Why do so many horror movies suck?

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Permalink Reply by Bessie on February 1, 2008 at 1:15am

I saw this, I loved the hell outta it.

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Permalink Reply by The Eyeball Kid on January 28, 2008 at 3:18am

Yeah, I would hardly say that Saw or The Ring got it right. Unless getting it right entails comit-inducing camp or shitting on a far superior foreign film.

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Permalink Reply by The Eyeball Kid on January 28, 2008 at 3:25am

For good recent horrors, I'd recommend The Descent, Three Extremes, and 28 Weeks Later.

If you're in the mood for a scare but not necessarily for gore, then I'd recommend The Orphanage (which actually does have one incredibly gory scene, just don't expect a constant bloodbath) or 1408.

Also, it's not actually that scary persay, but Oldboy is an incredibly gory and incredibly awesome revenge film and definitely one of my favorite movies.

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Permalink Reply by Mike on December 30, 2008 at 1:38pm

i thought three extremes was pretty retarded. the first movie was just a gross out thing about eating abortion. the second was a saw rip off. and after those 2 i was like fuck this not watching number 3.

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Permalink Reply by Domeister on January 28, 2008 at 3:27pm

Here is what I think makes for a good horror movie, and let me know if you disagree. The problem filmmakers have is that they don't look outside the box on new concepts in the horror genre. The films that have worked lately are the ones that put a fresh spin on the old genre. The remake of Dawn of the Dead is an example. It introduced us to fast moving zombies. Although 28 Days Later was first to show that idea, Dawn of the Dead put a fresh take with menacing "run fast or they'll get you" zombies.

Cloverfield, in which I do consider it as a horror movie, took the giant monster film in a totally new perspective, having it seen from a first person view from onlooker viewing the devastating destruction. The Blair Witch Project also worked in the same way but it used the mystery of those kids trying to debunk an old myth, and then getting caught in it.

Horror movies can again scare the shit out of you, but only if Hollywood would quit re-hashing some of the same ol' crap that they get from j-horror movies and start thinking of fresh takes on old genres. Just my two cents.

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Permalink Reply by EdMuzick on January 31, 2008 at 8:58pm

I agree. The best horror films always have a slightly different take. It's when we tread over the same ground again and again that the whole thing loses its punch. Also, the Hollywood need to "earn" the R rating sometimes just gets you a splatter movie which isn't really scary at all. Don't get me wrong, a little splatter can go a long way to a really scary film (Hello chest-bursting Alien!), but often it's what you don't see that's makes your imagination run away. Twenty-five years ago it was Spielberg and Jaws; this year it's JJ Abrams and Cloverfield.

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Permalink Reply by Domeister on January 31, 2008 at 10:46pm

I can't agree with you more.

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Permalink Reply by Jon, Chicago's Mindfreak on January 31, 2008 at 11:31pm

Personally, I believe that Hollywood has forgotten what is truly scary. Famed horror writer HP Lovecraft once stated, "The oldest and most powerful human emotion is fear, and the most powerful fear is the fear of the unknown." Horror movies are much scarier when the audience doesnt know what is after the main characters.

For example, the first predator movie was so scary because for 3/4ths of the movie you had no idea what the hell was going after Arnold and the others (and I'm sure Predator would agree with me). Same thing with Poltergiest if I'm not mistaken (been a while since I've seen it) you never "saw" what was harming the family until the end (the giant skull thing).

1408 on the other hand is scary for a completely different reason. That's scary because the "Monster" is not something tangible and therefore cannot neccesarily be hurt.

Any movie, book, video game or anything that completely screws with someones mind is always good. A perfect example is the Gamecube classic Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem where the game would constantly trick you into thinking the game had froze or the game was over or that your gamecube shut off. It made you wonder if it was the game or you that was going crazy.

Well, thats my thoughts on what is truly scary. But hey, what do I know?

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Permalink Reply by Marvin A. Lanier on December 30, 2008 at 12:29pm

I agree with you; but something else the industry is lacking is the art of timing, they need to learn how to build tension and then put the veiwer at complete ease with a unexpected scare not to far behind. Alien is by far on of the best horror movies (JAWS is great but it's more of a creaturefeature) because it builds on it's self; lets you get to know the characters a bit, then sends them onto a curb. It doesn't show what the Alien is for a good portion of the movie and you never really see it fully untill the end. Horror films these day all open with someone getting killed with in the first few minutes, making it very hard for the material to even emote, turning it into ninty seven minutes of laughs. That's my two cents.

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Permalink Reply by Razmere on February 1, 2008 at 12:39am

I talked about this in one of my video rants on my page.

I say we've been desensitized. We rely WAY too much on blood and gore that we for get that fear is in the thing lurking in the dark, not the darkness itself.

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Permalink Reply by Alter_Ego on December 30, 2008 at 1:59pm

The thing about Hollywood is that they tend to forget that the purpose of horror is supposed to evoke emotion-- a sensation of fear or dread. But instead, they go for the cheap shock value and with the gore and stuff jumping out at you. That stuff gets old.

One thing that helps a horror film a lot is the atmosphere, and very few films these days can create a truly terrifying atmosphere. 1408 is a good example in that it created a very claustrophobic atmosphere. The Blair Witch Project (I know there are some who hated it) did a fine job of creating a sensation of being lost and abandoned.

On a further note about Blair Witch, they never show anything in that movie. The horror is implied. This can also work to the film's advantage, in that it allows the audience to use their imagination to fill in the gaps.

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Permalink Reply by Jumpin Jehosaphat on August 14, 2009 at 12:10am

I liked Hills Have Eyes remake, though I didn't like Saw nor any of its sequels, as far as recomendations I'd say Frailty, Let the Right One In, I Sell The Dead, The Strangers, REC, Cloverfield, Teeth, The Signal, Drag Me To Hell, 1408 (director's cut) and Deadset (granted it's a miniseries)
The reason why I think it's so rare to see a good horror movie these days is because so many people think, directors think horror so easy to do or just don't respect it. Therefore they get shit actors to perform in movies with horrible scripts that companies buy because they know horror fans are so hardcore that they'll through garbage to that next great thing. True horror fans don't tend to care about budgets if you look back you'll see that many of our favorite horrors were by new young directors with little to know budget so companies say lets make something cheap the fangoria crowd will watch it. Add to that most suits and producers don't really love horror, it's a niche which means many people don't it, so they think "put in some gore, high school chicks and a dude in a mask and you've got yourself a horror movie"

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