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All Scared Out
The recent double-whammy of watching The Orphanage and the release of a trailer for Doomsday has me lamenting the sad state of horror films these days. What exactly are the problems plaguing this least-respected but beloved movie genre?
As far as I’m concerned, the problems are many, varied, and the following:
They’re Too Damned Pretty
There have always been beautifully-shot horror films. Nosferatu and Psycho, for instance, are visual masterpieces. However, the turn of the century brought us The Ring, and with it a host of directors vainly attempting to emulate that film’s glossy look.
Just look at the beautiful, high-definition dreamscapes that are supposed to instill fear in 2003’s remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre:
Oooooh … terrifying.
Compare that to the original, a film of uncompromised bleakness and gritty realism:
Yikes, I can barely watch that trailer without getting goosebumps.
Over and over we are given car commercials masquerading as horror films … House of Wax … When A Stranger Calls … Rob Zombie’s Halloween. These films waste far too much money on cinematographers when they really needed to buy a writer with some imagination.
They’re Too Damned Refined
Far too many horror directors today think they are Steven Spielberg - and they’re not. They desperately resort to constant panning shots in order to give their film an air of quality, when a horror film cries out for the very opposite reaction. Nobody goes to a horror film to be rocked gently to sleep like a baby by the swooping camera.
Spielberg’s camera moves more than any director in history, yet only when it is needed to manipulate an audience positively. When Spielberg wants to invoke wonder, joy, warmth, or intensity, he employs his famous pans. But Spielberg is a smart director. He knows that horror, shock, and fear call for stationary cameras and intelligent cutting. Such devices force an audience to stare directly at the thing that scares them, and it makes them feel vulnerable.
Spielberg no doubt learned this technique from the master, Alfred Hitchcock. Do you see a pan anywhere in PSYCHO?
Spielberg employed this type of style into his horror masterpiece, JAWS. Notice how Spielberg relies, not on camera tricks, but a mostly stationary camera and perfect shot composition:
Now, all of the horror films use the pan in a sloppy manner, undercutting the tension as you can see in this clip from When A Strnager Calls:
They’re Too Damned Similar
How many more films can we have that involve a deadly plague/virus that turns people into killers?? It was new and fresh in 1968 when George Romero made Night of the Living Dead, and even seemed special when the plot was resurrected for 28 Days Later. However, the novelty has indeed worn off with the pending release of the 145,746th version of the story, Doomsday:
You could be excused for mistaking this for 28 Weeks Later, I Am Legend, or even Children Of Men.
Along this line, we have seen enough horror films that emulate Japanese “spooky kid” movies. If I see one more little girl with wet hair hanging in her face, I swear I am going to molest her.
NOTE TO HOLLYWOOD: IT’S NOT SCARY ANYMORE!!!!!!
These are just a few of my suggestions for improving the state of horror films. What are yours?
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6 Responses to “All Scared Out”
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Maybe I’m giving him too much of the benefit of the doubt, but I actually have high hopes for Doomsday. I’ve been very impressed by Neil Marshall so far with Dog Soldiers and The Descent. They’re honestly two of my favorite movies of this decade. Dog Soldiers, for having almost no budget, is one hell of a werewolf movie and The Descent, well, it’s just an excellent horror movie.
So, I’m excited about Doomsday. I’ll never condemn a movie before seeing it (afterwards, all bets are off though). I do, however, think I see what you’re saying. Horror directors all seem to be exploring the same themes. Trying to copy each other. Trying to emulate their heroes. You can’t make a horror movie that doesn’t have some sort of an homage (or 12) to movies that came before it. Not to mention the remake upon sequel upon remake that only seem to water down the fresh ideas that came before them.
It’s cyclical though. It comes and goes. A few years from now, sure, there’ll still be people trying to make the same movies still, but just like the Asian horror thing was hot for a while, then zombies were all the rage on 5th Avenue, something else will come along and be fresh for a while. Then, it’ll get stale and something else will come up.
I definitely think it’s possible to make a new horror film that is fresh and invigorating. Unfortunately Hollywood isn’t interested in anything like that. Hell, Cloverfield is just The Blair Witch Project on steroids, and that was almost NINE YEARS AGO.
All it takes is for an indy to release a fresh idea and then you’ll see the studios follow suit. I think one of the problems is that, if they weren’t profitable, they wouldn’t keep making them. You certainly can’t blame them for trying to return a profit to their shareholders, can you?
Those directors / cinematographers are trying to emulate a style that’s been successful in the past. They’re hired to do exactly what you hate.
The way to change it (and I think you’re making a stab at it (no pun intended)) is to vote with your dollars. Do you know how many bad-ass fresh new horror movies could have been made for the $230M it cost to produce the crap-fest Spiderman 3. Similar cases can be made for any of those big dollar summer crap-fests that paid fan-boys hype for months and months in advance.
But there are people out there, even in tried and true genre’s, like the zombie flick, that are still inventive, still relavent. See [REC] (which, ironically, is being remade by the studios) as an example.
Anyway. Short version: stop supoprting crap. Start supporting fresh ideas (even fresh ideas in tried and true genres).
@ medavidson - I agree wholeheartedly. I often refuse to see these films for that very reason. I think people - primarily kids- go to these movies because they are desperate for sensory thrills, and have never experienced a truly terriffying film, so …. they go unwittingly into these subpar films to get some sort - any sort - of rush.
Another aspect missing from current horror movies is social commentary. Would Night of the Living Dead be as memorable without all the racial tension that Romero put into the movie? Adding meaningful social commentary to a horror movie, no matter how unbelievable, enables the viewer to link that material with reality, which can be more terrifying than anything Hollywood can dream up. Modern horror movies seem hell bent to believe that viewers are unitelligent, unable to grasp subtle hints; thus, we get to watch an endless stream of unoriginal beauty flicks, or watching people being tortured for 1:25:00.
Also, whatever happened to suspense? Go back and watch the original The Haunting and then watch the remake. The remake added a lot more special effects but eliminated all of the suspense that runs throughout the original. Amazingly, the original did not use amazing camera shots or CG to be suspenseful, it used low budget sounds and (here is a novel idea), the ability of the actors to convey a terrifying atmosphere. Once again, to me the main problem is that Hollywood has no faith in the intelligence of the viewers.
@ Ray - “If I see one more little girl with wet hair hanging in her face, I swear I am going to molest her.” Once again, a very special hell. Actually, I was having a conversation the other day which comprised answering the question would you rather molest a child or eat a human. I say pass the BBQ sauce.
j
@ jared- Yeah, that wasn’t one of my finer moments … but I stand behind it.
Or, rather, her