Skimmed the article.

I don't think horror ever really went away. Like the article says, a few horror films went bigger than anticipated which is bringing fresh eyes to the genre.

I'm not a horror fan (but my brother is, so I've seen some things). I watched Weapons because the story was intriguing. I did not expect it to go so hard into horror. I was expecting something more like M. Night Shyamalan (who does make horror but more so suspenseful thrillers).

One of my favourite horror stories is IT, by Stephen King. The book — or even the audiobook — not the movies. The movies will never capture what made the book special, and I'm not even talking about the orgy at the end. (You could get that in by outsourcing the rights to Japan and letting the studio that made Shingeki no Kyojin (known outside Japan as "Attack on Titan") take a swing at it.) No, I mean how in-depth it goes to the characters' inner thoughts and what they know about the world around them. It's one of the deepest books I've read in that way, which is why it's so stupidly long, despite not much actually happening. Most of it's back story and monologue. Anime can get to the gore and sex, but that's not what makes IT work.

I'm also fond of Tokyo Ghoul, an actual anime series that delves into body and psychological horror. I wish more horror fans would watch it. If you love those kinds of horror, you are straight up doing yourself a disservice by skipping it. It's only one season — three others were made, but they're not any good. Of course, if you get through the first season, you'll watch the rest, and then you'll say it's "meh" because you watched the three crappy seasons. And the first season deserves better than that. The first season — hell, the first episode — takes off where one of Japan's most popular novels, "No Longer Human" by Osamu Dazai — itself, a whole other can of worms — leaves you before the ending, with a guy so utterly depressed and antisocial, he considers himself no longer qualified to be human. But he is human... in a world where "Ghouls" exist, who have this extra organ in their back which can spawn tentacles, and they can only survive on human flesh, blood... and coffee. So when a beautiful young woman approaches this guy, he's completely caught off guard. Of course, she's a Ghoul and she's targeting him for a meal. They fight, they're both mortally wounded, and in trying to save him (she's too far gone), they "accidentally" (later revealed to be intentional) make him a "half-Ghoul." So he's struggling with his humanity and learning what it means to be both human, and Ghoul, and supporting some "good" Ghouls who are just trying to survive, while they're being hunted by special cops trained to kill them. The ending (of the first season, not the "happy ending" of the fourth season) is so wild, when he finally is forced to confront his two sides and decide what, ultimately, he wants to be and what he wants out of life (or unlife).

And yet, I'm not a fan of horror. What I am a fan of, is good storytelling. If horror has that, I'm here for it. Weapons had good storytelling. IT (the book) had great storytelling. Tokyo Ghoul's first season (and probably the books, I haven't read them, but if you really want to continue and want the quality kept up, switch over to the books/graphic novels/manga) has great storytelling. I recently watched Scream 7. Except for the one with the voice changer that was straight up stupid, Scream movies are kinda dumb with their twists and turns and how you can never actually guess the killer until they hit you with the inevitable deus ex machina... but for all that, they are fun. I have, after all, watched all seven of them, and I'll be there for 8. But a lot of 80s horror, and slashers in general (aside from Scream which is a slasher)... I just don't dig it. What I want is the story I'll think about for years to come, and then passionately write about to people I should expect to be tangentially interested, at best, with the hopes that at least one will give it a chance and be won over. Those are the stories I look for.