Millennial Nasties: Analyzing a Decade of Brutal Horror Film Violence
by Ariel Powers-Schaub
Publisher: Encyclopocalypse Publications 
Release Date: September 17th, 2024 - Pre order here

by Tori Potenza, Staff Writer

While I consider horror films to be a huge part of my life, that has only been the case since my early 20s. Most of my life I veered away from horror, thinking I did not have the stomach for it. Perhaps it had to do with the time I grew up. I was in high school in the early 2000s and much of what was coming out would be how many describe it now as “torture porn”. I remember my friend made us watch Saw at a sleepover and I felt like I was scarred for life. Even when I became a horror fan, these films still felt like they were the lowest tier of pure shock and violence and that there was nothing much for an audience to gain from it. 

That changed a few years ago when I contributed a personal essay to Hear Us Scream: Voices of Horror Vol. 2. I excitedly flipped through to see what other folks wrote about and stumbled upon an essay written by an online horror friend, Ariel Powers-Schaub entitled “Cherish Your Life: Comfort in the SAW Franchise Throughout and Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic”. It gave me an entirely new perspective and inspired me to watch the entire franchise which I have now found a real love and appreciation for. So when Ariel announced that she had written a book on this period of horror, I knew she was the perfect person for the job. Her love for these films and her keen critical eye make me eager to flip through Millennial Nasties: Analyzing a Decade of Brutal Horror Film Violence when it comes out September 17th. 

I was lucky enough to chat with Ariel about the inspiration for her book, her work to re-label and appreciate a commonly misunderstood time in horror history, her research process, and advice for those who want to begin their journey into this brand of extreme horror. Her pure enthusiasm and love shines through in our talk, and her writing, which reminded me why it is so important to have diverse voices bringing their perspectives to film analysis. 

Tori Potenza: I would love to hear about how you got into 2000s horror and what was it about this time and these movies that connected with you?

Ariel Powers-Schaub: Some of it, I can't quite explain, you know, you like what you like. But I think some of it has to do with the fact that at this time,  I was in middle school and high school. And I think around that age it's easy to fall in love with whatever the media is that you have access to. And so, I was coming of age, and really falling in love with horror films, and film in general, around the time these were the “thing”.

I think I was in seventh grade when my family got a DVD player. It was a really big deal. It was a Christmas present. Armageddon was the first DVD we had, which obviously is a banger, but having access to that at home and being able to go get movies that opened up a whole other world for me, too. And so we were just trying to watch everything we could get our hands on at that point. And a lot of them were these movies. And there was almost like an air of mystery around them at the time. Before the Internet was the way it is now, you didn't hear everybody's takes on a movie immediately after opening day. And so it allowed there to be some things to build. So it would be like, have you seen, Hostel? Have you heard of Hostel? Oh, it's the sickest movie you'll ever see, you should go watch it, you know, or don't if you have a weak stomach. So like the era of building up these movies made me really interested in them.

And ultimately, like it just is the place where I feel at home. These are just my movies.

TP: That makes me weirdly nostalgic for a time when we didn’t immediately hear people’s opinions about every movie before we saw them. 

APS: Yeah, it was different. I mean, you'd seek out movie reviews or you'd go on forums.I literally could read movie reviews in the newspaper like, I remember that. And especially because more of what I saw and heard at the time, were professional film critic reviews on these movies rather than the voices of the people they especially were often like “these movies are sick and terrible, and no one should watch them”. That makes a teenager want to watch a movie more than anything. I was like I have to find out what's so sick and terrible.

TP: What do you hope your voice and perspective brings to the conversation on these movies?

APS: Well, I definitely wanted to write this book because it didn't already exist. There was nothing like it that I could find. There is a lot of good analysis and academic analysis, especially about 9/11 and torture porn. I talk about 9/11 in my book, but it's not the only cultural force that was in play at the time, and so I wanted to widen my scope. Which, when you're writing an academic paper narrowing your scope can be a really good idea, no knock on them or anything.

One of the ones that really inspired me was Films of the New French Extremity by Alex West. I don't write about French extremity in my book, because I feel like that has been so well covered by other people. But that book was an inspiration to me, in terms of how you can analyze films.  There is a book called The Cutting Edge: Philosophy of the Saw Films by Cj. Patton, and that has the focus on just the first 7 Saw movies. But I really appreciated her approach and her analysis. Then there is Screams for a New Millennium by Adrian Rowe. This one is based more on the production and the making of and interviews with filmmakers, and so not as much analysis. And then Torture Porn in the Wake of 9/11 by Aaron Kerner. which of course is very tied to 9/11.

So I kept finding pieces of things I wanted to talk about, but nothing that was like, the one thing. And when you pitch a book, you have to really sell yourself and sell your idea, so I had to get comfortable with answering, why should this book exist? And, why should you write it?  And I was like, literally, nothing exists that's like it, or at least not that I could find. And hey, if someone out there has one, let me know!

But I'm a person who loves and enjoys these films. And a lot of what's been written about these films has not been written by people who appreciate them. And that's okay. You don't have to love every film you analyze, but I thought bringing an appreciative lens to it would be good. I'm a woman who grew up with these films. And I think, having a woman's voice in horror is something I'm always trying to be a champion for. Also having grown up with this era, and now having a chance to look back at it, like I lived through it. But I also can now see it in the rearview mirror. 

So I hope that my voice is the start of a lot more people feeling welcome in this conversation and feeling like, Hey, I like these movies too, and feeling a little bit more comfortable to say so.

TP: Was there anything you learned while researching the book that surprised you, or even changed some of your views as you were writing this?

APS: So one of the first things that really surprised me, was all of the connections across these movies which I put into a little chart at the end of my book.

Maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised because whoever's working in Hollywood during a certain time,  is probably going to cross paths with one another. But there’s so many actors that appear in all these movies in my book. And I kept finding that “Oh, this guy who did cinematography on this movie was in production on this one,  and then he wrote on this one, and then he had his directorial debut over here”. There's dozens of connections throughout these films, and I thought that was really interesting, because even without meaning to it gives some thematic consistency, and like creative consistency across the decade.

I was also surprised by how much some of these movies really had to say and the themes that came together, whether it is intentional or not on the part of the filmmakers. When I started writing, I had a big list of movies in mind that I narrowed down, and things went off the list and on the list, and I was watching a bunch of movies and trying to figure out how they would fit together and how they ended up fitting together. I feel it works really well. And I was like, Wow, that really worked out for me.

TP: I know you touch on this early in the book but how do you feel about the term torture porn, and why do you feel like this subgenre of horror needed a new title?

Well, number one, because I don't think people want to associate with it. You know, you're out on your third date and you're talking about horror movies. And they're like, “Oh, I love horror too! I love slashers. What do you like?” I love torture porn is not like a fun thing to put in your bio. I have specifically not put that in my bio a lot of times. The term itself is off putting. 

It's also inaccurate. These movies aren't pornographic, and a lot of them don't include torture. Even if you wanna say torture porn is a subgenre, it is not all encompassing. It's leaving out a lot. And I wanted to talk about the connections. Other movies out at the same time were never called torture porn like Final Destination. You would never call that because it's got a different look, but it has enough in connection with these other movies that they made it into the book.

So I felt that we just need something else to call this subgenre so that everybody can feel welcome. Every movie can be categorized and it can be a little bit more descriptive.

TP: And kudos on the name I mean Millennial nasties, that is such a good label. I love this.

APS: Thank you, I won't lie. I was super proud when I thought of it. The book was halfway written before I came up with it and I was like, this is sick, we’re keeping this. 

TP: But it does feel like these movies have become more accepted in recent years, but even the other day I was having a conversation and the people I talked to wrote off these films as torture porn, and these were horror film people! So it is interesting that there are still folks stuck in that mindset.

APS: It's easy to look down on. It's easy to kick down on. But I do think, especially now that we're 20 years out from the first Saw movie, that people are starting to look back with some nostalgia and also just some distance. We’ve been doing such a different flavor of horror for the last 10-12 years so I think that maybe people are looking to see what else is out there. And  I'm hoping someone can look at my book and say, “Oh, these movies do have something to say”. Then great, I did it.

TP: I have to admit I wrote many of these films off until reading your personal essay on Saw. So for others who have some trepidation around this subgenre, what would you say to try to get people to think about them in a new light?

APS: Definitely read content warnings. Take care of yourself, however you have to. Some movies in this book are way gorier than others, and have way worse themes than others, and so I would not say that they're all equal. So first and foremost, take care of yourself. And if you do want to push your boundaries, then I would say watch the movie and really critically engage with it. Try to think about where it’s coming from at the time it was made and what it has to say. If you end up feeling like it had nothing to say, that’s okay, because you critically engaged with it and thought about it. You didn’t let someone else tell you that dismissively. You decided for yourself. 

Deciding for yourself what you think of these movies, or any subgenre, or any piece of art is more important than taking the rumors you’ve heard about it, and making your assumptions from there. 

TP: Were there any favorite movie discoveries you made while working on the book, or ones you found a new appreciation for?

APS: Yeah, so Captivity was one that I discovered while writing the book. I ended up loving that movie. It's totally nasty,  It has a scene that makes me physically gag. So that's an automatic 3 star minimum for me. There's 3 movies that I found that do that, so they’re at the top of my list.

And I found a new appreciation for the remakes. That’s one thing that is sort of cool, to kick down the horror remakes, sometimes with good reason. Remakes aren’t always the best thing happening. But I actually really enjoy what some of them are doing by taking a “video nasty” and updating it for the time period. I had never thought about it that way until I was trying to write this book, and it really made me appreciate especially The Last House on the Left, and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remakes because they're so different from their originals. And they still have a lot to show for it, they have a lot to say.

TP: Now that you have written the book on millennial nasties, are there any other subgenres, time periods, etc that you are interested in exploring?

APS: I actually want to stay in the 2000s for a while. There were some movies I thought I would include, but didn’t, because they weren’t that nasty but they were very, very weird. I have this feeling that there's also a lot of very strange, weird horror movies that came out in the 2000s. And I kinda wanna see where that takes me.

I'm also thinking about, you know, horror trends don't change overnight. There's always sort of a shift period. So I had to pick a decade and do that. But what about in the early 2010s, when we were switching over from millennial nasties to doing a little bit slower, more thoughtful horror, what were the movies? That sort of led the way into that? I was thinking, maybe doing something with that. But this is all very hypothetical right now. It is very much in the idea/shower thoughts stage so we’ll see what comes up. 

TP: Anything we missed that you want to speak to? About the book or this topic?

APS: I guess I'll just say,  this is my first book, my only book. So far I'm a first time author. Working with Encyclopocalypse has been really positive. I'm really glad that they said yes to me. It's a little bit cheesy, butI just want to say to other people who want to write books that, no one is going to give you permission or not. You can decide to do it or not, and I don't want to make it sound that easy, right? Because it's not, and then getting published is a whole other ball game. I had to just sit down and write and make it happen for myself. And so if there's anyone out there like, take this as your sign to do that.

Millennial Nasties will be out September 17th from Encyclopocalypse Publications and you can pre-order it from their website. Make sure to follow Ariel both on twitter and instagram to hear about other work she has going on and get more insight into her exciting brand of horror analysis.