TWO YEARS AGO I wrote a piece in New Atlantis on Japanese horror films, their remakes in America, and the anxieties in the Japanese and American psyches they reflected. The J-Horror genre, I thought, was a critique of technology and tech-connected life, turning everyday devices like televisions and cell phones into conduits of evil: “Unease with the modern world has created a demand for films that portray technology as a growing menace; ever increasing penetration by technology into our lives means that this anxiety will, in all likelihood, be with us–and on the screen–for quite some time.”

It pains me to say this, but as far as American horror films go, my thesis was dead wrong. The most recent spate of them–films from the torture-porn genre especially, but others as well–focus more on the helplessness created by isolation and a lack of technology. The sense of helplessness is often exacerbated by failed modern conveniences: a broken-down car, a cell phone that doesn’t work. Cabin Fever, the Hostel films, Turistas, The Ruins–these are all movies that play up a feeling of terror inspired by a lack of technology and distance from civilization.