Are you a horror movie fan? Maybe you prefer a good slasher flick from the 1980s, or perhaps you are more into gore and dream of squirming in your theater seat every Halloween watching the umpteenth version of Saw? Maybe you pine away for the good old days when being scared by Boris, or Bela, or Price was fun, not nauseating. Maybe you are just fed up with it, and dread every new — strike that — every remade horror release from Hollywood? Even if it is not a remake, odds are it will be the same old dreck dressed up with new victims.
So what is really wrong with today's horror movies? Have they traded in the carefully crafted hair-raising scares for easy gut-wrenching shocks? Has the Sargasso Sea of inept, Happy Meal-packaged DVD dreck finally sunk the horror craft? Whatever happened to using suggestion and suspense and atmosphere to tell a story anyway?
The League of Tana Tea Drinkers gather at the table for another round while they ponder this curious case of forgotten lore. Have one on us and join the conversation.
Horrors Not Dead opines today's horror movies are not yesterday's horror movies...
The problem with today's horror movies is they are not yesterday’s horror movies. I mean this not in a caliber comparison, rather strictly in temporal proximity. I think neither the horror community nor the fan community at large has had enough time to digest the current crop of horror output. I feel only time will separate the wheat from the chaff, that the current generation of horror acolytes have forgotten their now cherished classics were often not only ill received upon first introduction, but downright dismissed. The saying goes, "Time heals all wounds." I think as far as horror is concerned, time shows which wounds never heal.
Not nearly enough time has passed for this conversation to properly take place. Not nearly enough middle schoolers have sneaked into current R-rated films, had parents let them run wild in the sacred horror isles of a video store (rare oasis they be), or had older siblings pass them an illicit DVD of a film so reprehensible it shall surely burn itself upon their psyche for years to come.
The arena has changed and, frankly, I think the old guard hasn’t. For the purpose of full disclosure, let me state the following: I am fairly confident that I am the youngest of the League of Tana Tea Drinkers. Barely weeks into my 23rd year on this blue ball, I have grown up with a different set of films than the other LOTTD’ers. I wasn’t weaned on the likes of black and white, of De Palma and Wes Craven, of grindhouse or Italian shockers. I cut my teeth on Predator 2, on Alien 3. On Tremors and Army of Darkness, Lord of Illusions and Scream. I grew up thinking slashers were a punchline to be laughed at. I caught the tail end of the golden age (as far as I am now concerned) and was none the baby-faced wiser.
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Article comments
1 - Bo
A very interesting read and some fine points made all around. I would argue that modern horror is the same as it ever was, only different. It's similar in that there have always been the good releases and the not-so-good. The '50s and '60s are a prime example of the rush to film sometimes on the basis of nae alone. For every Ed Wood, there is a modern analog, our Uwe Boll. There are a number of fine horror films in the recent past, many of which were mentioned here (The Mist, The Ruins, [REC]) and some of these films are truly exceptional. I dare anyone to watch the last fifteen minutes of [REC] alone in the dark and not get spooked. Unfortunately, all American filmmaking has become a numbers game, and, as such, the 'product' the studios have been slinging is inferior and derivative. As long as people buy tickets for it, studios will continue to produce. The best new horror is often fund on the dvd shelves and not at the box office. Unless a festival is nearby, it's all-too-easy to miss an Inside or The Orphanage. Can't wait to read part 2!
2 - Brad Schader
I find that horror today reflects the attitudes of the day. The 80's Slasher movies were filmed during the Reagan era of oppressive morals. In those films, sins were punished by a slasher's visit and only the pure survived. The 70's saw mostly horror movies were G-d and the devil were at odds and usually G-d was powerless to help you (exorcist, omen) which was a reflection of the post Watergate era. The 60's, like today, were heavy on gore based films with little suspense because today, like the 60's we live in a very suspenseful and horrific time of war and gore.
Great read BTW
3 - Teresa
Wonderful article! I've always said today's movies are just not scary (sorry, I didn't like "The Ruins" at all). The only movies that truly made me scared were ones such as "The Evil Dead" and "The Thing". Even the 'cheesy' horror movies of the past are a 100 times better than the 'cheesy' ones made today, I don't know if it's the setting, the acting, the concepts, but a 70s horror film always outshines something from today.
4 - Alvin
We just need something good to come along and change things. IMO it all went tits up when they made a film called Scream which was crap and overrated
5 - UP TOOO LATE
Rec isn't terrible but nothing on Blair Witch (i'm used to being told off for that one) and honestly didn't capture me the way i'd hoped. The ruins wasn't bad at all but still has that sour smell of crapiness that for me has defined this decades horror releases. The Mist was watchable enough but again, flat.
I think what's wrong with horror today (and there is something very wrong) is down to something that's missing in youth culture at the moment. It's the same in music ect innit. It's hard to define. I will start my OWN BLOG YEAHAHAHAHA. (i will)