Nostalgia or Horror's Downfall? How Modern Movies Set in the Past Are Failing the Genre

The first ever horror movie dates back to the 1800s with the title “Le Manoir du Diable" or The House of the Devil. Directed by Georges Méliès in 1896, the film has plenty of ghosts, devils, and other scary figures embodying what in the past was seen as horror. In 2025 standards, it isn’t exactly a top pick and may be seen as more whimsical than terrifying, but it shows the start of horror and how much it has developed since. The 70s was the era that brought what many think is still considered horror, but is actually its own sub-genre called slasher movies. What is the difference, you may ask? Well, not much. Saying bye to ghosts and goblins and hello to real-life nightmares and senseless violence that has left kids running from opening scenes through the decades. While some of my top picks are from the 70s and 80s, like John Carpenter's Halloween, Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Wes Craven's Nightmare, and Sleepaway Camp. The ones that more people lean towards are often from the 90s and 2000s. Take movies like Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Urban Legend as prime examples. While they are classics, they seem to be resurfacing in a way that's questionable and harming the genre.

Hell of a Summer

In April 2025 it was released by directors Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk and immediately gained traction because of Wolfhard's prior success from the 2017 movie It and the Netflix series Stranger Things. Hell of a Summer is a modern take on Summer camp slasher films like Friday the 13th and Sleep Away Camp. It does a spot-on take of the masked killer picking off victims one by one in a creepy summer camp setting. But it takes just about all of the charm out of the idea and makes it all cheesy with the Gen Z humor and casting. While there's no doubt that Wolfhard is a decent actor, many are questioning if he should have been cast in his own movie. Or if the young actor should put the director hat down altogether. 

There are no establishing shots, no gradual build of suspense. But then, there are also no jokes, and the methods used to kill these characters pack no ironic punch --- Jarrod Jones

Y2K

Y2K is a well-cast movie with a badly developed plot line. It is a movie based on the 2000s irrational fear that upcoming technology would take over jobs and overall affect life in a negative way. While not inaccurate, it is as exaggerated as it can get. Throughout the movie, everyone's machines rise up and turn against them. It is a call back to Stephen King's 1986 Maximum Overdrive, but it is once again lacking all the charm and desire that anyone would ever have to watch it. Personally, I've never seen the movie and I never will, considering its 2.5/5 letterboxd rating, but I'm sure with Jaden Martell's acting skills, and Eduardo Franco's humor, it's someone's guilty pleasure.

It is, at best, ironically stupid, in the Ed Wood Jr vein. But ironically stupid remains, for the rest of the films agonisingly unfunny and unscary running time, stupid. --- Kevin Maher

Totally Killer & Time Cut

Both movies are callbacks to the 90s slasher Scream and the 2017 Horror movie Happy Death Day. Personally, I enjoyed the way that Time Cut was made. The movie did a wonderful job of making a slasher without overdoing it on the cliches that are usually found in slasher movies. The characters aren't just ditsy nobodies, and the storyline goes beyond what's actually happening. It isn't a romanticized version of the early 2000s, and many say it took them right back. Madison Bailey, most known from Outer Banks, and Antonia Gentry from Ginny & Georgia both did an outstanding job playing main characters from different times and acting accordingly. While I enjoyed Griffin Gluck's performance as playing two different versions of himself, I absolutely hated the plot twist and ending. Even if you enjoy Time Cut, you can't deny the fact that the 2024 movie is the exact same movie as the 2023 film Totally Killer. Time Cut has a main character in the future who lives in a town with a past of a tragedy and a serial killer who murdered their family member. The main character goes back in time to stop the deaths. Totally Killer has a main character whose family member was almost killed, and when the killer comes back, the main character goes back in time to stop them. It's a good idea, but not when it's suffocated by Gen Z humor, especially when it's used twice in the span of a year; that's when it's making a joke of a genre.

Recently I was scrolling through Netflix and came across a new movie, “Time Cut.” But when I read the description I felt déjà vu. didn’t I watch this movie last year? No, that was Amazon Prime’s “Totally Killer” which essentially has the same plot. --- Neve Wilson

Fear Street Series

The Fear Street series is one that I have nothing bad to say about regarding its take on older movies. Fear Street 1994, of course, has moments where it's based on '90s slashers. It does a good job on the masked killer teenage victim's idea that is well-known in slashers. Fear Street 1978 immediately goes for the summer camp setting that came about in the 70s with the Friday the 13th saga, and throughout it all, it never strays away from the lingering threat of the witch and Ruby Lane, which does an amazing job leading you right into the 3rd movie. Fear Street 1666, which is where we learn how the tale of the witch started, and has all of the period typical witch fear that was very much true and alive in Salem at the time. In a way, Fear Street is a modern version of Goosebumps for me, and personally I think it's a good way to get younger kids into the genre. While Fear Street was originally supposed to be a trilogy, we are expecting Fear Street: Prom Queen next month and hopefully many more to come.