The Horror Cycle

The theory behind the 'Horror Cycle' is the idea that as a specific style of horror film is outdated and becomes predictable, another style replaces this to keep the audiences of the horror genre unexpectant and interested so that they continue to keep watching new horror films. This then becomes a cycle as there are only a certain amount of ways in which a horror film can be manipulated into becoming a new type of horror, so film makers use history for ideas using a style which hasn't been around for many years to create  new interesting story lines and narratives with old styles of horror. An example of this theory would be how during the 1970s horror films adapted to the style of gore with films such as 'Driller Killer' and 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'. This is because previous styles used the conventions of 'monsters' and other genres like 'Sci Fi' to create a new type of 'fear' which drawed in the interests of horror audiences. As time has passed and more ways of creating 'fear' in horror developed, the decade of the 2000s then brought 'gore' back as a trend in horror films with films such as the 'Saw' movies. Film makers of 'Saw'  brought this style back in the 2000s as typical conventions of horror  in years just before  the 2000s had moved away from 'gore' to styles of 'teen horror' and 'dreams', so the film makers and producers saw this a way of creating new interest in gore as it was different from current trends in horror which were becoming predictable. This is then an example of the horror cycle because as time passes and horror films are being produced, trends in horror become predictable and loose audiences interest so previous trends are reintroduced to revive the audiences interest in horror.