The genre’s haunted and terror-filled places remind us not only that the past matters but—quite graphically—that the dead matter. Whether vindictive forces arise in the setting of the home, a city, a country, or a moment in time, horror films reiterate that we cannot escape our personal, national, or human past—that we bear responsibility for the sins of the father, or of the race. The consequences for those who suppress the truth or ignore history are unavoidable; the reckoning may not always be gory, but it is rarely less than tragic.
Organized by Ron Magliozzi, Curator, and Brittany Shaw, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Film, with Caryn Coleman, guest curator.
Film at MoMA is made possible by CHANEL.
Additional support is provided by the Annual Film Fund. Leadership support for the Annual Film Fund is provided by Debra and Leon D. Black and by Steven Tisch, with major contributions from The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art, Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder, MoMA’s Wallis Annenberg Fund for Innovation in Contemporary Art through the Annenberg Foundation, the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art, the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, Karen and Gary Winnick, and The Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston.
