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Horror is red-hot at the box office, but what is up next for the genre?

Ideas flowed freely at the San Diego Comic-Con panel for Bold Voice of Contemporary Horror: Tenth Anniversary Edition, which took place on July 24. Panelists included both actors and behind-the-camera talent, including Dan Stevens, star of AMC series “The Terror”; Deborah Ann Woll, star of Shudder’s upcoming thriller “The Cycle”; director Zachary Wigon, who helmed Bleecker Street’s “Victorian Psycho,” which debuted during this year’s Cannes Film Festival; and Dave Boyle, who directed SXSW audience award winner “Never After Dark.” The discussion was moderated by Michael Lerman, the co-founder and director of film programming at the genre-based Overlook Film Festival, and was curated by convention mainstay Rachel Walker, who founded the panel in 2015.

What were their thoughts and theories? Read more below.

Keeping audiences on their toes by not being boxed into one type of genre.

Touching on different tones is a great way to keep viewers discombobulated and primed for a scare.

“I mentioned ‘The Descent’ as being one of my favorite movies. Part of the reason for that is that it shifts,” Woll said. “You’re not always quite sure what kind of horror movie you’re in. Is it a psychological thriller? Is it a survivalist thriller? Is it a creature feature? To me, films that can play with genre in that sense are often the most engaging. When I read this script [for ‘The Cycle’], that immediately made me say, ‘I have to do this.’”

Bring in ideas from other types of storytelling, even if they’re not fully reflected in the final work.

Creatives should take from everything they’ve ever worked on — even if it doesn’t immediately seem transferable.

“I think that the thing that really prepared me to jump into the genre was working on action, just because of how precise and communicative you have to be,” Boyle said. “There are so many moving pieces, so many things to think about and keep track of. Working in Japan for the first time, it’s interesting; Japanese scripts leave half the page blank. Then the director actually draws in the cuts where each cut is gonna happen, so that you have a real sense of how the movie’s going to come together, and there’s a real precision to it if you use that system and lean into it. That’s what prepared me to jump into my favorite genre, which is horror.”

Horror mixed with humor continues to be on the rise.

This goes even beyond the influx of funny directors like Zach Cregger and Curry Barker making their mark on the industry.

“Something I’m pleased to see spreading at the moment is horror with more humor attached,” Stevens said. “I find that humor is so powerful in horror and can often be overlooked. It’s sometimes a scary word when you mention that to producers: ‘I’d like to bring some humor into this.’ ‘It’s not a comedy.’ ‘I know it’s not a comedy, but by bringing some humor in, by bringing elements of humor, you bring in humanity, which I think exists in even the most batshit of situations.’ That can really ground a story sometimes. I’ve really enjoyed seeing a proliferation of those kinds of movies recently.”

Revel in withholding some information from the audience to make for even bigger payoffs.

Conjure up interest by dropping some clues that don’t get solved right away.

“I feel like horror is a subgenre of mystery,” Wigon said. “When I think about horror storytelling, it’s almost like you have a patchwork quilt, and you can’t see what’s in any of the patches at the beginning of the movie. Then as it goes along, you start to reveal that this is one little patch, that’s one little patch, and you’re creating mystery because the audience doesn’t understand how these patches connect to one another, and that’s the game that everybody’s playing. Then as it goes along, you start to realize that you’ve been looking at one image the whole film, and the pleasure is in seeing how these seemingly disparate pieces of information come to connect.”

Watch the new trailer for “The Cycle,” which debuted during the panel, below.

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Shark Week has officially returned, bringing another frenzy of great whites, makos and other underwater predators to Discovery Channel.

The network’s annual programming event kicked off Sunday, July 26, and runs through Saturday, Aug. 1, with new specials airing nightly beginning at 8 p.m. ET. Cord-cutters can watch Shark Week live online through Sling TV, which carries Discovery Channel as part of its Sling Blue and Sling Orange + Blue packages.

Sling Blue includes more than 40 live channels and allows subscribers to stream on as many as three devices simultaneously. The service also comes with 50 hours of cloud DVR storage, making it possible to record Shark Week specials and watch them later.

Viewers who miss the live broadcasts can also add Discovery+ through Sling. Discovery+ is available in an ad-supported plan for $5.99 per month or an ad-free plan for $9.99 per month, with Shark Week programming available to watch on demand.

This year marks the 38th edition of Shark Week, with Discovery rolling out 20 new specials focused on shark behavior, attacks, conservation and ocean science. The lineup opened with “K-Pop Shark Heroes,” featuring comedian Ken Jeong and singer Rei Ami on a mission to challenge misconceptions about sharks across East Asia.

Other highlights include “Air Jaws: Red, White and Breach,” which investigates great white sharks breaching along the U.S. coastline, and “Invasion of the Mega Sharks,” following researchers as they search for a potentially record-breaking great white off Nova Scotia.

Later in the week, “Jurassic Sharks” uses CGI and real-world expeditions to examine prehistoric species, while “Jaws vs Orca” explores the growing evidence that killer whales are hunting great whites. “How to Train a Great White” tests whether the predators can learn and respond to cues, and “Ultimate Shark Dive” follows high diver Molly Carlson as she attempts a helicopter jump into a narrow shark cage.

The week concludes Aug. 1 with “Great White Highway,” about the increasing number of great whites traveling along the East Coast, followed by “Thresher Shark: Stun to Kill,” which examines how thresher sharks use their powerful tails to incapacitate prey.

Stream Shark Week on Sling TV.