As Robin Wood writes in вЂњthe American Nightmare,вЂќ the horror genre is вЂњthe struggle for recognition of all that our civilization represses or oppresses, its reemergence dramatized, as in our nightmares, as an object of horror, a matter for terrorвЂќ (75t).

The very nature of this anxiety about the house however, raises many questions as to what affective responses this horror subgenre incites in its audiences. Horror films about the loss of the home seem a logical result of the nationwide crisis regarding housing. The horror filmвЂ™s adaptability to this nationwide crisis makes it a reactionary genre: writers and directors perceive what people fear, and work to embody that fear into the celluloid. The Paranormal Activity (2009-2015) and Insidious (2010-present) franchises raked most of the revenue. The Blumhouse film production company took the lead on the reproduction of this subgenre, releasing 16 haunted house films between 20, many becoming significant box office successes. The mass appeal of the subgenre in America experiences a boom after the Subprime Mortgage Crisis, which soon evolved into the historic Great Recession. The wife and sons are typically the main targets. Such stability is soon threatened by a demonic entity which seeks to rob them of their peace, or, often, a family member. In the haunted house film, typically white, perceptively middle-class couples and families live comfortably in their affluent, pristine suburban homes. The instability of homeownership was horrifyingly palpable, and on the screen, these fears were projected with an unsettling familiarity.

Approximately 2 million households were projected to be lost, the numbers increasing each year thereafter (Ernst & Goldstein 273). Around the time of the 2009 wide release of Paranormal Activity, at least 6.9 million American households with subprime loans faced impossible-to-pay charges. These new films attracted American audiences very much familiar with the threat of home loss. Beginning in 2009, horror films underwent a major thematic shift with the popularization of the вЂњhaunted houseвЂќ subgenre.

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