In part one of "What's Wrong With Today's Horror Movies", the League of Tana Tea Drinkers hoisted a few crisp, wet ones while dwelling on the exigencies, intricacies, and commodities of postmodern (as well as classic and neo-classic) horror film fair, and it's looming quietus into something amounting to little more than the taste of grisly pablum. With salty pretzels well in hand, and a cold drink in the other, let us get back to the discussion.
Dinner With Max Jenke wants more on his plate...
This is a topic that lots of fans have an immediate answer to, with plenty of vitriol to share about how horror is a diluted product now - just watered-down thrills made for an indiscriminating audience. Tips for improvement run the whole gamut -- horror movies should be R and not PG-13, there should be less of a focus on teenagers, and more original films instead of remakes and sequels.
But horror fans of every generation have typically made it a point to complain that the horror films of the present are inferior to whatever scare fare they grew up on. I imagine that even some ancient moviegoers who were raised in the silent days must have believed that the advent of sound was the death knell of true horror. Because, you know, movies are only scary when you have to imagine what a creaking door sounds like. And once black and white was replaced by color, I bet some fans never recovered from that because everybody knows that horror movies just don’t work as well unless they’re in black and white. The point being that every era has given horror fans something new to gripe about.
When I was a kid in the early ‘80s, all I ever heard was a lot of hyperventilating about how horror had fallen into a morass of blood and guts and how the slasher genre was destroying horror movies. Now, of course, that time is now thought of as some kind of golden age and films that were dismissed as outright junk like My Bloody Valentine and Happy Birthday to Me (both 1981) are considered (in some quarters, at least) to be classics and now it’s the turn of remakes like Prom Night (2008) to be blamed for ruining horror.
So if anyone ever asks me what’s wrong with horror today, my usual answer is “nothing”.
Sure, I don’t love every horror movie I see. With some films, I just don’t understand how they appeal to anyone. The Saw series baffles me, for instance - not because of the violence, but because of the inanity of the storylines. But what other people like doesn't bother me and every year I always manage to find some movies that I do enjoy. As long as that stays true, I can't say things are all bad.
Article comments
1 - E. D. Deuss
The problem with recent (and not so recent) horror movies is that they mostly have blood & gore (BAG) for its own sake. If one wants that, they should work in a butcher shop! Damned few "horror" movies made over the past 30 or so years would be deemed classics. A classic, in my humble opinion, is a film that one wants to see over and over and over again.
The Universal horror films of the '30s and '40s are mainly classics and appeal even to today's viewers. There was a certain quality about those films, for example, that is totally lacking in the majority of BAG films of the last 3 or so decades.
Some of the best "horror" or "thriller" films have the "less is more" idea of not showing every little thing. The unseen is much more spooky than actually seeing whatever it is.
My rule of thumb is: most remakes are not going to be as good as the originals. Some of the BAG films might be suitable for renting, but I sure wouldn't pay big bucks to see 'em.
2 - George
The big problem with todays horror is it is SO FANTASTIC AND SO DRIPY OF BLOOD NOT REALLY DOWN TO EARTH.What scares people is in the normal cours of our lifes journy....lets say...a friend of your's is a palentologest working in south america comes across a fossol of a 5 fingered claw and arm.....breaks it off and shows it to other scientiets....they think there could be more to this so they put together an expedtion to find the CREATURE from the black lagoon....in B/W mind you....There was no huge spiritul hold on the lagoon by the creature. Like in the new mummy movies....All that tends to not be believable..Is not at all scary.. But our boy the creature is just a simple creature living in it's own world....We came to capture him.....very very hard to do...That was scary...But the whole story could actually happen...the way it was written....So what is believable and what is not??? that is the question!!!!..Is seem to me that to much is put into the new horror..K.I.S.S..KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID...aND THE PEOPLE WILL COME...G..