The Ultimate Horror

trendkill

Alright......
This is a question i have been asking myself for a long while.....
What do we (I) seek in a horror film... The genres have been done to death (excuse the pun)... the seventies and eightues brought us the likes of George Romero, John Carpenter, Wes Craven, Dario Argento,Tobe Hooper, Tom Savini, John Landis... and all the other greats (I could go on.. but i wont, its not impoortant).

These type of directors changed how we see horror.... but has all the creativity been depleted.... Slashers, Zombies, Aliens, killer clowns and vehicles, maniacal cops and chainsaw wielding butchers and hockey mask massacres...

The Genre is still popular... vastly.... but what do we seek in a good horror....
the eigthies horrors always consisted of topless women being killed (which died out in the mod 90's) which im glad to see coming back into fashion (Masters of Horror)...

Is it good special fx, acting, storyline, directing... and what type of movie.... werewolf.. slasher...psychopaths...Zombies...

DerekP11

Great question trendkill.

I mentioned remakes in another thread and I think, they are killing the genre, rather than keeping it alive. The modern day horror film is now very much devoid of anything particularly original. Im 35 years old and grew up on anything and everything from Halloween onwards. So for me, what I now seek in a horror film is originality. This originality can be anything from storyline, setting, cinematography, special effects etc. For example, Sam Raimi's Evil Dead, wasn't the first horror to feature Zombies returning from the dead, but the realisation of the film through some quirkey cinematography and a scary location, combined with condensed and exaggerated Romero style gore, made this film into the genre classic it became.

Nowadays I don't tend to see that kind of thing happening anymore. Although, I do have an affinity for Jeepers Creepers. (hate the name and hate the sequel)

Anyway, Im only representative of a generation that had it all, (horror films)when it was daring, explorative and lets face it, ground breaking. (late 70s and 80s.)

Just my 2 cents.

TerrorFirmer

Flesh craving zombies always get my vote, despite the fact that out of all the zombie movies out there, only a very slight minority are actually good in the overal sense of the word. Not as obvious a problem in any other genre. Thankfully as of late we've had Dawn and Land of the Dead among a few others.

Features like Zombie Flesh Eaters (and other similar ripoffs) I through V follow the classic italian formula - great gore that surpasses even my expectations, obviously an important contributor to any zombie film, but not in combination with awful acting, editing, dubbing and....just general production values.

As of late Return of the Living Dead IV and V were actually a decent return to form for the genre, although not exactly what you'd call masterpieces either. Next on my list is the laughibly titled "Dawn of the Living Dead", complete with 'Warning: Contains excessive gore' sticker.

Certain genres never get old for me, so I never really sold myself on the originality point - but its not applicable to horror as a genre overall of course. Texas Chainsaw Massacre the Beginning, for example. It had relatively passable acting, decent gore and decent production values. But I don't exaggerate when I say despite being a different film you'd be hard pressed to convince yourself that it wasn't an extension of the already produced, and only watchable remake. Flat, boring, lifeless, unnecessary. Yet I could watch zombie movies all day long.

Another good example is Saw and Hostel. Pretty basic storylines propped up by gruesome violence and certainly not even attempting to take any steps forward in any other particular field or even derive in anyway from the basic forumla, even in their sequels. But still very enjoyable.

Again what one person considers the 'ill-state' of the genre at present, another believes it to be flourishing.

Although I do lament the loss of style featured in older horror movies like Elm, Evil Dead and Braindead. It's been awhile since I've seen a (mainstream) horror movie driven by brilliant characters and intelligence to compliment everything else rather then outright gore/crudeness/zany attempts at creating 'twists' and other such attributes with generic, boring characters. The American teenager thing is getting a bit too old at this stage.

Den_M

I'm sick of films like Final Destination and it's sequals. One thing i never liked about the Halloween series carried right onto the Nightmare on Elm st series was the prey - the teenagers (mostly played by actors in their 20's). This needs to be dropped, the films that most affected me were the ones with a genuinely nasty off kilter atmosphere or ones that offered something new.

trendkill

It is hard to come up with an original concept for a horror movie though.

I too have been finding some sequels a bit distressing........
As they say theres a good book in everyone... what about movie?????...

Well, im a Zombie man.. through and through.... although i love all the other types........ but its impossible ot come up with an original idea..... so how the hell are production companies and producers continuing to finance these.....

I thought Undead was brilliant.... as in 2 brothers decide to make a zombie film and did all the Visual Fx themselves in their bedrooms...... 6 months teaching themselves the progams.....

Now thats dedication...... I need to find some people like that....

i do Look forward to Rob Z's Halloween....... maybe The Hills Have Eyes 2 (2007) maybe........ maybe.....

the amount of remakes has been a joke... a bigger joke then that.... the amount of them that are ****.

I look for good acting, good plot, good violence (not psychologiaclly disturbing..(been disturbed for oh too long, dont need anymore).. a zombie here or there and a good score..... oh yeah...and a good scare from time to time.....

I wanna make a zombie movie.... but it takes too much time when you only have 2 dedicated helpers......

DerekP11

Im working on a horror film at the moment. The website will be live soon and I'll post the link. The biggest problem is obviously originality. We're trying to move away from outright gore and send ups of previous movies. Its not easy though. However using the film making craft combined with a supernatural take on everyday "horror" stories is serving us well so far. I love zombies, but I dont think its possible to be original with them anymore.

Good storytelling and limited use of fx might well be the way to reinvent the genre, but its gonna take a brave studio to back it. I shot zombie flicks on 8mm in the 80s. Even then I felt I was just cheaply emulating cheap movies. But it felt good doing it in Ireland. When I look at Irish efforts now, such as boy eats girl, deadmeat and Isolation, I don't know what to think. For what its worth, when I went to film school in Dun Laoghaire in 1990, my classmates laughed at me when I listed The Evil Dead and Bad Taste as my influences (with VHS copies under my arms!) Yet Ireland is now only at the spoofing stage of the horror genre. In 1990 you couldn't even spoof the genre in college. I met with fierce resistance from lecturers. Im way off topic now sorry.

trendkill

DerekP11 wrote:

when I went to film school in Dun Laoghaire in 1990, my classmates laughed at me when I listed The Evil Dead and Bad Taste as my influences (with VHS copies under my arms!) Yet Ireland is now only at the spoofing stage of the horror genre. In 1990 you couldn't even spoof the genre in college. I met with fierce resistance from lecturers. Im way off topic now sorry.

Man I hear you there, had the same thing when i went studying filmmaking....
Well, hopefully, lets try and find some people that love the horror genre, and try and make a kick ass horror, I know something like this should be in the film production section... bit quiet over there... but its dedicated fans like us that judge if its good or not....afterall we're the ones that get stuck watching the majority of the crap that comes out....

Ireland needs a kick in the horror department....
the one your working on might be the one to do it....

DerekP11

Cheers trendkill.

I'll keep this board updated as we go. Nearly finished the site so that will be live soon. As for our effort being the kick Ireland needs re horror movies....we hope so, or at the very least, the first real effort made. That would do us.

Ive been a horror fan as long as I can remember and your right trendkill, we really have had to watch some amount of crap. But a horror fan knows the genre.

Hopefully the mods won't mind me picking brains here on the forum. We're still scripting/taping production meetings/shooting test scenes and we anticipate casting by March, principle photography to start in June. Any assistance from board members appreciated. (and I don't mean money)

trendkill

Man, well if you need a hand with anything, give us a shout, would be great to help out in any way i can, even special fx make-up....we love getting up to our knees in stage blood

DerekP11

trendkill wrote:

Man, well if you need a hand with anything, give us a shout, would be great to help out in any way i can, even special fx make-up....we love getting up to our knees in stage blood

Consider that offer as taken.;)

bjj-fighter

What I look for is a good killer,great acting and a brilliant ending or plot twist

DerekP11

bjj-fighter wrote:

What I look for is a good killer,great acting and a brilliant ending or plot twist

First class credentials there. Just add a few genuinely frightening/disturbing (and may I say goreless perhaps?) scenes and we're away.

niallon

Ah yes, the movie. Provided myself and DerekP11 can make a script that lives up to the ideas floating around I think we could be on to something good here. We've both seen enough of the brutal previous attempts to know what we don't want to do!As soon as the site's live we're halfway there anyway!