"I'm embarrassed because most of the movies that vainly try to elicit a speck of horror in today's glutted market are either so amateurishly done, they show a lack of fundamental understanding of the psychology of fear and terror, lack of the cinematic craft of handling a damn camera coherently, and lack of noble acting."
"Noble acting?" asked Zombos.
"Like a Boris Karloff or a Vincent Price. You know, acting with skill and taking it seriously, no matter how ludicrous the material might be. Not many actors past Robert Englund, Bruce Campbell, or Jeffrey Combs take what they do seriously enough, or have the craft to make it all look good. Hell enough you have amateurs calling themselves Idiots With Cameras doing bottom feeder indie stuff like Die and Let Live with actors that don't, and scripts that miss a heartbeat."
"Which one is that?" asked Zombos.
"Idiot zombies crash the idiot pizza party."
"Oh, right. One of Paul Holstenwall's gems, as I recall," said Zombos. "Didn't he bring that along with The Sick House? Another catastrophe. Okay, okay, but all of this has been said before."
"Okay then," I challenged him, "what have we not said? What else is there?
"Fun," said Zombos.
"Fun?" I repeated.
"Yes, fun. Horror movies just are not much fun anymore. When we grew up we had fun with our monsters. They were terrifying, but in a fun way, if that makes sense."
"You know, it does make sense. The Frankenstein Monster, the Wolf Man, Dracula, they were so different from us, so set off in a remote country or remote time, we could be safely scared and not think much of it. We could make fun of them without reprisal, and play at being scared — haha, look at you, you're all hairy in the moonlight, but it's not my moonlight, and it's not my Carpathian mountains you're prowling in."
"That is right," added Zombos, "but times have changed. We prowl our own moonlit paths and rattle chains in our own dungeons now. We blew up the bomb in our own laboratories, and mutated our psyches into serial killing amoral zealots that walk the daylight hours just as easily as the night. The simple truth is we can no longer have fun with our monsters: we take them home with us everyday."
"So what you are really saying is that today's horror movies — at least some of them — are too realistically scary for us to fully enjoy?" I asked.
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.