I was just thinking about how I will probably buy the 4K release of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part Two, even though I have owned it multiple times before, and always gotten rid of it. I love certain aspects of it, but I always notice how it irritates the hell out of me every time I watch it. And yet, after I haven't seen it for a while, I get the urge to watch it again.

What movies can you just not quit?

I love TCM 2 and despise the first one, funny enough.

The one for me is probably: I like Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake a lot more than the original (which I think is also great). I think horror in general for me is a "love to hate". I like the schlock and don't care quite as much for "elevated horror" (in fact, I hate the very term haha).

"elevated horror"?

It's a phrase in modern film criticism that refers to stuff like Ari Aster's work, Jordan Peele, Robert Eggers, Panos Cosmatos... and individual films like The Babadook, It Follows, et cetera. It's typically aesthetically grounded while dealing with more psychological elements and surrealism. Often people will say the movie is "about" something.

In reality, I just think good horror has basically always been that way, but societal anxieties and audiences have changed, as well as newer filmmakers with different voices rising up to the big leagues.

The idea of it is big enough in the horror community that it's discussed in Scream 5:
Ghostface: What's your favorite scary movie?
Tara: Uh, The Babadook. It's an amazing meditation on motherhood and grief.
Ghostface: [chuckles] Isn't that a little...fancy-pants?
Tara: Well, it's elevated horror.
Ghostface: Uh-huh. Uh, what does that mean? "Elevated horror"?
Tara: You know, it's like scary, but with complex, emotional and dynamic underpinnings. It's not just some schlocky, cheeseball nonsense with wall-to-wall jump scares.
Ghostface: Hmm. That sounds kind of boring to me.