A discussion on why westerners can't make horror movies anymore

[ToddIsDead]

The best two horror movies in the last ten years were Frailty and 28 Days Later. There really isn't all that much left to mention. I suppose the Saw movies were pretty good. American Psycho was pretty good too.

 

[Flexo]

No offense, but a lot of America's horror films are considered clasics for their cheesiness and violence than thier ability to scare. I mean, when you think about it, Friday The 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Evil Dead are more popular for their high octane level of gore than anything else. Loads of violence doesn't make a film scary. I suppose Pulp Fiction can be cosndiered a horror movie, then? Granted, they're disturbing, but also are dated.

Evil Dead, while filled with gore, had more than that. The movie still makes me jump, and there are some genuinly disturbing scenes. (Tree rape, anyone?)

 

[Bat Attack]

The most recent (1996-) horror movies I've enjoyed are the Final Destination series, the Saw movies, the first two Scream movies, The Hills Have Eyes remake was really good, Freddy vs. Jason was great, and thats about it. The rest of the horror movies I love are from the late 70's-80's.

 

[logan_weapon_x]

Exactly. Silent Hill demonstrates all the problems with horror movies today, which is, "Why spend half the film tantalizing the audience with whispers and shadows when I can throw hordes of CGI monsters at them?"

Most if not all the characters (monsters) in Silent Hill, were actually real and not CGI.

 

[KenK]

Most if not all the characters (monsters) in Silent Hill, were actually real and not CGI.

Ballet dancers and contortionists, I guess. The twitchy nurses were the best!!

 

[kainedamo]

The bugs in Silent Hill were CGI.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

I personally think the best American horror movies are The Shining, The Omen, The Exorcist, Silence Of The Lambs, Se7en and Pyscho.

Silence of the Lambs and Psycho are two of the best American thrillers, though. As is Se7en.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

American Psycho was pretty good too.

American Psycho is black comedy.

 

[ToddIsDead]

So is Bride of Chucky, but it's still a horror movie. I don't see Black Comedy as a genre, but just a form of humor that can be used in a number of types of movies.

 

[The Chairman]

Evil Dead, while filled with gore, had more than that. The movie still makes me jump, and there are some genuinly disturbing scenes. (Tree rape, anyone?)

It's more rediculous than it is scary nowadays. Me and my mom watched it for the first time, and rather than scream, we aughed our asses off. It's so violent it's funny. I mean, you can tell it's not meant to be a highly intelligent movie. I love it, though.

Silence of the Lambs and Psycho are two of the best American thrillers, though. As is Se7en.

Yes, they're more thriller than they are horror, but I was genuinely afriad of them. Serial killers more than anyhting scare me as far as cinema go, especially since both SOTL and Pyscho were based on actual killers. If you count sci -fi horro as a genre, than Alien also mkaes my list. I'd also like to add Poltergeist and The Lost Boys, all great movies as well.

 

[ToddIsDead]

The best two horror movies in the last ten years were Frailty and 28 Days Later. There really isn't all that much left to mention. I suppose the Saw movies were pretty good. American Psycho was pretty good too.

Not enough people have seen Frailty.

I swear it's one of the best horror movies in the past 5-10 years.

 

[Flexo]

It's more rediculous than it is scary nowadays. Me and my mom watched it for the first time, and rather than scream, we aughed our asses off. It's so violent it's funny. I mean, you can tell it's not meant to be a highly intelligent movie. I love it, though.

Bah, it still has the same scare potential as the rest of the films that come out now, nevermind the age.

Evil Dead was smart enough to include some slow scenes between the scary bits. It allows you to take a breath, process what you've seen, and be scared all over again.

And yes, Evil Dead is filled with black comedy. I mean, who doesn't laugh when a guy gets knocked into not one, but two shelves? Or when he hits a monster with a board over and over and over and, well, you get the point.

 

[The Chairman]

Bah, it still has the same scare potential as the rest of the films that come out now, nevermind the age.

Evil Dead was smart enough to include some slow scenes between the scary bits. It allows you to take a breath, process what you've seen, and be scared all over again.

And yes, Evil Dead is filled with black comedy. I mean, who doesn't laugh when a guy gets knocked into not one, but two shelves? Or when he hits a monster with a board over and over and over and, well, you get the point.

I just think there's more black comedy than there is genuine scares. The tree rape scnee is more of a WTF moment than it is genuinely scary. For me the funniest scene is when they want to get kill the zombie and get rid of the corpse and Bruce Campbell goes, "We can't, she's a friend of ours". Hilarious stuff.

 

[The Dark Defender]

Well, many of my favorite movies are horror films made within the past 10 years, and I think alot of the widely lauded genre entries from the past are extremely overrated, so I disagree whole-heartedly with this thread.

I love The Ring(it's vastly superior to its Japanese counterpart), but I hate what it inspired and it did end up doing the genre more harm than good; but movies like The Devil's Rejects, the SAW franchise, Wolf Creek, Haute Tension, The Hills Have Eyes(also vastly superior to the original)...that are made in the interest of hardcore horror fans that are passionate about this type of material rather than the general public are saving the genre, and furthermore, making it stronger than ever before(and better than overseas horror).

 

[deathshead2]

I like horror movies but NONE and I mean NONE of them are scary. But I am angry that we aren't getting any really well made horror films. Even though I really like SAW and SAWll which were made really well.

 

[Leto Atrides]

(This isn't necessarily a response to the initial post, but a reaction to the thread as a whole).

Personally, the only movies I've found truly frightening (excepting when I was young) have been Italian horror movies actually. Japanese films can be kind of disturbing (Interview), but I've never found them actually scary. Just the crazy Italian horror movies from the 70s and what not.

Besides, in my experience the best horror movies aren't scary, they're just good flims that happed to be in the genre. I don't think being scary should really be considered in the criteria for a horror film.

I suppose some people want to see a movie just to be scared. I can't see why, though.

 

[StrainedEyes]

The problem with the horror scene, is exactly the problem with everything else in Hollywood right now. When something new and unique and genuinly good comes out, Hollywood bum-rushes it and makes 8 movies like it, thus killing what was good about the first one. And don't get me started on the remake cycle going on.

Hopefully it will come back, new directors will come up and revitalize not only the horror genre, but everything else.

Studios seem to be alot more iffy on how intense a movie should be, than they used to. No-one has guts anymore to release a hard R horror movie.

Maybe it's the censor people causing the problems.

 

[TheSaintofKillers]

The problem with the horror scene, is exactly the problem with everything else in Hollywood right now. When something new and unique and genuinly good comes out, Hollywood bum-rushes it and makes 8 movies like it, thus killing what was good about the first one. And don't get me started on the remake cycle going on.

Hopefully it will come back, new directors will come up and revitalize not only the horror genre, but everything else.

Studios seem to be alot more iffy on how intense a movie should be, than they used to. No-one has guts anymore to release a hard R horror movie.

Maybe it's the censor people causing the problems.

Do not blame the censor on Hollywood's sucking.

You can always find a way to make good horror, no matter your limits.

 

[deathshead2]

(This isn't necessarily a response to the initial post, but a reaction to the thread as a whole).

Personally, the only movies I've found truly frightening (excepting when I was young) have been Italian horror movies actually. Japanese films can be kind of disturbing (Interview), but I've never found them actually scary. Just the crazy Italian horror movies from the 70s and what not.

Besides, in my experience the best horror movies aren't scary, they're just good flims that happed to be in the genre. I don't think being scary should really be considered in the criteria for a horror film.

I suppose some people want to see a movie just to be scared. I can't see why, though.

Not scary but creeps me out alot.

 

[thealiasman2000]

I HATE movies that call themselves "horror", but replace actual scares with a shower of blood, gore and guts.

They are more gross and disturbing trhan actually scary. You feel like you want to puke, but you're DEFINETLY not scared.

"House of 1000 Corpses", "Hostel", "The Devil's Rejects", "Creep", "Reeker", "Saw" and "Saw 2" all suffer from this problem.

"The People Under the Stairs", now THAT'S a horror movie! I swear, I couldn't bear to watch it because I was genuinly terrifyied.

"Seed of Chucky" and "Freddy Vs Jason" are good, because they don't feature too much gore and are actually fun to watch. But they are not scary, not by a mile.

In other words, I like horror movies that either amuse me or scare me. Movies that jus gross me out are not my thing.

 

[ToddIsDead]

I can't believe you liked People Under the Stairs more than te Devil's Rejects. It wasn't Wes Craven's worst movie, but PUTS was pretty damn bad. Rejects was one of the best movies last year.

 

[TheSaintofKillers]

I can't believe you liked People Under the Stairs more than te Devil's Rejects. It wasn't Wes Craven's worst movie, but PUTS was pretty damn bad. Rejects was one of the best movies last year.

He just used a whole post to explain why he prefered it over Devil's rejects. It's actually now pretty easy to believe and understand him...

 

[ToddIsDead]

He just used a whole post to explain why he prefered it over Devil's rejects. It's actually now pretty easy to believe and understand him...

I see that. But a movie like Devil's Rejects or the first Saw are just so far above PUTS IMO. I see why he likes them, but I just can't say that that movie is better than the other two at all.

Anyway, upon further reflection, there have been a few great horror movies in the past ten years. Frailty, 28 Days Later, American Psycho, Devil's Rejects, Ginger Snaps, Dog Soldiers, Scream, The Frighteners, Cube, Vampires, Saw, Signs, Shadow of the Vampire, From Hell, Jeepers Creepers, The Devil's Backbone, One Hour Photo, Bubba Ho-Tep, High/Haute Tension/Switchblade Romance, May, and a few others. Although there are just as many, if not more quality Japanese movies.

 

[Leto Atrides]

28 Days Later, Shadow of the Vampire, From Hell, Devil's Backbone

Good ones I didn't think of .

 

[Joker]

before I forget, Devil's Rejects was one of the best horror movies I've ever seen...Zombie still knows how to kick it old school