A 12 year-old girl levitates over her bed. She towers over the priest below her as Julia Elliott, the same age, watches from the other side of the television screen. 

It was a formative experience, Elliott said. She was terrified and fascinated by the demonic possession that both empowered and controlled the girl in the movie. 

“This primal experience with The Exorcist created sort of this desire for not just the pure thrill of being frightened – which I think all humans crave, deep down in some strange way – but also just the kind of profundity of the film,” Elliott said.

The horror in the 1973 movie is a product of its time. It was released during the second wave of feminism, when the power of girls and women became a societal threat, said Elliott, now a professor in the Women’s and Gender Studies Department at the University of South Carolina. The Exorcist is only one example of horror’s unique ability to project society’s deepest terrors, she said. 

“Horror provides one of the best mediums to do that because it’s so psychologically intense,” Elliott said, “And you can kind of convey things that (are) really hard to explain, or even produce in a sort of more cerebral mood, like, say, in a sci-fi film.”

The horror genre’s profound nature inspired Elliott to teach horror theory classes. Her classes specifically cover the monstrosity of femininity. 

Freshman industrial engineering student Alyssa Morrison said she took Elliott’s class because she enjoys the subject matter. Morrison, although already a fan of horror, learned about a new feminine monster early on in the curriculum: the vagina dentada.

“It’s a vagina with teeth,” Morrison said. “Yeah, I didn’t know about that before and that was – I walked in first day, and I was like, ‘OK, it’s a little weird.’” 

“Weirdness” is normal when it comes to horror, said small business owner Nicole Darcy. Her wares may also be considered odd.

“My set up is all pink and pretty and stuff, and you’re not expecting to see something bloody and gory walking into it,” said Darcy, who owns a pop-up business. 

 She sells trinkets and art imbued with horrific elements. That includes constructed horror scenes and even horror Pokemon cards. 

The horror genre allows Darcy to create unique things, she said. 

“I feel so free to express myself with what I make,” she said. “And if something comes out ugly, that’s OK. Horror doesn’t need to be pretty.” 

Morrison said learning the inner workings of horror makes her appreciate the genre more. 

“We focus a lot on, like feminine monstrosity,” Morrison said. “So it’s really cool to see why they’re all, like, made the way that they’re made.”

Alongside teaching horror, Elliott has written a short story collection and a novel with horror elements. She has delved deeper into the genre in more recent writing, she said. 

“Even though I’ve always incorporated horrific elements, I did so more self consciously this time – you know, more strategically, with a more conscious idea of, like, which horror tropes I might be incorporating,” Elliott said. 

Horror can be too much for some people, Darcy said. She tries to make it accessible to all audiences by combining it with other subject matter – like the Pokemon cards. 

Horror is a niche genre, lending insight to political and cultural moments, Darcy said. 

The 2026 Oscars brought horror into the spotlight. The award for best supporting actress went to Amy Madigan for her performance in the horror movie, Weapons. Elliot said Amy Madigan’s performance was the highlight of the film, and she would have loved to see even more character development.

Even when horror films don’t win awards, Elliot said she loves how horror brings people together.  

“The horror community is almost like a religious group or a religious culture (or) something,” Elliott said. “People get obsessed with it.”