When it comes down to a horror movie being based on true events we all become sympathetic, and let's just say it makes them 'that much scarier'.
But as a huge fan of the movies that make your heart race, your eyes squint, the ones that make your pillow your best friend...I have to ask: where has all the suspense gone?
Don't get me wrong. You can toss me a horror movie and tell me to watch it, and I will. I'm always down for watching a film that could quite possibly scar me for life. But these days, due to Westernization and the changing perspective of new generations, some horror films have really lost their art.
I mean, suspense is something that a horror film should feed off of. It drives an audience into deep anticipation as they anxiously await the strike.
In older days, horror films thrived on suspense with the good bits happening at the end (although being 17 it was very annoying having to wait as I'm a person who enjoys thrills from start to finish, with as much blood and gore as you can possibly pack in). A lot of modern day horror films just aren't stepping up to the plate.
I'm not asking for suspense from start to finish, but there should be a decent amount of it to really make the film successful. Too much is boring, too little is lazy. I'm talking about films like Scream which has a great balance of thrills and suspense. That's what made it successful!
So I say - bring back the suspense! And strap yourselves in for a night of thrilling artistry!
No More Frights???
What has happened to good old scary watch with the lights out movies? I remember watching "The Changeling" in my attic room and not being able to sleep. It had few special effects and lots of scares like the hearing of the tape after the seance. How about the original "The Uninvited" w/ Ray Milland (if I am correct) lots of skin crawling moments in that movie.
Isn't it time we saw a movie that had lots of chills but little gore? Gore doesn't scare but the unknown does. One modern movie that did chill me was "The Gravedancers", but hey this only my opinion. Have a Horrific Halloween and leave the closet door open.
The Horror of the Horror Remake.
Well... I just visited IMDb where I found info on a remake of Friday the 13th. Now supposedly, it's a remake of the original, yet the movie poster and tag indicates Jason's presence. I'm normally all for any exposure for my all-time favorite franchise villain, but due to some recent remakes of horror classics I grew up with... please, say it ain't so!
I'd like to do a run through of some of the remakes I've seen... they aren't all bad but the odds are against Jason's reemergence being a successful one.
"The Fog" -- Lousy acting...lousy CGI...lousy remake. Pretty much pointless. I can't remember most of it though it's not been that long since I've seen it...dull...but I remember enough to know that I'll take the cheesy creepiness of the original over the bland prettiness of this film.
"The Amityville Horror" -- The original wasn't all that great but it did have some memorable moments. The only thing I remember from seeing the remake was a feeling a loss for the money I spent to see this crap. I did think the little girl was a little creepy.
"King Kong" -- Remade a second time, Peter Jackson's version was over-long, over-blown, and over-exposed. It would have made Michael Bay proud. I felt like this film would ever end. The effects were cartoonish. Compare the dino's in this film to the ones in "Jurassic Park" from 15 years ago. Question: How many times can an actor do the "slowly I turned" routine in one movie? Answer: When said movie is over 3 hours long...as many times as they want to.
"Day of the Dead" -- To be fair I didn't make it through this remake. But that was because what I did see was shit. There is no nicer way to put it.
"Night of the Living Dead" -- No attempt should have been made to remake this classic. That said...director Tom Savini, special effects genius and obvious lover of the genre, handled it fairly well, changing very little until the end. Mainly, he just upped the gore factor.
"Texas Chainsaw Massacre" -- This remake wasn't a total waste of time. The deaths of the hapless victims are much more graphic although the girl on the meathook bit in the original is still a grimace inducer.
"Dawn of the Dead" -- If it weren't a remake, this would be more widely considered a great horror film. Unlike most other remakes, this one was made with respect for the original. Good casting...and great choices of songs, namely the opening theme by Johnny Cash and Richard Cheese's hilarious re-do of Disturbed's "Down with the sickness".
"John Carpenter's The Thing" -- This remake came out so long ago that I'm sure some studio is considering a remake of the remake by now, but I had to include this one because when something is done right, especially in Hollywood, it should be noted. The original black and white about a giant space carrot may have been thrilling for it's time (before MY time)but the remake was a great movie for all time. Carpenter paced this film well, letting the suspense build before nailing us with mind-blowing creature effects. Today's cgi don't compare with the effects of this film and another 80's remake of a black and white film, "The Fly". Both superior in every way to the point that they don't even compare. As a matter of fact, I guess these are more "updates" than remakes.
Remakes I never want to see:
"Last House on the Left" -- It looks like it was shot as a documentary almost. The low budget works well for this movie.
"The Evil Dead" -- There are rumors of a remake helmed by the director of the original, Sam Raimi. I don't know if Raimi would put his heart into it like he and the rest of the cast did for the original. They thought what they were doing was "groovy" and it showed on the screen.
"Friday the 13th" -- back to the subject at hand. I love the original and the series but nothing I can say can justify it's existence other than it was a cool movie about random killings. It didn't aspire anything more than to make a few bucks. It, and it's sequels, through sheer relentlessness, made Jason Voorhees an icon. Once again, leave it alone.
Humans, The Real Monsters
Just recently, in Tsmania's capital city Hobart, a stabbing took place in a target department store resulting in the killing of a twenty six year-old man. This got me thinking on a view I have pondered for a long time; when it comes to horror movies, just like in real life, the people are the true monsters, sometimes even those that at one stage seem to be the protagonists. The creatures, aliens or deformities, whatever they may be, are simply a backdrop to what really goes on inside the human psyche.
Picture the scene from Frank Darabont's absolute master-piece adaption of Stephen King's 'The Mist.' You're trapped inside a half destroyed super-market, there's no power, monster aliens from another planet waiting outside and the body count is growing. You think things couldn't possibly get any worse? Think again. After only 2 days cabin fever seems to pop up its ugly face and the majority of people have formed a type of religious sect and are planning on killing and sacrificing your only son... The next thing that runs through your head is how much you would love to be outside with the giant spiders and sky-scraper high monsters.
Other examples of this philosophy are George Romero's 'Dawn of the Dead,' where marauding Indians attack the cow-boys ranch, that just happens to be filled with a few zombies going about their daily business, (by Indians I meant bikers, by cow-boys I meant survivors and by ranch I meant shopping mall... obviously). 'Night of the Hunter,' where a man that you would normally associate with love and compassion hunts down and tries to stab and kill a young boy and his even younger sister. 'Resident Evil' where a man's betrayal and true intentions are far more dangerous than any zombie, or red queen. 'Suspiria,' I don't know whether or not you could actually refer to witches as human or not, but none-the-less these violent and psychopathic ladies are a force not to be messed with... unless your an American ballet student.
Maybe it's because humans know what goes on in the mind of others so they can pin-point their fears, or maybe it's because they are the same as us and it's the fact that we can relate to them that scares us. But mainly, I believe the reason that humans are more scary than any monster is the fact that they exist, and some are in fact very evil and tortured... we see it on the news every day.
Humans may be naturally civil and proper, but some things that occur in the world; greed, power, poverty, change that completely...