The success of pictures like Robert Eggers’s The Witch (2015), Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite (2019) and Jordan Peele’s Get Out (2017) and Nope (2022) have shown the genre’s still-untapped potential to subvert stereotype and engage with social issues.

“Fortunately, writers and directors have been creating films with strong female and/or POC leads that don’t die within the first 10 minutes, like in every ’80s or ’90s thriller,” says Kelly Quinn (BFA 2023 Film), whose thesis project, a horror short called Skunk Bite, co-directed with classmate Grace Pomilla, screened at this year’s SVA Premieres showcase in Los Angeles. For Skunk Bite, “I wanted to create a female-centric story,” she says. “My main character, Campbell, is a strong character with a hunger for revenge.”

Looking at films like last year’s Everything Everywhere All at Once, Phok has hope for the future of diversity in filmmaking. “If you support stories from other cultures and stories that basically haven’t had the opportunity to be widely told,” he says, “you’ll find that there’s an audience for it.”

A version of this article appears in the fall/winter 2023 Visual Arts Journal.

A look at SVA alumni working in the horror genre, from the fall/winter 2023 ‘Visual Arts Journal’