Hey, horror writers, do better

This week, I finally relented and watched the new FX show “American Horror Stories,” the episodic sequel to “American Horror Story.”

The original series had some good seasons, so I thought I’d give it the benefit of the doubt.

But I’m tired of the overdone, people-are-terrible plots.

Maybe the bullied teenage girl finally breaks and takes revenge on those hurting her storyline was inventive for “Carrie” — but that was 1976.

I seriously thought I was watching “Carrie” with cell phones and far more sexualization of a 16-year-old girl. It wasn’t scary, but predictable.

I knew all the beats, could see it all coming, and there was no twist.

The one wrinkle means circling back to the sexualization of a 16-year-old girl.

Now, teenagers have sex drives and that’s not my point.

The problematic thing here is more the way it’s depicted, which can be dangerous for several reasons.

The real villain here is a latex suit Scarlet finds in her new house and tries on. She already had trauma, dealing with bullying, but the suit is what gets into her head.

It triggers the murderous revenge, but that distinction isn’t made very clear in the show.

It gets muddied even more by talking about Scarlet watching violent porn, and that becomes equated to the murder.

There is a conversation to be had about how these depictions can cause harm to people who have kinks and cause a negative perception of that community (just to be clear, I’m not condoning a murder kink) but this isn’t the place.

Honestly, it’s one thing to do this storyline with an adult character, but Scarlet is 16. She’s not legal and so it just doesn’t sit right.

Horror films for decades have frequently had a sexual aspect to them: shower scenes, skinny dipping, implied intercourse.

It probably has something to do with vulnerability. Society has told us to feel vulnerable with nudity so we’re more likely to be scared. Maybe.

But, horror writers, we can do better.

These two things do not need to constantly be connected and we really don’t need to overly sexualize teenagers or give characters sexual trauma to explain violent actions.

I love horror. Make me jump, squirm, question things, feel uncomfortable. But we can do that without sexualizing minors.

Honestly, the best horror movies I’ve seen in the last few years were “It” and “Escape Room,” neither of which involved sexualizing minors and both had actual, non-cliche plots.

So, do better.

Michael Shine is a contributing writer for the Daily American Republic.