Ultimately, other people are probably better equipped than I am to tell you what's wrong with today's horror movies. More often than not, I'm happy to roll with whatever's out there. I even liked Mirrors, for crying out loud. As far as I'm concerned, the biggest problem with today's horror films is the same as always - they just don't make enough of 'em.
Gloomy Sunday laments the lack of imagination in today's horror movies...
I think the main fault with today's horror movies is the lack of imagination. We have had the art form of the film for over a hundred years now and before that the art form of the novel for thousands. And to quote The Barenaked Ladies: "And if I put my fingers here, and if I say 'I love you dear' And if I play the same three chords, will you just yawn and say It's all been done before?" That's the problem: it's all been done before, sometimes literally as in the vast amount of remakes hitting the screen and, sometimes, just as the same theme or idea. It seems now that if we talk about a movie or even a book it is easy to say "Well, it is Dawn of the Dead but in a factory" or "It's like the Exorcist meets The Thing."
I'd have to say in the last decade I haven't seen anything that has blown me away, that has made me run out and tell people, "You have to see this," a movie I could not compare to hundreds of other movies that have already been made. I'd have to say the last film that grabbed me and really enchanted me had to be Ringu from 1998. It was something truly disturbing; a curse playing out in a video tape that kills. The one thing I loved in the movie was no one died on screen and no gore — yet it was scary and got under your skin. After you get done watching the silliness of Saw 16 — the return of the puzzle maker — you may not want to eat a dish of spaghetti, but after you get done watching Ringu you will want to sleep with the light on. Of course, let a few years go by and America's moneymaking machine just takes it and remakes it and leaves out all the points in the story and all the skillful camera work and atmosphere that made the original so good.
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..
3 - joelp
easy for you talentless fucks to sick back and complain.
go out and make your own movie if the rest suck so bad.