Bloody brilliant

Horror movies are picking fights with the patriarchy. Spooky shows are leaving tired tropes back in the haveli and taking on new monsters. Gore? Yes, but there's more. Dim the lights. We're here for this spicy new playbook

- By Kritika Kapoor [e-mail]

Try not to scream. Horror is going through its own full-moon moment. Bollywood thankfully left its gloriously tacky Ramsay Brothers films and the Bhatts' sleazy-scary specials behind for atmospheric thrills. Hollywood has given vampires a high-school update, got us to fear cheerleaders, dolls and robots. And with all the streaming networks, we're wary of fast-growing mushrooms, slow-moving zombies, Korean nuns, anti-ageing drugs, and Japanese dudes who want to enlist us in group games.

The genre feels different. The shocks go beyond jump scares, the jokes are meta, there are very real concerns woven into the gory mix. Big studios are backing horror tales, A-listers are signing up to slash or be slashed, the Oscars are finally paying attention. In Bollywood, horror-comedies are outgrossing boilerplate blockbusters, streaming shows are giving the genre room to slow down and get under your skin.

But even as it howls its way into the mainstream, horror has a code of its own. Dim the lights. Hold on to something. These are the new rules of scare fare.

The first casualties

The old rule: Black characters, promiscuous women, that one guy cracking bad jokes – they'd all be the first to die. Also on the list: Anyone who said, “I'll be right back”. In Bollywood, it was usually a corrupt priest, a nosy cop.