Rumley remembers the time well. “I pitched a film to a UK executive and she practically guffawed, somewhere between patronising me and feeling sorry for me: ‘We don’t do horror!’” Rumley has since taken to describing his films as “extreme drama” instead. Meanwhile, Dan Berlinka, a Bafta-winning television writer and horror aficionado, admits that when he was pitching a TV horror series recently, he opted for the term “thriller-chiller”. And this cultural cringe isn’t new, according to Tim Snelson, a film historian and the author of Phantom Ladies: Hollywood Horror and The Home Front. “Cycles of smart and classy horror films have been triggered across cinema’s history, particularly when simultaneous critical and commercial successes like Rebecca (1940) or The Exorcist (1973) have alerted the industry and audiences to their enduring appeal,” says Snelson. “But Hollywood has historically used ‘chillers’, ‘shockers’, ‘mysteries’, ‘psychological films’... all sorts of terms to distinguish their prestige productions from horror’s negative connotations.”

Exorcising the stigma

If these connotations have become less negative lately, it’s largely down to two independent companies, Blumhouse (Get Out, Split, The Purge) and A24 (Hereditary, The Witch), both of which champion idea-based rather than gore-based horror. Not everyone is a fan of these films, however. In February 2016, Bret Easton Ellis, the author of American Psycho, tweeted: “Indie Arthouse Horror is becoming my least favourite new genre: It Follows, Goodnight Mommy, The Babadook, The Witch.” Fair enough. But by grouping these films under one heading, Ellis seems to be acknowledging that they aren’t simply horror movies that have made a splash, as Billson contends. They are distinctive enough to merit a genre of their own.