The terror attacks of September 11, 2001 took the lives of 2,977 people and remains the deadliest attack in U.S. history. The impact of the attacks can’t be overstated. They were the catalyst for the war on terror and expanded government surveillance of its citizens via the Patriot Act. The attacks also affected the U.S. through economic downturn, increased airport security, Islamophobia, paranoia and pessimism.
Because the art we make reflects what our society is going through, we can look to movies made in the years after 9/11 to get a read on what we were collectively experiencing. It’s also interesting to know how the terror attacks impacted films that had been already made and were set to release. Anything involving terrorists, plane crashes and the New York City skyline had to be rethought. This list discusses a few of the horror and horror-adjacent movies that were influenced or affected by 9/11.
Donnie Darko (2001)
A sci-fi psychological thriller that follows the title character, a troubled high school student played by Jake Gyllenhaal, as he inadvertently enters a wormhole which allows him to escape death from a plane’s engine that crashes into his bedroom. The film premiered at Sundance on January 19, 2001 and was released in theaters on October 26. However, because the plot involved a plane crash, the movie was not advertised and gained notoriety due to word of mouth instead. Due to the unfortunate timing of the release, director Richard Kelly said “It probably wasn’t something that was attractive to people in that emotional, very deeply traumatizing chapter in our history.” However, Donnie Darko has gained a cult following in the years since 2001.
Pulse (2001)
This scary Japanese techno-horror movie is about the loneliness of the digital age and ghosts who use technology to invade the world of the living. Pulse was released in Japan on February 3, 2001, but was not released in the U.S. until November 9, 2005. Because the film shows an empty city as people disappear and take their own lives (and also shows a plane crash) it was thought Americans wouldn’t be interested in such a pessimistic movie.
28 Days Later (2002)
Cillian Murphy’s first major role was in this post-apocalyptic horror movie about a man named Jim who wakes up in a hospital 28 days after a virus has wiped out most of London’s population and turned most survivors into feral zombie-like predators. Filming of 28 Days Later was taking place during the 9/11 attacks and there are a few creepy parallels to the tragedy. Director Danny Boyle pointed out that Murphy’s character encounters city walls plastered with a seemingly endless amount of “Missing” posters, much like those seen in Manhattan as survivors searched for their loved ones after 9/11. A Collider article also compares the overall plot to the response to the 9/11 attacks, especially the traumatized members of the military becoming blood-thirsty men who kill and rape survivors while outwardly promising that they deliver “safety”. This is a topic that can be further explored through other movies like Zero Dark Thirty (2012), which portrays the U.S. military torturing detainees for information during the manhunt for Osama bin Laden.
Saw (2004)
James Wan made his feature debut with this horror movie written by Leigh Whannell. It follows a serial killer, “Jigsaw”, and his victims Adam and Dr. Gordon, who awake in chains in a subterranean bathroom and are given clues about how they can escape. The movie was controversial because the sequels became very gory. The term “torture porn” was developed as a descriptor for a wave of post-9/11 horror movies like the Saw franchise that are perceived to be light on plot and focus on extreme depictions of suffering. David Schmid, a professor at the University of Buffalo, argued that the Saw movies are the “most symptomatic American films of the post-9/11 era”.
Additionally, 9/11 is subtly hinted at within the film. Viewers with an Eagle eye can see that the day Adam and Gordon wake up in the bathroom is shown to be September 10, 2001. This means that after enduring the horrors of Jigsaw’s trap, the men could only hope to escape and find themselves in another horror movie as Manhattan faced the terror attacks early the following morning.
Cloverfield (2008)
A found footage horror movie following a group of friends at a party as a monster attacks New York City. Critic Roger Ebert says the movie “evokes 9/11” as its characters deal with the chaos and confusion of navigating lower Manhattan during the attack. Of the comparison, director Matt Reeves said “I think we were always aware that it did [evoke feelings of 9/11], we felt like it was a way of dealing with the anxieties of our time.”
Jennifer’s Body (2009)
By 2009 filmmakers began to cautiously joke about 9/11. In an early scene in comedy horror Jennifer’s Body, writer Diablo Cody has Jennifer Check (Megan Fox) hoping to impress visiting musicians by offering them a small town bar’s tone deaf 9/11 specialty drink. The “really awesome” drink is “red, white and blue, but you have to drink it fast or it turns brownish.”
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