‘Eat the rich’ — Why horror films are taking aim at the ultra-wealthy
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Good article, but how can someone write about anti-rich horror and not include anything about Society (1989)?! It’s absolutely peak 80s practical effects horror on top of being about how the rich literally feed off the lower classes.
And, extremely politically topical, about their fucked up sexual predations.
Yeah, why doesn't the article about recent trends in film include 30+ year old movies?? /s
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Yeah, why doesn't the article about recent trends in film include 30+ year old movies?? /s
wrote last edited by [email protected]Psst, there’s a whole article there if you keep scrolling. It even talks about movies older than that!
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I liked Ex Machina for this reason. The billionaire’s belief that he is a god is his ultimate weakness and downfall.
I'm as anti billionaire as the next guy but "stabbed to death by your own sex robot" ain't such a bad way to go, all things considered.
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I'm as anti billionaire as the next guy but "stabbed to death by your own sex robot" ain't such a bad way to go, all things considered.
I love how even if you haven’t seen it, this spoils practically none of what makes the ending good.
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Author: Heather Roberts | PhD Candidate in Screen Cultures and Curatorial Studies, Queen's University, Ontario
Am excerpt:
When Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and fiancée Lauren Sánchez held their lavish three-day wedding celebration in Venice recently, it wasn’t just a party — it was a spectacle of wealth, reportedly costing between US$47 million and US$56 million.
Critics highlighted the environmental toll of such an event on the fragile, flood-prone city, while protesters took to the streets to condemn the wedding as a tone-deaf symbol of oligarchical wealth at a time when many can’t afford to pay rent, let alone rent an island.
The excessive show of opulence felt like the opening of a horror film, and lately, that’s exactly what horror has been giving us. In films like Ready or Not (2019) and The Menu (2022), the rich aren’t simply out of touch; they’re portrayed as predators, criminals or even monsters.
These “eat-the-rich” films channel widespread anxieties about the current socioeconomic climate and increasing disillusionment with capitalist systems.
In a world where the wealthy and powerful often seem to act with impunity, these films expose upper-class immorality and entitlement, and offer revenge fantasies where those normally crushed by the system fight back or burn it all down.
The article dives into it further
Horror is written off by most people completely, but it has a long history of social commentary. It's not all mindless gore and ghosts.
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Author: Heather Roberts | PhD Candidate in Screen Cultures and Curatorial Studies, Queen's University, Ontario
Am excerpt:
When Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and fiancée Lauren Sánchez held their lavish three-day wedding celebration in Venice recently, it wasn’t just a party — it was a spectacle of wealth, reportedly costing between US$47 million and US$56 million.
Critics highlighted the environmental toll of such an event on the fragile, flood-prone city, while protesters took to the streets to condemn the wedding as a tone-deaf symbol of oligarchical wealth at a time when many can’t afford to pay rent, let alone rent an island.
The excessive show of opulence felt like the opening of a horror film, and lately, that’s exactly what horror has been giving us. In films like Ready or Not (2019) and The Menu (2022), the rich aren’t simply out of touch; they’re portrayed as predators, criminals or even monsters.
These “eat-the-rich” films channel widespread anxieties about the current socioeconomic climate and increasing disillusionment with capitalist systems.
In a world where the wealthy and powerful often seem to act with impunity, these films expose upper-class immorality and entitlement, and offer revenge fantasies where those normally crushed by the system fight back or burn it all down.
The article dives into it further
Triangle of Sadness is another I think, a bit of a patchy film tho
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Author: Heather Roberts | PhD Candidate in Screen Cultures and Curatorial Studies, Queen's University, Ontario
Am excerpt:
When Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and fiancée Lauren Sánchez held their lavish three-day wedding celebration in Venice recently, it wasn’t just a party — it was a spectacle of wealth, reportedly costing between US$47 million and US$56 million.
Critics highlighted the environmental toll of such an event on the fragile, flood-prone city, while protesters took to the streets to condemn the wedding as a tone-deaf symbol of oligarchical wealth at a time when many can’t afford to pay rent, let alone rent an island.
The excessive show of opulence felt like the opening of a horror film, and lately, that’s exactly what horror has been giving us. In films like Ready or Not (2019) and The Menu (2022), the rich aren’t simply out of touch; they’re portrayed as predators, criminals or even monsters.
These “eat-the-rich” films channel widespread anxieties about the current socioeconomic climate and increasing disillusionment with capitalist systems.
In a world where the wealthy and powerful often seem to act with impunity, these films expose upper-class immorality and entitlement, and offer revenge fantasies where those normally crushed by the system fight back or burn it all down.
The article dives into it further
I can't wait to watch these.
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Horror is written off by most people completely, but it has a long history of social commentary. It's not all mindless gore and ghosts.
Came to say that! Horror films have always been a reflection of societal fears.
While I don't agree with the initial premise, there's much food for thought here:
https://www.cracked.com/article_19402_6-mind-blowing-ways-zombies-vampires-explain-america.html
Stuck the landing at the end:
That's the most terrifying concept of all, that this other point of view that we find so ridiculous and inhuman is somehow contagious, that if exposed to it we might be forced to see the world their way, whether we like it or not. And neither a vampire or a zombie can be cured -- once converted, you never go back. And that's why they must be destroyed.
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Author: Heather Roberts | PhD Candidate in Screen Cultures and Curatorial Studies, Queen's University, Ontario
Am excerpt:
When Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and fiancée Lauren Sánchez held their lavish three-day wedding celebration in Venice recently, it wasn’t just a party — it was a spectacle of wealth, reportedly costing between US$47 million and US$56 million.
Critics highlighted the environmental toll of such an event on the fragile, flood-prone city, while protesters took to the streets to condemn the wedding as a tone-deaf symbol of oligarchical wealth at a time when many can’t afford to pay rent, let alone rent an island.
The excessive show of opulence felt like the opening of a horror film, and lately, that’s exactly what horror has been giving us. In films like Ready or Not (2019) and The Menu (2022), the rich aren’t simply out of touch; they’re portrayed as predators, criminals or even monsters.
These “eat-the-rich” films channel widespread anxieties about the current socioeconomic climate and increasing disillusionment with capitalist systems.
In a world where the wealthy and powerful often seem to act with impunity, these films expose upper-class immorality and entitlement, and offer revenge fantasies where those normally crushed by the system fight back or burn it all down.
The article dives into it further
Guys hi, just looking for some support share, a Fantasy Adventure Story, for all ages and just some entertain with some storyes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mVIvQ1wsgg - maybe you are curious
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Author: Heather Roberts | PhD Candidate in Screen Cultures and Curatorial Studies, Queen's University, Ontario
Am excerpt:
When Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and fiancée Lauren Sánchez held their lavish three-day wedding celebration in Venice recently, it wasn’t just a party — it was a spectacle of wealth, reportedly costing between US$47 million and US$56 million.
Critics highlighted the environmental toll of such an event on the fragile, flood-prone city, while protesters took to the streets to condemn the wedding as a tone-deaf symbol of oligarchical wealth at a time when many can’t afford to pay rent, let alone rent an island.
The excessive show of opulence felt like the opening of a horror film, and lately, that’s exactly what horror has been giving us. In films like Ready or Not (2019) and The Menu (2022), the rich aren’t simply out of touch; they’re portrayed as predators, criminals or even monsters.
These “eat-the-rich” films channel widespread anxieties about the current socioeconomic climate and increasing disillusionment with capitalist systems.
In a world where the wealthy and powerful often seem to act with impunity, these films expose upper-class immorality and entitlement, and offer revenge fantasies where those normally crushed by the system fight back or burn it all down.
The article dives into it further
Not a horror, really, but this one is great:
I took a couple friends to see it while working at a film fest.
One was so wrong about the intent and theme of the movie it was scary. Tried explaining it. Turns out they'd been listening to a lot of rw media.
They thought the film was about poor people being leeches - parasites.
From the writer/director
The capitalist... is only capital personified. His soul is the soul of capital. But capital has one sole driving force, the drive to valorize itself, to create surplus-value, to make its constant part, the means of production, absorb the greatest possible amount of surplus labor. Capital is dead labor which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks.[53]
