So now are we doomed to rehash the same plots and monsters and scares forever? I don't know. Is it possible in our highly connected world with information at your fingertips to create something new and different? I think that is the challenge of every artist whether they be a filmmaker, a writer or a painter. I do have hope. Our imaginations are limitless and somewhere out there is a great mind creating a new world for the rest of us to explore. Let's just hope that Hollywood will actually listen this time instead of green lighting The Towering Inferno remake.
Unkle Lancifer from Kindertrauma finds Happy Meal Horror tasteless...
What is wrong with horror today? Part of the problem is that we use financial success as a barometer of what is popular or lasting. Would we even know if a good horror film existed if it did not make X amount of money on its first weekend? I've seen fine horror films like The Dark Hours (2005) and Dead End (2003) come and go with not much comment from anyone. It's like calling a firecracker that does not level a building a dud. The sad thing is, if a film does happen to make a sizable profit, we the audience are routinely punished with diluted versions of it for the better part of a decade. Aren't we still suffering from the effects of The Ring (2002), just as Scream (1996) before it brought originality to a screeching halt?
I feel almost hypocritical suggesting that, as most of my favorite films were part of the Halloween gold rush, but in their defense those films were independent in nature and their scripts were not shoved through a Hollywood meat-grinder in order to appeal to the largest possible audience and therefore produce the largest possible cash flow (they were lucky enough to have that old innovator, poverty, on their side). I realize that people are very much allowed to at least attempt to receive the largest compensation possible for their efforts, but really, should anyone be surprised if quality or more importantly distinctive voices are lost in the shuffle?
If I could be so bold, I would suggest the bigger problem is with the audience. The fact is movies, horror or otherwise, have become completely disposable and have lost their "specialness" for lack of a better word. At the risk of sounding like an oldster, those of us who grew up during the advent of VCRs and cable might be able to recall the excitement of watching a real honest to goodness movie, any movie in our homes without commercials and giving it our full on attention and feeling privileged to do so (I know Dana Carvey did a better version of this character on SNL).
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.