CULTURE CLASH (Express Yourself)
Bad Trip
The Rise of Hot Pink Horror
By CL
In recent years, as we have seen an acceptance of circa 1910 era forgotten visionaries and futurists such as HP Lovecraft and Nikola Tesla, the world of independent and low-budget horror has gone through a bit of a neo-renaissance by including a new element: psychedelics.
Illustration courtesy of NickDamon.artstation.com
This perhaps began as early as Mary Shelly whose drugs-induced visions have been the catalyst for the tales of terror and unknown. Even during the original synthwave movement of the 1980’s, we saw several movies that touched on the science-gonebad through the use of psychedelics and hallucinations. Even though I believe drugs can be used for healing and good, in these films they are used for darkness. It is the drug-inspired theme of not knowing what is real or not propagated by an outside influence, a loss of perception,that encourages a sense of dread in the audience. The films that have captured this concept with a fairy tale twisted Saturday morning cartoon majesty are two films by Panos Cosmatos: Beyond the Black Rainbow, and +.
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