Decay and Fear: Take Shelter (2011) as Social Horror

Central to the concerns of the social horror movie genre has been the increasing apprehension towards nature due to rising ecological problems in the last couple of decades. Movies exploring ecological horror have articulated changing viewpoints on the human damage to nature, reminding the audience of the alterations in climate and nature and their detrimental ramifications in the biosphere and human life. Though nature has been perceived as a haven away from the ills of growing urbanization and industrialization in the American imagination, human interruption with nature has distorted such an idyllic view attributed to it. As such, Jeff Nichols’s Take Shelter (2011) subverts a sublime perception of nature in a deteriorating world as the protagonist feels displaced in his relation to the impending storm throughout the movie. The movie furthermore surpasses expectations of a mundane apocalyptic dramatization of the end of the world in its portrayal of the contingent relation between the destruction of nature and social constructs such as gender or family as they are problematized by capitalist materialism and patriarchy. Thus, this chapter analyzes the ways in which Take Shelter explores anxieties about ecological deterioration, uncovering the displacements and transformations the movie’s characters go through in their private and social lives.