Postmodern horror is ahorror film related to the art and philosophy ofpostmodernism including self-awareness of certain cliches and tropes to the point of parody. Examples of this type of film includeGeorge A. Romero'sNight of the Living Dead,Tobe Hooper'sThe Texas Chain Saw Massacre,John Carpenter'sslasher filmHalloween, andWes Craven'sScream.

Postmodern horror, which emerged in the turbulent 1960s and 1970s, is defined by several key characteristics. These include the disruption of everyday life through violence, the crossing and violation of boundaries, and a critique of rationality as a reliable framework. It also rejects traditional narrative closure, instead offering open-ended or unresolved storytelling. Additionally, it creates a confined experience of fear for the audience, fostering a sense of immersion.^[1]

Examples of this include the famous "rules of surviving a horror movie" speech fromWes Craven's 1996slasher filmScream and the self-aware characters (including the main protagonist) slowly realizing they're living the plot of one in the 1990 precursorThere's Nothing Out There.^[2][3][4][5]

• Psycho (1960)^[1]
• Spider Baby (1967)^[6]
• Night of the Living Dead (1968)^[7][1][8][9]
• Targets (1968)^[1]
• The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)^[1][9]
• House (1977)^[10]
• Halloween (1978)^[1]
• Dawn of the Dead (1978)^[11]
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)^[12]
• The Brood (1979)^[1]
• The Shining (1980)^[13]
• The Evil Dead (1981)^[14]
• The Howling (1981)^[15][1]
• The Entity (1982)^[1]
• The Thing (1982)^[1]
• Videodrome (1983)^[1]
• The Toxic Avenger (1984)^[16]
• A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)^[1][9]
• Re-Animator (1985)^[1]
• Fright Night (1985)^[17]
• Chopping Mall (1986)^[1]
• Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)^[1]
• Evil Dead II (1987)^[18][14]
• Beetlejuice (1988)^[19]
• Lady in White (1988)^[1]
• Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)^[20][21]
• Candyman (1992)^[8]
• The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)^[22]
• Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)^[17][23]
• From Dusk till Dawn (1996)^[24]
• Scream (1996)^{[25][26][27][28][17][24]}
• I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)^[29]
• Bride of Chucky (1998)^[30]
• The Blair Witch Project (1999)^[24]
• American Psycho (2000)^[24]
• Final Destination (2000)^[24]
• Scary Movie (2000)^[29]
• Party Monster (2003)^[31]
• Shaun of the Dead (2004)^[24]
• Drag Me to Hell (2009)^[24]
• The Cabin in the Woods (2012)^[17][24]
• ParaNorman (2012)^[32]
• Hotel Transylvania (2012)^[33]
• The Final Girls (2015)^[34]
• Get Out (2017)^[35]
• Us (2019)^[36]
• Midsommar (2019)^[37]
• Last Night in Soho (2021)^[38]
• Nope (2022)^[39]
• Late Night with the Devil (2023)^[40]

• Prince, StephenThe Horror Film, Rutgers University Press 2012

• Postmodern art
• 1960s in film
• 1970s in film
• 1980s in film
• 1990s in film
• 2000s in film
• 2010s in film
• 2020s in film
• Film genres
• Horror films by genre
• 2010s in animation

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from February 2023