror rather than arthouse horror thought themselves better for their specific taste in horror than people who are perfectly content watching jump scares. While this would be very difficult to prove, that is the way it feels, and most people who dislike this label probably feel the same way.

Another interesting thing about calling a film elevated horror, besides the elitist and pretentious nature of the label, is that it almost seems like people use that term to degrade horror in general. It is as if they do not like horror but recognize that the film was certainly a horror film; therefore, they label it as elevated to separate it from the supposedly inferior horror genre in its entirety.

Arthouse horror movies can be good. Old-fashioned jump scare horror movies can be good. There is no need to pretentiously place one over the other. Instead of calling films elevated horror, let us all call them what they are — horror films. If we have to put them in a subgenre, let it be arthouse horror.