Horror Teaches Us How to Deal with a Crumbling World

I’m a fairly optimistic person, but in the past few years I’ve had some trouble holding onto that positive outlook. Between epidemics, social unrest, political anarchy and ecological breakdown, it’s hard not to see potential doom coming, like a black hearse speeding down the freeway directly toward us.

But let's be honest: the horror genre has been quietly prepping us for disaster for years. While everyone else was rolling their eyes at zombie movies, we were taking notes. When one report published in 2020 claimed that horror fans were adjusting better to lockdowns and mass hospitalizations and all the other scares that came with Covid, it made perfect sense. We’d already seen the empty streets and people afraid to get too close to each other in 28 Days Later. Stephen King's The Stand had already exposed us to a superflu that shut down the world. King himself later said, “I'm just sorry I couldn't have been wrong about more things.”

That’s not all horror got right. Soylent Green was set in a 2022 beset with climate disaster and food shortages. We're running a bit behind schedule, but the movie's environmental warnings feel too real now. Train to Busan showed us how fast a crisis can spread in our connected world, and how corporate greed just makes everything worse.

My point is this: horror is the best survival guide you never knew you had. Ever since its invention, the genre has been teaching us some pretty crucial lessons about how to deal with the unexpected and the overwhelming things in life, from the mundane all the way up to the world-ending. With that in mind, the following are a few of what I believe to be its most important teachings.

Lesson 1: Don't Go It Alone

The power of humans lies in groups of people sticking together and looking out for one another. Every time a character in a horror movie says those three dreaded words—Let's Split Up—we all scream at our screens. World War Z (book and movie) and The Walking Dead both hammer home one point: communities survive, loners don't. However…

Lesson 2: Trust Your Instincts About People

That doesn’t mean you should blindly trust your fellow human. Get Out taught us to follow our gut when something feels off, even if everyone tells us we're being paranoid. The Stepford Wives warned us about conformity and the danger of ignoring red flags in seemingly perfect situations. So find safety in numbers, but don’t assume all that number among you are safe.

Lesson 3: Supplies Are Your Friends

You have to prepare for disaster in advance, and nowhere is that more obvious than in your own pantry. Night of the Comet taught us about supply runs back in 1984, while A Quiet Place more recently demonstrated how to live off the grid. But then again there are the supermarket scenes in The Mist, where at least some of us learned that the real danger isn't the monsters—it's panic-buying toilet paper. Which brings us to…

Lesson 4: Keep Your Mind Sharp

When the shit hits the fan, it’s not just your food larder that needs regular maintenance. Jack Torrance in The Shining showed us what isolation can do to your brain. The Girl With All the Gifts reminded us that adapting to change means letting go of how things “should” be. And Bird Box taught us that, sometimes, survival means changing how you navigate the world.

Lesson 5: Beware the Economy

You know what’s more terrifying than aliens? Consumerism and economic inequality, which we know thanks to They Live. American Psycho exposed the horror of unchecked corporate greed and the hollowness of materialism. The Platform gave us a brutal metaphor for wealth inequality. Grady Hendrix's Horrorstor wasn't just being clever with its IKEA-catalog format, it was showing us the real horror of retail work and consumer culture. They don’t call it the Root of All Evil for nothing.

Lesson 6: Technology is a Shaky Friend at Best

While that phone in your pocket can call for help (if there’s cell service), it can also be your downfall. Black Mirror has been eerily prescient about social media addiction and technological control. Host took that anxiety even further, showing how our digital connections can be both lifeline and threat. Koji Suzuki's Ring Series wasn't just about a cursed video tape, it was about how information spreads virally. Second that with Chuck Palahniuk’s Lullaby.

Lesson 7: Hug the Earth Before it Smothers You

Long before climate change made daily headlines, films like Godzilla warned us about environmental carelessness. The Host (the Korean film) showed how corporate pollution can create real monsters. Annihilation gave us beautifully terrifying visions of nature transforming in ways we don't understand. John Langan's The Fisherman tapped into our deep fears about polluted waters and environmental revenge. At the same time we feared viruses, we slowly became one.

And many more.

Here's the thing about horror stories: good or bad, they show us that humans can be resilient as hell. Yes, Dawn of the Dead is about zombies at a mall, but it's really about people finding community in a crisis. The Last of Us reminds us that even in the worst situations, we can still find connections worth fighting for.

These stories, while entertaining us, also teach us practical skills that apply to everyday life. How to spot manipulation and gaslighting (The Invisible Man, Rosemary's Baby). When to trust your instincts in social situations (Get Out, Fresh). How to verify information and question authority (They Live, The Thing). The list goes on. And on.

And on.

Every time we consume a horror book or movie, we're not just entertaining ourselves—we're running simulations. We're asking ourselves: What would I do? How would I handle this? Who would I trust? We might never have to fight off vampires, but understanding how to keep calm in a crisis is a pretty handy skill.

While we might be terrible at preventing disasters, we're pretty good at finding moments of meaning when things look hopeless. In that way, horror teaches us that even when things get dark, the dawn is coming. It might not be the same world we knew before, but as long as we stick together—and don't split up to investigate noises—we might just have a fighting chance.

---

Before you head down to that fallout shelter, you might want to load up on some books to pass the time. Go check out this month’s haul of free books, with everything from ghosts to zombies to other supernatural horrors.