The 1990s was arguably a lacklustre decade for American horror, defined by the proliferation of sequel after sequel and ironic meta-narratives that served only to dilute the genre of the visceral power that had characterised the greatest horror films of the 1970s and 1980s. Once ferocious texts like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween (1978) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) saw themselves transformed into franchises, almost parodies of themselves, manufactured to eviscerate and titillate the teenagers who simultaneously populated the films and went to see them at their local multiplexes. The most commercially successful horror films of the 1990s were the ironic Scream series (1996–2011), a virtual disquisition and almost parody of the horror genre itself, which was then spoofed in Scary Movie (2000) and its four sequels, as the genre seemed to be in danger of virtually consuming itself.

Just as violent action films came under heavy criticism in the wake of 9/11, many also called for an end to the frequently gratuitous and sadistic horror genre (see Brown 2001). However, like the action film, horror did not go away. Indeed, it was positively rejuvenated in the first decade of the new millennium; the fact that this was the war on terror era was certainly not a coincidence. While the trend for sequels and remakes gained an even greater pace, the horror film experienced something of a renaissance in the post-9/ 11 decade with filmmakers using the genre as a platform to express their concerns about many of the crucial issues of the fractious decade, just as the defining horror films of the 1960s and 1970s like Night of the Living Dead (1969), Rosemary's Baby (1968), The Exorcist (1973) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre had once done before.