The horror culture subsequently reevaluated itself and decided that it was its own worst enemy; thus, the infamous slasher film was born. Among these, Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) has been proven on many occasions to be one of the most famous (and most cliched) films of all time. The next decade, the 1970's, was somewhat of a cultural disappointment. Ripe with scandal and failure (Nixon, Vietnam, The Beatles split-up, etc.), this decade was peculiarly keen on possessed or demonic young children, as shown in The Exorcist (1973). In turn, during the 1980's, technological advancements allowed the human body to be twisted and mutilated into an infinite variety of terrible shapes on the big screen. Alien (1979) provides an example of this spectacle in action, but as usual, people grew out of their fear of fake blood after a decade. As the century neared a close, the infamous serial killer was what they wanted to see. This trend continued into the 2000's along with a sudden influx of movies regarding contagions or global convergence. Final Destination (2000) and 28 Days Later (2002) reflect every young person's fear of a premature and gruesome death. Every decade has seen its fair share of scary movies, and this look into the evolution of horror demonstrates how the genre has evolved to meet changing trends in pop culture.
Evolution has also occurred in the sophistication of frightening an audience. Suspense, blood and gore, ghosts, zombies, murderers, or possessed children may be considered silly by one yet feared woefully by another. The "scariness" of a movie inevitably comes down to who considers its content horrible. Those growing up in the 2000's may think that the early silent films portraying popular literary monsters look amateurish and bemusing. For this reason, directors have been constantly adapting their styles to the viewing audience in order to meet social trends head-on.