From its visceral fight scenes to its unforgettable car chase to its explosive finale, The Batman is undoubtedly an action-packed superhero movie that delivers all the spectacle that fans could hope for. But it’s not just a straightforward comic book thriller. Matt Reeves’ reboot elicits a few different emotions from the audience, with a Hitchcockian romance and a grisly serial killer on the loose.
Reeves drew on his background in the horror genre for a few key moments in The Batman. From its bloodthirsty slasher villain to its voyeuristic cinematography to the Riddler’s elaborate death traps, The Batman borrows a few unnerving tropes from horror cinema.
Slasher Villain
In the comics, the Riddler is one of the goofiest Batman villains. He wears green spandex covered in question marks, he leaves silly puzzles at the scenes of his crimes, and his real name is E. Nygma.
But in The Batman, he’s not characterized as a comic book supervillain; he’s characterized more like a slasher villain, brutally picking off his murder victims without a shred of remorse.
Voyeuristic Cinematography
From Psycho to Peeping Tom, many classic horror movies have unsettled their audience by putting them in the perspective of a voyeuristic killer. Using the camera to turn the audience into a voyeur is a staple of Hitchcock’s thrillers.
In The Batman, Reeves employs this technique whenever the Riddler stalks his victims. The opening shot of the movie is the Riddler spying on Mayor Mitchell and his family at home before sneaking in to murder him.
Scream Queen
From Fay Wray to Janet Leigh to Jamie Lee Curtis, the most iconic female actors in the horror genre are often referred to as “scream queens.” These actors have all played badass horror protagonists who fearlessly battle monsters, but their performances are defined by their piercing shrieks.
Reeves included a classic “scream queen” in The Batman. Selina Kyle’s roommate (and possible lover) Annika is murdered off-screen, but the killing is heard later in a voicemail. Annika’s frightened pleas for mercy and bloodcurdling final scream are more than enough to unnerve the audience.
Jump Scares
Jump scares can be one of the most effective parts of a horror movie or one of the least effective parts, depending on the filmmaker’s command of their craft. As demonstrated several times throughout The Batman, Reeves knows that the key to a good jump scare is the build-up.
If a director can make the audience anticipate a jump and still get them to jump, they’re really onto something. In the opening scene of The Batman, the Riddler stands behind Mitchell for a really long time, staring intensely and breathing heavily, before finally unleashing a battle cry and bludgeoning him to death with a carpet tucker.
Inspired By True Crime
In some cases, there’s nothing that a horror filmmaker’s imagination can come up with that’s scarier than real-life atrocities committed by real-life serial killers. Leatherface and Norman Bates were both based on Ed Gein, while Mick Taylor from Wolf Creek was inspired by the backpacker murders committed by Ivan Milat.
The Riddler seen in The Batman was based on the Zodiac killer. As an eccentric, branded serial killer who was never caught and who left mysterious riddles and ciphers at the scenes of his crimes, Zodiac was the perfect parallel for a horrifying real-world reinvention of the classic Batman villain.
Lurking In The Shadows
Horror filmmakers can often create tension with a character lurking in the shadows, watching their unsuspecting prey from afar. Pennywise hides in a sewer. The xenomorph lurks in a pitch-black tunnel, waiting for Dallas to shine a flashlight on it.
The titular vigilante in The Batman hides in a shadowy alleyway before making his entrance. This moment also calls back to the Bear Jew’s iconic introduction in Inglourious Basterds, clattering his baseball bat on the walls of a dark hallway.
Elaborate Death Traps
Jigsaw’s elaborate death traps from the Saw franchise inspired a wave of “torture porn” movies in the 2000s. This gruesome subgenre set out to entertain its audience by putting a cast of unsuspecting protagonists through the wringer at the hands of a sadistic serial killer (or a group of them).
From the collar bomb he puts on the D.A. to the rats’ maze he attaches to the G.C.P.D. commissioner’s bare stomach, the Riddler’s shocking death traps from The Batman call back to the gruesome contraptions from the Saw movies.
Masked Killer
Almost every major slasher movie villain has worn a mask while carrying out their killings: Jason Voorhees had a hockey mask, Michael Myers had a William Shatner mask, and Leatherface had a mask made of human flesh.
The Riddler has his own signature mask – a winter combat mask – that he wears when he commits his murders. He wears his glasses over the mask. As it turns out, he’s very proud of this mask. When Batman pays him a visit in costume at Arkham Asylum, the Riddler says, “Your mask is amazing. I wish you could’ve seen me in mine.”
Shocking Plot Twist
Horror movies don’t always use a gory murder or a ghostly possession to terrify their audience. There are plenty of other ways to get scares. Sometimes, a harrowing plot twist, like the Armitages’ true intentions with Chris in Get Out or Esther’s real age in Orphan, does the trick just as well.
Reeves filled The Batman with jaw-dropping twists and turns. Selina Kyle is Carmine Falcone’s estranged daughter who wants to kill him to avenge her late mother. The Riddler reveals that he believes Batman has been working as his accomplice, bringing victims to him. He also turns out to have amassed an online following of amateur terrorists, ready to assassinate a mayoral candidate on his behalf. These twists are as startling as any grisly murder or jump scare.
The Bad Guy Wins (Sort Of)
A common trait of horror movies is that the bad guy wins, robbing the audience of the catharsis of seeing a hero triumph over a villain. Michael Myers gets away, Freddy Krueger traps the teenagers of Elm Street in the dreamscape, and the pagan cult successfully wipes out the Graham family in Hereditary.
While Batman fends off the Riddler’s army of assassins and saves Gothamites from the flood, the Riddler is the true victor at the end of The Batman. The city is devastated, the corrupt officials running Gotham are all dead, and Falcone has been revealed as “el rata alada.” Along the way, Batman and the G.C.P.D. were tricked into unwittingly helping the Riddler’s plan come to fruition.