Socionomics explains why….
On Sunday March 2, the world tuned into the 97th Academy Awards. And this year’s incarnation lived (or died) up to its reputation for going dark (and we’re not talking about Hulu’s streaming outage mid-way through the event!) We’re talking about the themes depicted among the nominated movies.
From AV Club on Feb. 26:
A watershed year for bloodshed: Horror at the 2025 Oscars
Between five nominations for The Substance and four nominations for the latest remake of Nosferatu, it’s a watershed year for bloodshed at the Academy Awards.
But it’s rare to have not one but two high-profile horror movies in the Oscar mix, especially when neither title has much deniability as far as its genre is concerned
While the boundary-pushing gore may be shocking to watch, the fact that horror has pushed its way into the prestigious Oscars is not. The November 2024 Socionomist cover story “Social Mood Drives horror to New Frights” by yours truly explained:
Socionomics interest in the genre as a graphic reflection of negative social mood has been alive and well for decades…
Rising stock prices [the measure of social mood] coincide positively with the quality and popularity of Disney’s animated fairytale films and falling stock values coincide positively with the originality and popularity of horror movies.
The October 2010 Socionomist updated this chart of the inflation-adjusted (real money) Dow alongside major Disney and horror movie productions over the last century and wrote:
“When the trend is up, the movies tend to have different types of themes. They tend to feature black-and-white heroes and villains. There’s a lot of lighter fare available. When the trend is down, such as in the 1970s, you have a lot of negative themes, and heroes’ morality become less clear. “
Which brings us to today.
The facts suggest that horror movies – whether the central evil villain be a crazed clown, deranged psychopath or diabolical Disney character – have been killing it at the box office over the past decade.
The sustained erosion in social mood (reflected in this chart of World Equities Priced in Real Money) since the 2000 peak accommodates just such a boom in horror:
As for “dark themes” gaining dominance on the big screen, the March 2 Oscars sang its praises (and awarded its golden statuette) for a body horror movie with stomach-churning scenes so grotesque as to prompt “walk outs of every screening from people who can’t hack it.” (AlJazeera Feb. 3) Not to mention other winning films depicting “the precarious existence” of a Russian-American stripper/sex worker, the violence and brutality of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, and the “lingering traumas and repercussions of” the Holocaust.
Socionomics sees the faint watermarks of change in all areas of human influence — from politics, pop culture, movies, fashion, economics and more — before they’re publicly declared “watershed moments.” Read the November 2024 Socionomist cover story “Social Mood Drives horror to New Frights” in full, along with the entire library of “Best Of” Socionomist issue dating back to July 2004 – with a Socionomics Membership.
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