This CSS code defines a custom font family called “Guardian Headline Full” with multiple font weights and styles. It specifies the font files in different formats (WOFF2, WOFF, and TrueType) and their locations on the server. The font weights range from light (300) to semibold (600), each available in both normal and italic styles.This CSS code defines several font families for the Guardian Headline and Guardian Titlepiece fonts, specifying their sources in different formats (WOFF2, WOFF, and TrueType) along with their font weights and styles. It also includes responsive design rules for the main content column, adjusting margins and widths for various screen sizes to ensure proper layout on different devices.This appears to be CSS code for styling a website’s layout and typography. It defines styles for interactive content columns, including borders, spacing, colors, and special formatting for drop caps in articles. The code sets specific rules for different screen sizes and content types, ensuring consistent presentation across various parts of the site like articles, comments, and featured content.For specific elements like paragraphs following horizontal rules in articles, comments, and features, remove top padding.
Limit the width of pullquotes within article bodies, interactive content, comments, and features to 620 pixels.
In main content and article containers, ensure captions for showcase elements are positioned normally, span the full width, and don’t exceed 620 pixels in width.
Make immersive elements span the full viewport width, accounting for scrollbars.
On screens up to 71.24em wide, set immersive elements to a maximum width of 978 pixels and add 10 pixels of horizontal padding to their captions. For screens between 30em and 71.24em, increase this padding to 20 pixels.
Between 46.25em and 61.24em, limit immersive elements to 738 pixels in width.
On screens smaller than 46.24em, remove left margin and set right margin to zero for immersive elements, aligning them to the left edge. For screens from 30em to 46.24em, apply a negative left margin of 20 pixels and maintain 20 pixels of horizontal padding for captions.
For the furniture wrapper on screens 61.25em and wider, use a grid layout with defined columns and rows. Style headlines with a top border, adjust meta information positioning and padding, and format standfirst text with specific margins, font sizes, and link styles including underlines and hover effects. Initially, add a top border to the first paragraph in standfirst, but remove it on screens 71.25em and above.
Position figures within the furniture wrapper with no top or bottom margin and a negative left margin, limiting inline elements to 630 pixels in width.
On screens 71.25em and wider, adjust the grid template columns for the furniture wrapper.The layout uses a grid system with columns and rows defined for different screen sizes. For medium screens, it has three columns for the title, headline, and meta sections, five for the standfirst, and seven for the portrait, with rows set at 80px and auto heights. A thin line appears above the meta section, and the standfirst has a vertical line on its left side.
On larger screens, the grid adjusts to three columns for title, headline, and meta, five for standfirst, and eight for portrait, with row heights in fractions. The meta line widens, and the standfirst line shifts slightly.
Headlines are bold and resize from 32px to 50px as the screen widens, with maximum widths set. Labels have small top padding, and certain lines or elements are hidden or adjusted on different devices.
The standfirst text is normal weight, 20px in size, with bottom padding, and it’s positioned with a left margin and padding. Main media occupies the portrait area, spanning full width with no side margins, and adjusts its bottom margin or left positioning based on screen size. Captions are positioned absolutely.The caption for images in the furniture wrapper is positioned at the bottom with no margin, full width, and a minimum height of 46 pixels. It has padding, a background color, and text color defined by CSS variables. The first span inside the caption is hidden, while the second is displayed and limited to 90% width. On larger screens, the caption’s padding increases.
A button for the caption is absolutely positioned at the bottom right, with a circular background and scaled icon. On medium screens, its right position adjusts.
For interactive main columns on large screens, a pseudo-element extends above and below the content, and h2 headings have a maximum width.
On iOS and Android, dark mode and color scheme preferences change the appearance of certain elements, such as the first letter of paragraphs and article headers, which have no height. The furniture wrapper’s padding is reduced, and content labels are styled accordingly.For iOS and Android devices, the following styles apply to feature, standard, and comment articles:
– Content labels use a bold, capitalized font in the Guardian headline or serif typeface, colored with the new pillar color.
– Headlines are set at 32px, bold, with 12px bottom padding, and a dark gray color (#121212).
– Images are positioned relatively, have a left margin of -10px and top margin of 14px, and span the full viewport width minus the scrollbar, with automatic height.
– Image elements and their inner components have a transparent background, matching the image’s full viewport width and automatic height.
– Standfirst sections have 4px top padding, 24px bottom padding, and a -10px right margin.
– Paragraphs within standfirst sections inherit these styles.For the standfirst text, use the font family Guardian Headline, Guardian Egyptian Web, Guardian Headline Full, Georgia, or serif.
On iOS and Android devices, links within the standfirst section of feature, standard, and comment articles should appear in the new pillar color, without a background image, and have an underlined style with a 6-pixel offset and a light gray underline color. No border should be shown below these links.
When hovering over these links on iOS and Android, the underline color should change to match the new pillar color.
Additionally, for meta information in feature, standard, and comment articles on both iOS and Android, set the margin to zero. This applies to bylines, author names, and related spans, ensuring consistent styling across all elements.For Android and iOS devices, the author’s name and byline in article meta sections are displayed using the new pillar color.
On both Android and iOS, the meta miscellaneous area in feature, standard, and comment articles has no padding, and any SVG icons within it use the new pillar color for their stroke.
The caption button in showcase elements is styled as a flex container, centered with 5px padding, 28px in both dimensions, and positioned 14px from the right edge.
Article bodies across all types on both platforms have 12px left and right padding, with no top or bottom padding.
Non-thumbnail, non-immersive images in article bodies span the full viewport width minus 24px and the scrollbar width, if present, while maintaining their aspect ratio. Their captions are styled accordingly.For iOS and Android devices, immersive images in feature, standard, and comment articles will span the full viewport width, accounting for scrollbars.
Quoted text in these articles will display a colored marker using the site’s pillar color.
Links within article text will be styled with the primary pillar color, underlined with a specific offset and color, changing to the new pillar color on hover.
In dark mode, article headers will have a dark gray background. Labels will adopt the new pillar color, headlines will use the header border color, and standfirst text and links will also use the header border color for better visibility.For iOS and Android devices, the following styling rules apply across feature, standard, and comment article containers:
– Links in the standfirst section and author bylines use the new pillar color.
– Icons in the meta section have their stroke set to the new pillar color.
– Captions for showcase images are displayed in the dateline color.
– Quoted text within the article body adopts the new pillar color.
– Various content containers in the article body maintain consistent styling.This CSS code sets a dark background for specific elements on Android devices and styles the first letter of paragraphs following certain elements on iOS devices. For Android, it applies a dark background to various containers and content areas within article pages. For iOS, it targets the first letter of paragraphs that come after specific elements like atoms, sign-in gates, or similar components, across different article containers and body sections.This appears to be a CSS selector targeting the first letter of paragraphs following specific elements across different article containers and platforms (iOS and Android). It covers various content sections like article bodies, comment sections, and interactive content areas, applying styles to paragraphs that come after elements with classes like ‘element-atom’, ‘sign-in-gate’, or specific IDs.Every week, my local cinema screens a new horror film. Whether it’s a reboot like I Know What You Did Last Summer, a sequel such as Final Destination Bloodlines, a prequel like The First Omen or A Quiet Place: Day One, the comeback of a classic gothic figure in Luc Besson’s Dracula: A Love Tale or Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, or a slasher flick like Dangerous Animals where sharks replace knives as the killer’s tool. Alternatively, it might be an exciting, wildly creative work from emerging horror directors making waves in film culture, such as Ryan Coogler’s Sinners or Zach Cregger’s Weapons.
Horror has consistently used metaphor, imagery, and storytelling to confront difficult realities about death, decay, and the human experience—topics that mainstream movies often avoid for being too repulsive, awkward, or distressing.In an era where thrillers, rom-coms, and action films often play it safe to avoid alienating risk-averse studios and streaming platforms, horror movies stand out as uniquely positioned to confront today’s pressing issues. They tackle migration in His House, mental health in Smile 2, toxic masculinity in The Invisible Man, artificial intelligence in M3gan, cults in Midsommar, zealotry in Heretic, gender dysphoria in I Saw the TV Glow, conspiracy theories in Broadcast Signal Intrusion, the drudgery of Zoom meetings in Host, pandemics in The Sadness, ecology in In the Earth, politics in The Purge, dementia in Relic, and pregnancy and motherhood in Huesera: The Bone Woman and Mother’s Baby. And, as ever, horror frequently explores bereavement, as seen in The Babadook, Hereditary, Talk to Me, and Bring Her Back.
Amid polarization, institutional collapse, climate anxiety, and the erosion of shared reality, horror has become the genre best suited to making sense of our fragmented times. Once dismissed by critics as little better than pornography, horror is not just enjoying a resurgence—it’s proving to be the defining genre of the 21st century.
The last major horror renaissance occurred in the 1970s, when filmmakers like George A. Romero, Tobe Hooper, John Carpenter, and Wes Craven dragged the genre out of its gothic past and into contemporary America. Their subversive films, set in rural areas, shopping malls, and suburbs, mirrored the social unrest and distrust of authority during the Vietnam War, Watergate, and a disillusioned counterculture. But horror moves in cycles, from innovation to exploration to repetition and parody. By the 1990s, it had become mired in spoofs like Scary Movie, lackluster remakes such as The Haunting, and big-name directors dabbling in what they thought were unexplored subtexts, as in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Wolf.
Just in time for the new millennium, a trio of hits revived the genre and propelled it into the 21st century. The Blair Witch Project demonstrated that a film could revolutionize an entire style of filmmaking on a shoestring budget, cleverly using the internet for marketing and replacing expensive effects with the primal fear of being lost in the woods. While not the first to use “found footage,” it popularized this cost-effective approach for low-budget films.
Alongside Blair Witch, two other films signaled the return of the ghost story, updated for a modern, media-literate audience. M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense introduced a devastating twist that would inspire many alternate reality plots in the horror and sci-fi of the new century. Meanwhile, the cursed videotape in the J-horror hit Ring foreshadowed how new technology would be used to chilling effect, later influencing stories about social media, influencers, AI, and the Dark Web.
After Ring, the rise of DVDs and broadband made international horror—especially from France, Japan, and South Korea—more accessible to Western audiences. This permanently reshaped what “American” or “Western” horror could be, with directors like Jordan Peele and Ari Aster later drawing from this global pool. The New French Extremity movement, exemplified by films like Irréversible (with its brutal fire extinguisher scene) and Martyrs (where a woman is flayed alive), pushed the boundaries of on-screen violence. This led to the subgenre dubbed “torture porn,” seen in movies like Hostel and The Human Centipede (First Sequence)—and you really don’t want to know more.The trend of extreme gore in horror, exemplified by films like A Serbian Film, peaked for a few years before giving way to more accessible themes like ghosts and curses. However, the influence of “torture-porn” persists in brutal films such as Terrifier 3, which earned 45 times its $2 million budget, showing there’s still an audience for unrestrained violence, even from killer clowns. The success of Terrifier 3 alongside more refined horror like Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu highlights the genre’s evolving landscape, where highbrow and exploitative elements coexist and interact.
While earlier hits like The Blair Witch Project and The Ring demonstrated horror’s profitability and creativity, the current wave truly began with The Witch in 2015, solidified by Get Out in 2017 and Hereditary in 2018. This resurgence succeeded partly due to rising internet-driven alienation and a deeper understanding of trauma, which horror is uniquely suited to explore. A new generation of horror directors is moving the genre from exploitation and midnight screenings to arthouse cinemas. Filmmakers like Jordan Peele, Jennifer Kent, and Robert Eggers treat horror not as a niche but as a vital part of their artistic expression. They’ve also abandoned the standard 90-minute runtime in favor of epic lengths, allowing more room for thematic depth and character development.
For instance, Peele’s Nope (130 minutes) blends horror with neo-western sci-fi, while Kent’s The Nightingale (136 minutes) is a period drama about rape-revenge and colonialism. Ari Aster’s Midsommar (147 minutes) uses folk horror to address grief and relationship breakdowns, and Coogler’s Sinners (137 minutes) mixes gothic, musical, and vampire elements in a Deep South setting—though some critics struggled with the inclusion of vampires, revealing lingering biases against the genre.
These directors are well-versed in horror history, using that knowledge to subvert expectations and introduce fresh twists. Beyond longer runtimes, they employ technical innovations like unsettling color schemes, unconventional framing, and extended silences to build dread rather than relying on jump scares. Cregger’s Barbarian, at 102 minutes, uses an unconventional structure and smart casting to heighten tension, and his follow-up Weapons (128 minutes) unravels a mystery of 17 missing children through multiple perspectives that converge in a climax balancing humor and horror without becoming a comedy.
Critics now take these films seriously, often labeling them “elevated horror” to set them apart from earlier, more straightforward slasher flicks. This shift gained recognition as major festivals like Sundance, Cannes, and Toronto began including horror in their main competitions, aided by a new generation of critics who appreciate the genre’s value.As legitimate art forms gained recognition, they began to replace the traditional gatekeepers of the past. At the same time, horror is blurring the lines between arthouse and mainstream cinema. Thanks to its unique economic model—low budgets that can yield huge profits—horror offers filmmakers a level of creative freedom rarely seen in big-budget productions. This explains why streaming services and studios, usually risk-averse, are willing to back bold horror projects they might avoid in other genres.
Take Blumhouse Productions, for example. While they’ve produced Oscar-nominated dramas like Whiplash and BlacKkKlansman, they built their reputation on the successful Paranormal Activity franchise. They also backed Jordan Peele’s Get Out, a critical and commercial hit that ignited conversations about race in America and opened doors for more diverse voices in a genre once dominated by white men.
Another distributor, A24, has become so linked with elevated horror that audiences and critics take notice whenever their name appears on a project. This includes award-winning films by directors like Yorgos Lanthimos, Joanna Hogg, and Sean Baker, as well as breakouts like the Australian Philippou brothers’ Talk to Me. Their recent follow-up, Bring Her Back, features a chilling performance by Sally Hawkins that might forever change how you see her in Paddington.
Neon, another celebrated distributor, balances Oscar winners like Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite and Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire with edgier horror fare. This includes Sydney Sweeney’s Immaculate, a stark metaphor for forced birth; Coralie Fargeat’s brutal revenge fantasy Revenge and her body horror film The Substance; and Brandon Cronenberg’s unsettling explorations of body horror in Possessor and Infinity Pool, continuing the legacy of his father, David.
In just six months, Neon released back-to-back hits from Osgood Perkins, son of Anthony Perkins (Norman Bates in Psycho). Longlegs was a nightmarish thriller starring Nicolas Cage as a grotesque serial killer, marketed with cryptic clips and eerie billboards reminiscent of The Blair Witch Project. Perkins followed it with The Monkey, a splatter comedy based on a Stephen King story, where a character grimly observes, “Everybody dies… some of us horribly. And that’s life.”
In today’s world, real life often feels more terrifying than anything on screen. Traditional Hollywood narratives, where corruption is exposed by righteous media and the U.S. president stands firmly for good, no longer resonate. Horror, however, confronts the anxieties of our uncertain times head-on. If these feel like the End Times, horror provides a safe space to unleash our collective fears—all within the confines of the screen and a limited runtime.
Frequently Asked Questions
Of course Here is a list of FAQs about why horror films keep changing and remain profitable with clear and concise answers
General Beginner Questions
1 Why are horror movies still so popular
Horror movies tap into universal fears and provide a safe thrilling way to experience adrenaline and excitement They are a form of entertainment that lets us feel scared without being in real danger
2 How do horror films keep making money
They are consistently cheap to produce and have a very reliable dedicated fan base Even a moderately successful horror film can yield a huge profit relative to its budget
3 Why cant they just keep making the same kind of movie
Audiences would get bored What scares one generation might not scare the next Filmmakers have to evolve and find new fears to exploit to keep the genre fresh and engaging
4 What are some common types of horror movies
Common types include slashers supernatural hauntings psychological thrillers body horror and found footage
Deeper More Advanced Questions
5 How do changing societal fears influence horror films
Horror movies often reflect the anxieties of their time For example 1950s monster movies reflected Cold War fears while modern horror often tackles themes like technology invasion pandemics and social isolation
6 What role does technology play in evolving the genre
New technology allows for new kinds of stories and scares The rise of affordable digital cameras created the found footage boom and advancements in CGI have made previously impossible creatures and effects a reality
7 Why are some lowbudget horror films massive hits
A clever original concept is often more important than a big budget Movies like Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project used innovative storytelling and marketing to create massive buzz and huge boxoffice returns on tiny investments
8 How has the audience for horror changed over time
Todays audiences are more diverse and demand more sophisticated storytelling representation and social commentary Films like Hereditary and A Quiet Place blend deep emotional family dramas with horror appealing to a broader viewership
