The Horror Thread

[zeroapoc]

Insidious was awful, especially the last 30 minutes or so.

I agree completely. I'm kinda baffled by the love it receives.

 

[culver3vlr22]

I just hate this idea that gore is bad ala torture porn.

When in reality IMHO you can't film and horror movie or a death scene like its 1978. That's crazy I'm not saying I need gore( I love verbinski's ring and drag me to hell both PG-13) I just need some horror that's aimed toward me a 21 year old stoner and I havnt gotten a horror movie like that in awhile(evil dead is still the best film I've seen this year)

And all these Blum produced horror movies, good for the business side of horror I love seeing horror making money at the box office, but terrible as far as quality of film.

I know I'm crazy for loving slasher horror I'm what you can call simple minded if you want to call me that. It seems as if film makers can't get a good slasher movie made because I guy killing ppl isn't scary to teens right now. The idea that their son or daughter is a demon or that their house is haunted is the only thing scary to people now and I just don't get it.

 

[Wesley Dodds]

It has more to do with the slasher thing having peaked and burned out at the start of the '00s.

I find trends like these move in cycles, and right now after the post-Scream Slasher boom, that whole idea is still really played out. I mean, there was a while there where basically every scary movie was a crappy Scream rip-off.

I think the slasher genre will be back though. Just give it a few years.

 

[culver3vlr22]

Very true. It's funny how a great and well thought slasher movie like scream was can in away hurt the slasher genre.

And the straight to DVD thing as made it so hard to find good horror. I like straight to DVD as it can give a movie more freedoms. I just havnt found many if any good straight to DVD slashers either. I love hatchet tho I think it's one the best slasher movies ever.

 

[The Dark Defender]

I thought Insidious was very good, aside from the rather silly Darth Maul monkey demon.

 

[zeroapoc]

Yeah that's what kinda killed it for me.

 

[Thundarr]

I just hate this idea that gore is bad ala torture porn.

When in reality IMHO you can't film and horror movie or a death scene like its 1978. That's crazy I'm not saying I need gore( I love verbinski's ring and drag me to hell both PG-13) I just need some horror that's aimed toward me a 21 year old stoner and I havnt gotten a horror movie like that in awhile(evil dead is still the best film I've seen this year)

And all these Blum produced horror movies, good for the business side of horror I love seeing horror making money at the box office, but terrible as far as quality of film.

I know I'm crazy for loving slasher horror I'm what you can call simple minded if you want to call me that. It seems as if film makers can't get a good slasher movie made because I guy killing ppl isn't scary to teens right now. The idea that their son or daughter is a demon or that their house is haunted is the only thing scary to people now and I just don't get it.

I don't think it's so much a case of "gore is bad" hurting the popularity of slasher films. I think it's more a case of "people have forgotten how to make a good slasher film". With our recent technological advancements, film makers are relying too heavily on cheap tricks and gimmics and not enough on a good, well thought out story.

At its core, a slasher movie is the scariest type of horror film because it's the most plausible in reality. The likelihood of actually being possessed by a demon is pretty slim. But a masked intruder hiding beneathe your bed waiting to stab you with a big ass knife? That could actually happen.

But then you get writer/director/producer types like Rob Zombie who have no understanding of what makes a movie scary making crap horror films. Then there are the studio executives who know nothing about how to make a scary movie telling the writers and directors what to do. Thus we get crap like RZ's Halloween, or the remake of Black Christmas (I've watched the special features on the DVD for that one. The writer/director wanted a suspenseful movie more in line with the first one. It's the studio that insisted on more graphic kills, higher body count, and more jump scares.)

Hey studio execs! You guys know how to market a film! That's what you're good at! Leave the film making decisions to the actual film makers!

And film makers! Stop being so damn lazy and relying on cheap thrills and fancy effects! Come up with a good story with plenty of room for building suspense, and you'll have yourselves a winner!

 

[nite-owl]

I could never get into slasher films I always found them boring.

 

[Thundarr]

It has more to do with the slasher thing having peaked and burned out at the start of the '00s.

I find trends like these move in cycles, and right now after the post-Scream Slasher boom, that whole idea is still really played out. I mean, there was a while there where basically every scary movie was a crappy Scream rip-off.

I think the slasher genre will be back though. Just give it a few years.

The funny thing is, strictly speaking Scream isn't really a horror movie. It's a dark satire poking fun at the whole horror genre, while at the same time having some really scary scenes itself.

I'm just waiting for this remake/reboot/reimagining trend to end. I hate how they are calling all these remakes reboots, as though we're going to get a whole new continuity with slightly altered storylines, and then they give us a movie that's so damned crappy that no one in their right mind would want to make a sequel for it, let alone a series of them.

 

[redhawk23]

Horror films have been having remakes since the 50s. This is nothing new.

 

[The Dark Defender]

I always saw Scream as making fun of people that make fun of the movies rather than making fun of the movies themselves...the original anyway.

 

[Thundarr]

Horror films have been having remakes since the 50s. This is nothing new.

True, but earlier remakes to even earlier horror movies were often really well done with a good suspenseful story in mind. Movies like the "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers" remake starring Donald Sutherland, Jeff Goldblum, and Leonard Nemoy, or John Carpenter's "The Thing". Today we're getting remakes like RZ's "Halloween", Michael Bay's "A Nightmare On Elm Street", "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", and "Friday The 13th".

"Bodysnatchers" was okay, but "The Invasion" sucked. And neither of them were nearly as good as the Leonard Nemoy version.

 

[Figs]

I really liked Insidious. It was a nice change a pace since at the time is was just Paranormal Activity which I can't stand.

Same with me. I can't stand the PA films and wasn't really sure if I even wanted to watch Insidious since I've been sick of a lot of crappy horror films this past decade.

Funny enough, the thing that I liked about the movie the most is the same thing a good number of people hated about it. I really liked how they explored the astral dimension. That and it was fun seeing an actual demon in a film again. Sometimes less is more, but after so many horror films teasing the creature/demon and so many unoriginal exorcism films being released, some times I want to see an actual monster, regardless if it was a bit cliche with goat feet.

I just hate this idea that gore is bad ala torture porn.

When in reality IMHO you can't film and horror movie or a death scene like its 1978. That's crazy I'm not saying I need gore( I love verbinski's ring and drag me to hell both PG-13) I just need some horror that's aimed toward me a 21 year old stoner and I havnt gotten a horror movie like that in awhile(evil dead is still the best film I've seen this year).

Yeah, personally I've been sick of these younger horror fans(I hope for their sake they're from a younger generation if they consider themselves a big horror fan)calling any horror film with violence "torture porn". Most of them have no idea what they're talking about. It's ridiculous because blood, guts and violence have been a big part of horror films over the decades. That's just what they are, horror films...not torture porn.

 

[redhawk23]

You really think every single Dracula movie has been good?

 

[culver3vlr22]

Speaking of 50s horror remakes. What is going on with The creature from the black lagoon remake? Black lagoon is my favorite universal character. And I've been dying to see someone with talent to tackle it.

 

[nite-owl]

I think it's dead in the water. No pun intended.

 

[Rocketman]

Huh, I'm a little surprised by the James Wan and Paranormal Activity hate here. I thought Insidious was amazing, and I think Paranormal Activity is the one series that can go on for as long as it wants. Sinister is another one that blew me away.

These films (minus Paranormal Activity) are returning to that classic, epic feeling that The Shining and The Changeling had. I hold those two films in such high regard, they hold such a special place in my heart, that anything that tries to bring that quality back or give something back to that style is automatically loved by me. The Conjuring looks like it's going to do that too.

I'm okay with gore and boobs and torture and cheerleaders and camping trips and all that, but these things do not define the genre for me.

I want to see families, or domestic situations, or elements of Suburbia being flipped on its head. I love nothing more in any movie, really. I love seeing superficial, cookie cutter settings or relationships slowly peeling back some layers and seeing some skeletons hiding in those closets. The husband is an alcoholic, the wife is cheating, the son has autism, the daughter is gothic, and so on. You have an awesome story first, and then, all of a sudden, there's this horrific thing thrown into the mix. Cujo is another example.

American Beauty, Little Children, Revolutionary Road, The Ice Storm - these all have elements of horror slowly creeping under the surface, but it never quite reaches that level. The Shining and The Changeling had it too, but instead, it totally went all the way. It went there. Insidious and Sinister went there too.

Having said this, I enjoyed the first Saw immensely. I thought it totally upped the ante for Horror films to come... but instead, it canceled itself out for me with waaaay too many sequels and way too much complication. They had no answers to the initial questions, they were making up things as they went along, and they essentially created a giant spider-web and started throwing darts at the wall with their eyes closed. Anyone - anyone - who says that they had the whole series mapped out from the beginning is a bold-faced liar.

I would like to go one step further and say that James Wan is saving the genre immensely. And Paranormal Activity is helping a lot too. Someone like Eli Roth, to me, isn't helping things at all. He's someone who is ruining things. In my opinion.

 

[Teelie]

I tried watching Paranomal Activity and just became parabored by inactivity. Then again Blairwitch made me fall asleep too so "found footage" paranormal probably isn't my thing. Though neither is "torture porn" like Saw. There's a fine line between horror and showing off how graphic you can get away with special effects for the sake of it.

 

[culver3vlr22]

I would like to go one step further and say that James Wan is saving the genre immensely. And Paranormal Activity is helping a lot too. Someone like Eli Roth, to me, isn't helping things at all. He's someone who is ruining things. In my opinion.

Eli Roth hasn't made a movie in forever. He doesn't really have any say in horror until he makes thanksgiving IMO.

 

[GENERAL RAAM582]

I didn't like Hostel at all. Saw actually had a premise behind it, the whole "You don't appreciate life" thing. Hostel was just "Oh look at me melt this chick's eye with a blowtorch." It was too disgusting for my tastes, and that's really, really saying something. I didn't think I had a "line" when it came the graphicness of a horror film, but Hostel made me find that "line" and it jumped a mile over it. I liked Saw because most of the traps were interesting and while they did make it up as they went, I always found the stories to be intriguing. There was none of that in Hostel.

Anyway, it seems like it's just ghost movies now. I don't find anything appealing in a door magically slamming shut or and object magically falling off the table. There are cool moments in the PA movies, but they are extremely few and far between. I like it when someone is getting dragged or something like that. But that happens for a whole 5 minutes out the whole 90 minute film? I found Insidious to be a good ghost movie for once. I think The Conjuring will be too.

I want slashers to come back though, they were always my favorite to be honest. I know Jason and those guys can take every hit, but I found something to be real with those films. As ridiculous as it sounds, that could really happen. I just think it's really difficult to make a new killer. They tried with that Chrome Skull guy and that really didn't work, neither the Collector guy from The Collection. Victor from Hatchet is pretty cool, but overall it's just a Jason ripoff. Unfortunately, you gotta bring the classic guys back and they tried with that, made a decent about of money, announced sequels, and still today never made them.

 

[TheDreamMaster]

Dark Skies was terrible. Hated it. I hope The Conjuring is good though. Just saw Evil Dead and I didn't find it that good. Too much blood and gore for my taste.

I said I thought DS did it better, not that it was good. I bought it after hearing some decent reviews and sold it a week later. But I still preferred it over Insidious because it felt more real, and that's saying something since I do have beliefs in the Paranormal. I thought all the ghost world stuff just killed it in that last half hour.

I also agree old school slashers. Red to come back. I hate the Hostel gore for the sake of gore approach, but it never bothered me with them. The problem lies in the gimmicks constantly forced on the genre. "Remember Jason when he was a semi-realistic hillbilly killer? Well now he's a body hopping demon! Don't like that? Well now he's in space!"
It's like giving Michael Myers a back story or trying to give him supernatural powers. He's scariest when I believe he can exist. Although as a kid the concept of Freddy was frightening too.

 

[Rocketman]

I don't really know what I want anymore. I agree that the ghost stuff is getting to be the exclusive horror movie now... but I don't want any more slashers or torture/Saw stuff.

I kind of want some surrealism, maybe. Stuff like Jacob's Ladder, or In Dreams, or stuff that has an emotional punch to it, where you care. Saw and Hostel weren't doing it for me at all, but I'm also getting over the "haunted house" thing too, I think.

I don't know. I don't know what the hell I want.

The Mothman Prophecies is a film that is going in the direction I think the genre should go, and it should step on the gas and get there quick.

 

[Rocketman]

You know what really irritates me? Nobody is really making a solid effort to make the next great, classic icon of Horror. Insidious tried it, Sinister sure as hell tried it, and Saw tried it (and failed, in my opinion). Hatchet tried it, but it had no real mainstream impact, and it was all based in comedy and can't be taken seriously.

Freddy Kruger
Michael Myers
Jason Voorhees
Leatherface
Pinhead
Chucky

Like, nobody wants to take this list and really challenge it.

 

[GENERAL RAAM582]

What's The Mothman Prophecies?

 

[Rocketman]

What's The Mothman Prophecies?

Oh dude, really? This movie is underrated as hell.

If you really sit down and watch it, it gets inside your head so much, it's almost unbearable. I almost had an anxiety attack during a few scenes.