As photography and cinematography evolve and become more open to different experimentation and visuals, different aesthetics emerge.
The 2000’s are where aesthetic become mainstream and heavily focused on. They are visuals that are similar in style, characterisation and categorisation which are pleasing to the eye. They are away of labelling the narrative the subject matter is trying to represent.
It is the same for horror movies, not all horror movies depend on dark exposures and colour saturations to bring an eire atmosphere and compelling visuals, some use playful/fun techniques. Every horror movie has its own style that helps the narrative, atmosphere and evolution of the characters. Most tend to use colour, shapes, popular trends or colour saturations to gain a pleasing visual, here are a few of my favourite horror movies that are visually aesthetic.
The Love Witch (2016)
Director:Anna Biller
Set in the 1960s we find Elaine, a beautiful young witch. Who is determined to find a man to love her. In her gothic Victorian apartment she conjures spells and potions, then picks up men and seduces them. However, her spells work too well, and she ends up with a string of hapless victims. When she at last meets the man of her dreams, her desperation to be loved drives them both to the brink of insanity and her to murder.
Midsommar (2019)
Director: Ari Aster
A couple travels to Scandinavia to visit a rural hometown's fabled Swedish mid-summer festival. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.
Neon Demon (2016)
Director:Nicolas Winding Refn
An aspiring model, Jesse, is new to Los Angeles. However, her beauty and youth, which generate intense fascination and jealousy within the fashion industry, may prove themselves sinister.
SUSPIRIA (1977)
Director:Dario Argento
An American newcomer to a prestigious German ballet academy comes to realize that the school is a front for something sinister amid a series of grisly murders.
Crimson Peak (2015)
Director:Guillermo del Toro
In the aftermath of a family tragedy, an aspiring author is torn between love for her childhood friend and the temptation of a mysterious outsider. Trying to escape the ghosts of her past, she is swept away to a house that breathes, bleeds - and remembers.
[all images are from google and the plots from IMDb}