Are horror movies getting lamer?

[Mykul]

[QUOTE]Basically, Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist are the only 'horror' movies I liked[/QUOTE]

Very good choices. Those are without a doubt two of the best horror films ever made. However, i dont think you should be too critical towards other movies just because they dont scare you. Plenty of my favorite horror movies didnt scare me at all, but i love them for the rich plot.

[QUOTE]The Ring? I didn't even flinch.[/QUOTE]

Rightfully so. There are so many holes in that movie that i just want to cry. The movie kills you...cus it does. You survive if you make a copy...cus you do. The girl can crawl out of a TV...cus its magic. Im growing very tired of the "cus it is" attitude writers today seem to have.

[QUOTE]Everyone rants that Halloween is amazing, and I didn't find it scary.[/QUOTE]

This is one of those things i was talking about that isnt really scary but, yes, still is amazing. The ideas behind all the films are so original, with the hearing the voices telling him to kill his family and everything, and then that whole tie in with the constellation curse...truly wonderful. And the ties you make to the characters are simply heart breaking. When Dr loomis died i almost cried...

[PWNED]

[QUOTE=MehrLicht]
Rightfully so. There are so many holes in that movie that i just want to cry. The movie kills you...cus it does. You survive if you make a copy...cus you do. The girl can crawl out of a TV...cus its magic. Im growing very tired of the "cus it is" attitude writers today seem to have.
[/QUOTE]

Which Ring are you on about? I found that the Japanese version of Ring was far superior to the Hollywood version because I can read the subtitles fast enough to get back to the action and I am also okay at translating Japanese whichmeans taht it is scarier. Though I must say that the US version of it had a lot of plot-holes.

[Misaki Mitsu]

[quote name='Excel'] I get more scared by reading stephen king books than watching movies.[/quote]


[FONT=Palatino Linotype][COLOR=Red] have you heard the saying "the book is always better than the movie" cause from what your saying i dont think that you have heard that saying. the book is always scarrier than the movie and it will always be better. well atleast in my eyes... i do wish that the mvies could be as good as the books but then the prices would go up to see the movie, buy it and rent it. and the bills for everything now are so high. i dont think i could even afford toilet paper if that happened ><[/COLOR][/FONT]

[GuyYouMetOnline]

I think that there are still some seriously creepy movies out there. First off, anything by Stephen King is... well, is a Sephen King movie. That's really the only way I can find to describe them.

As for other movies, well, I don't watch too much horror, simply because the ideas are always so lame. However, I did see [i]Saw[/i], and that has to be the best horror film I've ever seen. It forces you to think instead of just mindlessly plodding on, it has believable characters, and it's scary as hell. Plus, the ending is just perfect. Seriously, how can you say that horror movies are getting lamer with stuff like [i]Saw[/i] out there?

[Guest Cole-Fu]

Most definitley. The only good horror movie in a while IMO was saw. Gorry, yes, but wasn't the shining gory back in its day? Saw is a phycological thriller/slasher movie, wonderful, and an innovative story line.

I must say that after seeing House Of The Dead and The grudge, that horror movies are getting lamer and lamer, they all follow the "scary kid" trend and the phone call before you die type thing.i wish a really innovative horror flick would come out.

[Drix D'Zanth]

I'm suprised no one mentioned "Seven". Awesome movie, not intended as being necessarily a horror movie; but it's premise and gritty realism is AWESOME. It also throws a little moral-dilemma at whoever watches it. NIN compliments the soundtrack nicely... just an overall great movie.

I think Alien would be my favorite horror movie. Therefore, if we look at the progression of the Alien movies as they have come out; Aliens (decent, worthy sequel; but not as scary IMHO), Alien 3 (pretty crappy, but still a little creepy), Alien Ressurection (Wtf mate?); Alien vs Predator (Ok nice to see them fight, but this isn't a horror movie.. by any means). I guess judging by that timeline, we can really see how the genere has basically dissolved over the years. Who knows, the dry spell might throw us something like The Exorcist (hailed by most top ten movies as the scariest..). Heh, funny fact: when the exorcist was first shown, they had ambulances near larger theatres in case members of the audience passed out from the fear!

[James]

[QUOTE=MehrLicht]Rightfully so. There are so many holes in that movie that i just want to cry. The movie kills you...cus it does. You survive if you make a copy...cus you do. The girl can crawl out of a TV...cus its magic. Im growing very tired of the "cus it is" attitude writers today seem to have.
[/QUOTE]

[color=#334366]The movie kills you because it is cursed, it's Samara's way of punishing others due to her own suffering. You survive if you make a copy because you are perpetuating her hatred. She can crawl out of the TV because she is a ghost.

Seriously, [i]most[/i] horror movies are based in some kind of fantasy or hyper-reality. If you start picking apart The Ring for plotholes, you've already missed the point.

The Ring is an admirable remake of a groundbreaking Japanese horror film. It was groundbreaking for a number of reasons (not least of which being that it was the most successful Japanese movie ever made, in its home territory). But the tremendous influence that Ring has had on other films is noteable.[/color]

[quote=Daermon_Nashabe]A great example of Japanese horror (Like my sister stated) is The Grude- Ju-on or its american counterpart beccause they both are just creepy like the Silent Hill games. The tension builds up on you then whammy.
[/quote]

[color=#334366]I think that Ju-On is an awful example of Japanese horror, lol. It came out riding the coat-tails of Ring (or Ringu, if you want to be arty about it). The concept is somewhat similar and the actual scares are [i]very[/i] heavily influenced by Ring.

However, what interested me was that the American remake was significantly worse than the original Japanese version. It was identical except that it was [i]less scary[/i] and featured totally irrelevant plot interjections, which were apparently created to make the movie more interesting or something. But they failed to do so, they only made it more convoluted and silly.

Not to say that Ju-On didn't have its merits; the Japanese version had some interesting moments and some genuinely frightening aspects. But...I wouldn't say that it's on par with Ring or most other Japanese horror films. I really recommend seeing both Ring and Ring 2 (Japanese versions) if you want to see where Ju-On was influenced.[/color]

[Drix D'Zanth]

James, I was noticing your new icon and avatar. Very nice! I noticed the preview for that movie on apple.com recently. Then a mild epiphany struck me; our own Tim Burton is one of the greatest "horror" filmmakers of our time. Now, he may not be out to scare anyone so much as express his wildly twisted sense of macabre. I really think his movies have almost a more horrifying sense in that they seem to create a more disturbed or uneasy feeling after viewing them. They can also be watched for their creative and lighthearted qualities at the same time. This accessibility is what I think has Burton standing out.

Thoughts?

[Pumpkin]

[QUOTE=Kane][size=1]Quite true Semjaza, I used to be quite a bit fan of horror films but I have begun to notice that the quality is indeed slipping dramatically. I mean what was the name of the film.... Freddy vs. someone... Freddy vs. Jason, I didn't actually go see that film however several of my classmates did and they said that it was utter garbage.

I think one of the key facts to consider is TV, we all know that TV is just as violent and even more so when it wants to be than movies. I mean you watch enough guys brains getting blown out and eventually you just tune out.

It is true though that we're getting desensitised, I mean look at the film The Exorcist, 10 years ago (maybe more I can't remember) that was supposed to be the scariest movie of all time. You watch it now and your now unimpressed, however I will say that one film that did have me genuinely scared was The Ring but an awful lot of that was just shock horror that caught me off guard.

That's all I've really go to say.[/size][/QUOTE]


[SIZE=1] I was just about to mention that movie, Freddy vs. Jason really dissapointed me. I went to see it with a few friends of mine, and I'm usually really scared of scary movies. I hate 'em, but this one was just lame. It's like, "Oh I'm scared, theres a gas station but I think I'll run in the woods now like an idiot" and just made me laugh. I disagree with the person who said re-watching old movies doesn't make you scared, the older ones still scare me lol. Although the Grudge looked pretty frigten for me, there will always be one movie or two that will actually be creepy. It's just you have to search for them harder. [/SIZE]

[The Vampire: Ed]

[quote name='Pumpkin][SIZE=1'] I was just about to mention that movie, Freddy vs. Jason really dissapointed me. I went to see it with a few friends of mine, and I'm usually really scared of scary movies. I hate 'em, but this one was just lame. It's like, "Oh I'm scared, theres a gas station but I think I'll run in the woods now like an idiot" and just made me laugh. I disagree with the person who said re-watching old movies doesn't make you scared, the older ones still scare me lol. Although the Grudge looked pretty frigten for me, there will always be one movie or two that will actually be creepy. It's just you have to search for them harder. [/SIZE][/quote]
[COLOR=Red][FONT=Comic Sans MS]
Hey, Freddy vs. Jason kicked ***. It wasn't really meant to be a horror movie, it was something for the fans who's been wanting to see the legends of slashers go at it. They couldn't completely head away from the horror aspect their individual movie series' featured because then it just wouldn't feel anything at all like a Freddy or Jason movie. Freddy vs. Jason was meant to be a fun movie for the fans, and if you went into it expecting a horror movie then you can only blame yourself when obviously the main attraction was meant to be exactly what they named the movie after, Freddy vs. Jason.

Secondly, I find it hard to believe you'd think the Grudge looked creepy at all. The movie looked like nothing more than a rip off of the Ring, and when that little boy meowed--I just laughed and thought to myself "Who the hell is going to be frightened by this?" On top of that, that strange ghost girl looked so fake and plastic a lot of the times I just looked at it and assumed it was some low budget film that blew most of it's money on getting Sarah Michelle Gellar to agree to do the movie.

Anyway, my overall opinion is that horror movies aren't getting any worse, it's about the same really. There have always be really bad horror movies, even in the past. The reason why a lot of the past horror movies were hailed so much was because they had newer concepts and now just about every concept that you can think of for a horror movie has been used and it's hard to come up with a really good horror movie that is original anymore. Why do you think there are so many remakes of movies?

But the remake of Romero's Dawn of the Dead was a really good horror movie in my opinion, best I've seen in a while. Also, I haven't seen it yet but there is this movie from Japan called Ju-on that looks interesting, it's from the creator of The Ring. I seen it in Wal-Mart a while back but haven't yet had the chance to pick it up.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[James]

[color=#334366]Ju-On = The Grudge. And as far as I know, it's made by a different creator (the guy who created the film version of Ring is Hideo Nakata).

In regard to Tim Burton, I don't really find any of his films actually scary. In an odd way, the "horrific" imagery and settings are very endearing and lighthearted. I love the way that Burton's films deal with death, with a sense of magic and fun. I think his films are all very childish in that way, in the sense that children can often handle the macabre better than adults.[/color]

[Semjaza]

[QUOTE=The Vampire: Ed][COLOR=Red][FONT=Comic Sans MS]
Hey, Freddy vs. Jason kicked ***. It wasn't really meant to be a horror movie, it was something for the fans who's been wanting to see the legends of slashers go at it. They couldn't completely head away from the horror aspect their individual movie series' featured because then it just wouldn't feel anything at all like a Freddy or Jason movie. Freddy vs. Jason was meant to be a fun movie for the fans, and if you went into it expecting a horror movie then you can only blame yourself when obviously the main attraction was meant to be exactly what they named the movie after, Freddy vs. Jason.[/FONT][/COLOR][/QUOTE]

I'd agree with this. I don't think anyone watches Freddy movies to get scared anymore, probably since the first one came out. At the time the first film was pretty freaky, I suppose, but certainly not the sequels. Freddy vs. Jason wasn't meant to scare the crap out of you. It was meant to put the two biggest slasher bad guys outside of Michael Myers together and let them fight it out. That's it. That's all it ever was since it was first discussed years upon years ago. It's fun, gory and humorous, just like each of the better Freddy films (outside of maybe New Nightmare, which took itself rather seriously -- I liked that one overall).

Personally, I really enjoyed the film. Doesn't make you think, but it is entertaining and I have enough experience with the two of them that it filled some wierd nostalgic niche.

I think a problem is that people think horror movies have to be one way. Horror films don't necessarily have to scare the crap out of you or anything else. Evil Dead 2 is definitely horror, but at the same time, there's probably just as much comedy in it. There's many different types. You can't go into every horror-themed film expecting the same sort of style.

[Heaven's Cloud]

[color=indigo]I think it is kind of unfair to say that the horror movie industry has gone downhill in recent years. If you really put it in perspective, horror movies haven?t gotten worse; you just no longer are shocked or scared by the same things.

I can probably put this into context best with a story. When I was young I spent my summers at Rehoboth Beach in Delaware. It is a nice beach with a gorgeous wooden boardwalk and a sweet permanent carnival. Little shops that sell ice cream and pizza, junk and t-shirts dot the old boardwalk and side streets.

One evening, when I was five or six, my grandparents were walking me back to the cottage after a long night of rides at Fun Land. On the way home we passed a t-shirt shop that displayed a black t-shirt with a hideous grinning skull on it. Slithering out of one of the empty eye sockets slimy scaled serpent, venomous fangs poised to strike. At such a young age this t-shirt horrified me enough that I slept with the lights on for three days.

Flash forward five or six years, it is 1991 and the biggest rock band in the world is Guns n? Roses. One day my mother?s cousin Lynn, who is super cool, came by my house and had a gift for me. I opened up the wrapping paper, finding my first rock and roll t-shirt inside, featuring the coolest band of the time GNR. I loved the shirt and it was so awesome looking. It was black and depicted a smiling skull with snake twisting through the empty eye socket. Boy was it ever rock n? roll (my grandparents still get a kick out of that story and tell it to everyone they meet).

Remember, most of us saw Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Friday the 13th when we were kids. There is no way we are going to be able to capture that same adrenaline rush that we felt back then. We have video games now that are way more violent than those movies, lol. So the slasher genre has now become more or less fan service to the macabre.

Psychological thrillers, however, are still alive and kicking. Movies like Rosemary?s Baby, Silence of the Lambs, and the Mothman Prophecies continue the rich (here comes a made up word!) Hitchcockian (heh, I wrote ?cockian?) tradition of stories that just attack your mind. [/color]

[James]

[color=#334366]I agree about Freddy vs Jason (from the little I've seen). My impression wasn't at all that it was a horror movie. I came away with the sense that it was more or less a goofy comedy. Not really my thing, but from what I've seen of it, I wouldn't necessarily even begin to class it as "horror", as such.

I tend to agree with HC as well. There are quite a lot of great psychological thrillers out there and it's a genre that seems to continue to do well (both in quality and financial success). Rosemary's Baby is one of my favourite movies, in the sense that it's about paranoia and claustrophobia...and it's not scary in a slasher-sense, you know? That's the kind of film I like.

I also liked Mothman Prophecies. It wasn't really horrific, but it had a wonderful atmosphere and it was somewhat creepy. That kind of movie -- the kind that gets under your skin rather than slamming a mallet over your head -- is what I'm personally interested in.[/color]

[Andrew]

Like most of my preferences I can't really pin down a horror genre that I like and that's it.

I agree that the Hollywood version of The Ring was only scary on the first viewing because of the shock horror moments. Although I can't comment fully because i have no method of watching the Japanese version. Where do you guys get these Japanese horro films from?

I really liked the remake of Dawn of the Dead too, although I have seen the original and I like those. I really liked Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead film as a horror film and I really enjoy the too sequels as horror with comedy rolled in.

Admitedly the horror/comedy films of today are leaning more towards the comedy aspect which lessens the scare. Although I am a fan of the older classics like Alien/s, Halloween and various others including The Lost Boys (I really enjoyed this film. My Mother told me that I couldn't watch this for the longest time while I was young but now that I've seen it it is ultimately one of those films that I just watch over and over again).

As far as the whole 'horror films of today getting crap' discussion goes I'll have to agree with others in saying that it's your growing up that has affected how you watch horror films now.

These days I'll start watching a horror film (and generally most other films) with the assumption that anything can and most likely will happen. I really think that, once again as has been said, that traditional horror films have been done to death (pardon the pun) but the ones that make you think about life and other things still have a little life in them.

My apologies for this rant.

[Endymion]

[COLOR=Red]Horror movies [I]are[/I] getting lamer. In order to boost the amount of seats each movie gets per showing. Hollywood(in its infinite glory) decided making rated-R movies into watered down PG-13 flicks as the basis of today's horror genre. We do however get some R movies, just not of the quality of the old days. Take for example, the coveted Alien versus Predator movie fans of both series had been waiting for. Each movie series was rated R(except Alien: Resurrection I'm not sure about), and quitely well done. Alien versus Predator came out. I was kind of cautious about seeing it as it was PG-13, and ended up wasting a good 8 bucks on a ticket. It was beyond horrible. It's in the same category as Gigli-horrible. I have to admit, last years Shaun of the Dead was pretty damn good. Before the release of that, I can't think of a good horror movie. (Well, the remake of Dawn of the Dead was alright to me.)[/COLOR]

[sakurasuka]

[COLOR=DarkOrange][SIZE=1][FONT=Lucida Sans Unicode]Heh. I see alot of people reffering to the Ring, essentially pretty good, even the Hollywood re-make of it. Haven't seen the Grudge, looks pretty pointless (Though my friend told me her and her boyfriend actually screamed... Which they don't do... So maybe it's alright...)

Cabin Fever: Man, I for one was shaking my head through half the movie. Can there be ANY movies rated R for horror rather than sex? I saw this one with my little brother. *sigh* worst mistake my parents ever made. 'Why don't you see this one? It looks scary.' Scary my A**!!!

Mothman Prophecies: Yet another one I saw with my brother. It didn't scare or creep out either of us, but it made me think... I like that...

Alien: This one will give you shivers in full daylight a week after you see it... *Shudders* This one didn't scare me all that much at first, but I just keep thinking back to it... Kinda like 'Signs' only signs wasn't scary whatsoever.

White Noise: The preveiws looked so good... Guess you can't expect anything good from a PG13 movie... I saw it with my friend (The one who said the Grudge was really good) And it sucked. No real scary moments at all.

Final Destination: The first one wasn't BAD but it wasn't GOOD in comparison to the second, that isn't all that great either. I like the kind that make you think (Like M.P.) and the kind that just... JUMP OUT AT YOU!

The old ones will always rule over the new. Just like in music. Avril will come and go, but the old 80's music is here to stay. The Shining, Poltergiest and the like will (In the end) be much more remembered than say, Hide and Seek. (Haven't seen it, but I'm going on Valentines Day...)

But do you know an old one that I haven't seen yet? Pet Semitary. (Can't sell it) I just haven't found the time to see it... Everyone who HAS seen it has said it is the scariest movie yet. I wonder... A cemitary that brings stuff back to life sounds corny, but I don't quite think so, somehow...

Anyway, in a nutshell, they are making an enormous amount of 'Horror' movies, so you can't expect all of them to be skin-crawlin' scary. You will find some (If you feel like digging through all the crap) good ones out there... The oldies are still better, in my opinion.[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Sea Of Chaos666]

The Grudge was not scary how ever I heard the Japeness version was pretty kreppy yet funny at the same time. The scary movies that I thought were Pretty scary were the Halloween movies cuz the were kinda real exept the whole never die thing. But I thougt the Grudge was pretty good.