Horror movies not what they used to be

[Dystopia]

Hollywood has gotten the bright idea that CGI graphics and gore are somehow replacements for good storytelling. I can see this by Hollywood retelling the same stupid story over and over again. Like Sorority Row, a truly piece of crap movie and an ok-it's-starting-to-get-really-old-now SAW VI.

Nobody can tell good stories anymore like the good ol' days of John Carpenter and Stephen King. I'll even take the original Friday the 13th, Halloween or Nightmare on Elm Street over the brain-dead garbage they are putting out now.

The ONLY good horror movie that has been released lately is "Paranormal Activity". Great movie. Had a budget of only $15,000 and was better done than the high-budget slasher flicks.

But there were works of pure genius that were more common about 20 years ago than now, though some do still come along every now and then (like 28 Days Later; 28 Weeks Later; Dawn of the Dead; Paranormal Activity)

Remember John Carpenter's "The Thing" from 1982? Absolute genius. Not only did he weave a wonderful and captivating story but he threw in some politics too. He succeeded in making the viewer feel paranoid and made their skin crawl.

Now we get Saw 6.

Yay. I'll go with Japanese/Korean horror from now, thanks.

[S.E.]

Socialism is horror enough.

[scmarcos]

28 Weeks Later was the worst movie I have ever seen. Ever, in my entire life. The new Dawn of the Dead was an abomination compared to the real one. Zombies don't run, they are dead decaying bodies.

[Dystopia]

28 Weeks Later was the worst movie I have ever seen. Ever, in my entire life. The new Dawn of the Dead was an abomination compared to the real one. Zombies don't run, they are dead decaying bodies.

What about 28 Weeks Later didn't you like? Did you like 28 Days Later? Just wondering.

[scmarcos]

Absolutely loved 28 Days Later. To be quite honest there was not one redeeming quality in 28 Weeks Later. It was a truly unbelievable (all things considered of course) movie, the plot was dull, and the ending was terrible.

Americans shouldn't make sequels to foreign films, ever.

I didn't like the direction it took, it was made by different people. They took a very basic story line and make it, somehow, confusing. I like gore and violence but too often it was unneeded in this movie and took away from the story itself.

[Dystopia]

Ouch, pretty harsh. I can mostly agree that Americans should not make sequels to foreign horror films, nor remake them (like the remake to REC was horrible). Although the feeling was more uneasy in 28 Weeks Later. Like you know they are going to totally lose control and the tension heightens even more when they do.

Though the story line is a tad weak.

[scmarcos]

For how much I liked 28 Days, I disliked 28 weeks. I love Zombie movies (these really aren't,close but no), but I just couldn't get into 28 Weeks. It really took all I had to finish it with an open mind.

The remake of Dawn of the Dead was disappointing to me because it stuck too much with the original on some points and veered too far on others. Sort of like Rob Zombie's Halloween actually. It stayed close enough that you had an idea of what would happen next, but it veered enough to make it a different movie altogether. Running Zombies drive me insane.

I am interested to see Paranormal Activity eventually. Love how low budget it was, sort of like the Blair Witch Project (one of the only movies to utilize handy cams correctly).

[Fitz]

Ouch, pretty harsh. I can mostly agree that Americans should not make sequels to foreign horror films, nor remake them (like the remake to REC was horrible). Although the feeling was more uneasy in 28 Weeks Later. Like you know they are going to totally lose control and the tension heightens even more when they do.

Though the story line is a tad weak.
Yeah, the [REC] remake was pretty awful.
I love how they put the ending of the movie in the trailer and on the dvd cover

[Clintville]

Please, yeah there were good movies from the past, but that is only because we forget the complete crap that came out then. Horror movies back then tried and intended to be as violent as they could be, the same here.

[Dystopia]

Please, yeah there were good movies from the past, but that is only because we forget the complete crap that came out then. Horror movies back then tried and intended to be as violent as they could be, the same here.

But back then the violence had a purpose (for the most part, depending on the director). Nowadays it rarely does. Although I do want to give proper props to horror movies that get their message across with zero violence.

Like for John Carpenter ,Stephen King, George Romero: the violence in their stories/movies always had a purpose beyond just gore. In fact, Carpenter and Romero were absolutely brutal in their depictions of violence. Romero at least tried to get the point across of just how horrible violence (and people) can really be.

As a side note, I think a really under-rated horror movie is Halloween 3. Lots of people hated it because it was the typical Michael Myers slasher flick.

[Dystopia]

Yeah, the [REC] remake was pretty awful.
I love how they put the ending of the movie in the trailer and on the dvd cover

Same with the Japanese horror film remakes, like One Missed Call. Original = Great. American remake = not so great. It lost the Asian atmosphere.

What I love about Japanese horror is fate and inevitability. You can run, you can fight... but you can never escape the inevitable. Like Ringu, Ju-on, etc.

[JediMindTrick]

There are good horror movies made now and there are bad ones. There were good ones made 20 years and more ago and there were bad ones. I'd put movies like The Ring, The Mist, and 28 Days Later (which I loved because it wasn't traditional zombies) up there with the good ones from yesteryear. Lots of people just have this tendency to make blanket statements like "they don't make me like they used to" in all things like TV, movies, music etc because they have forgotten that for every good thing put out back then there were ten bad things back then they have since forgotten about while the bad stuff of today is still fresh in their mind.

[grapabeaux]

there were ten bad things back then they have since forgotten about while the bad stuff of today is still fresh in their mind.


Sometimes, that's true. Sometimes, like Manos, the Hands of Fate, it stays fresh in the mind for completely different reasons. (Thanks, MST3K!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cxt7F97xUFY

[Quid]

My friend has a perfect term for today’s style of horror movies: Torture Porn

[Dystopia]

Yeah but I'm not talking about cheesy B-movie stuff. I'm talking about what Hollywood puts out, many of which are outright insulting. They seem like the same movie over and over again. Or they took something that was a great film the first time around and they kill it by making sequel after sequel being more or less the same thing.

The original Halloween (and part 3) were great. The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre was great. The original Friday the 13th (and maybe part 2) were good. etc. I do have to give Rob Zombie credit though for the remake of the original Halloween. It's a delve into a twisted psyche... he made that movie his own.

[JediMindTrick]

My friend has a perfect term for today’s style of horror movies: Torture Porn

That term has been floating around for a while now and always comes up when the Saw or Hostel movies are mentioned.

[MrShotShot]

Keep in mind that you when you mention the few great horror movies talked about above that Hollywood was producing crap back then at a pretty high rate.

Twenty years from now some guy on these forums will say "why doesn't Hollywood produce good horror anymore like in the old days - you know, like Paranormal Activity." He will have conveniently forgotten about Sorority Row.

I grew up in the 80s - there was a lot of crap horror being produced.

[Nik Notorious]

I am in a never-ending quest to own everything Dario Argento ever had a hand in making. Every time a new horror movie comes out, I think long and hard about going to see it. Then I pop in Suspiria and remind myself that good horror movies do exist, you've just got to know where to find them. :)

In my opinion, "The Ring" is the best new horror story to come out in the last ten years. I even named my daughter Samara.

[Kentucky Thinker]

Keep in mind that you when you mention the few great horror movies talked about above that Hollywood was producing crap back then at a pretty high rate.

Twenty years from now some guy on these forums will say "why doesn't Hollywood produce good horror anymore like in the old days - you know, like Paranormal Activity." He will have conveniently forgotten about Sorority Row.

I grew up in the 80s - there was a lot of crap horror being produced.

The slasher films from the early 80's were my favorite horror flicks, and as much as I love that era I have to admit you are right. For every Friday the 13th, My Bloody Valentine or The Burning, you had a dozen clunkers like Don't Answer the Phone, Home Sweet Home, The Boogeyman, etc.
I have to agree with the OP that today's horror films don't match ones from the past, and the big difference is atmosphere IMO.

[gdoane]

I've always been a little ...impatient... for lack of a better word with the foolishness in some of these movies.

For example, Richard Pryor made a wisecrack once that if "The Amityville Horror" had been a black family moving in, that movie would have been about three seconds long as the house said "GEEEETTTT OUUUTTTT!!!" and the family says "WE GONE!!!!"

The whole thing about running zombies makes sense to me because how scary can a guy with the top speed of a desert tortoise be really? The dude is slow enough that he doesn't need to be a monster, he can have himself a fine career at the U.S. Post Office.

The worst horror movies wind up getting me rooting for the bad guy because the victims are so stupid. For example, the kids in "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" going into the spooky house to investigate. Yeah, you go do that, Thelma, Fred and Daphne. Me and Scooby Doo are beating feet. Leatherface wasn't committing a crime, he was doing a public service ridding the world of dumbasses.

Where I think the quality control problem comes into play is that Hollywood has a tendency to see masks and makeup as an excuse to use B-Actors because nobody can see their faces but that's just not true. I remember in the directors commentary of the DVD of Planet Of The Apes that the director said he was chewed out for buying top notch actors like Roddy McDowell and stuffing 'em in monkey suits. His response was you get what you pay for. It showed in the sequels where the studio did start skimping.

All the makeup and costumes and CGI in the world won't help crummy acting. But budget-minded filmmakers seem to think it will and they cast crummy actors. It's like that guy in the red shirt on Star Trek. You knew he was dead meat before the first commercial break and you were grateful because his acting was atrocious, which for Star Trek is saying a lot. "He's Dead, Jim" means YAY!!! Another bad actor I'll never see again!

If you want to make good movies, you have to use good actors. It's like cooking. Use bad ingredients and it doesn't matter how good the chef may be, it's still not going to be any better than the sum of its parts.

[LouC]

Hollywood has gotten the bright idea that CGI graphics and gore are somehow replacements for good storytelling. I can see this by Hollywood retelling the same stupid story over and over again. Like Sorority Row, a truly piece of crap movie and an ok-it's-starting-to-get-really-old-now SAW VI.

Nobody can tell good stories anymore like the good ol' days of John Carpenter and Stephen King. I'll even take the original Friday the 13th, Halloween or Nightmare on Elm Street over the brain-dead garbage they are putting out now.

The ONLY good horror movie that has been released lately is "Paranormal Activity". Great movie. Had a budget of only $15,000 and was better done than the high-budget slasher flicks.

But there were works of pure genius that were more common about 20 years ago than now, though some do still come along every now and then (like 28 Days Later; 28 Weeks Later; Dawn of the Dead; Paranormal Activity)

Remember John Carpenter's "The Thing" from 1982? Absolute genius. Not only did he weave a wonderful and captivating story but he threw in some politics too. He succeeded in making the viewer feel paranoid and made their skin crawl.

Now we get Saw 6.

Yay. I'll go with Japanese/Korean horror from now, thanks.

The Thing was Science Fiction to me, different than what I consider "horror".

The first and last modern era horror flick I saw at a theater was 1972's Last House on the Left.

Garbage.

I have little interest what so ever in most "horror" flicks made in the last 35 years, in particular on my list of won't watch is those of the slasher genre.

I do however enjoy the Scary Movie lampoons of those flicks.

Signs, that one I liked better than I thought I would.

[CountryGirl]

<snip<

The ONLY good horror movie that has been released lately is "Paranormal Activity". Great movie. Had a budget of only $15,000 and was better done than the high-budget slasher flicks.

<snip>

You are teasing, right? RIGHT?

Saw "Paranormal Activity" Friday night. Laughable. I mean I actually laughed when others - mostly 13-17 year old girls - were screaming.

It defines "cheap thrills". Squeaky door. Scream. Light goes on. Scream. Chandelier swings. Scream. Puleeeze . . .

Sheet moved off sleeping foot . . . saw that on "Ghost Hunters" two weeks ago and that was supposed to be factual.

Suspense was minimal. Only two "surprise" moments, both at the very end. Plot was almost non-existent, can be found in any dime store horror novel of the past 30 years. Minimal character development and/or back-story and what there was of it gave the entire plot away. Too much time devoted to the two characters fighting and it made the story less believable as no woman would have allowed anyone to tell her who to and who not to not contact in such a situation.

I was with two other horror/ghost movie fans and all three of us were disappointed. The only thing the movie had going for it was it's marketing which was fantastic. The movie, however, was forgettable.

[JediMindTrick]

Here are some gems from 1984, the year that Nightmare on Elm Street came out.

Black Devil Doll from Hell
Bloodbath at the House of Death
Bloodsuckers from Outer Space
Monster Dog
Poison for the Fairies
Rocktober Blood
Splatter University

I could have listed a bunch more too out of a list of 50 or so I found from that year, I just picked out some of the ones with the worst sounding names. The point is that every year is full of a lot of horror movies that either really suck or are long forgotten. Basically I'm just reiterating my point that for every good movie back then there were many bad ones. Just like now.