When is by-the-book good, horror fans?

Bipolar Joe

In particular, slasher movies? For the most part, slashers are the most samey of all the film varieties. You could put any five on at the same time, and watch watch them play out in more or less the same way at the same time. I'm a fan of slasher movies, despite this. So yeah, my question is, these days, when even people who haven't seen a single slasher title know exactly what to expect, is a murder-by-numbers slasher still worth making? How would you mix it up?

The last series I got through was Hatchet, which I really enjoyed. It was good to see recognisable faces, and for Kane Hodder to be stalking people again. Felt great.

krudler

Scream did a good job of turning the slasher cliches on their head while sticking to plenty of them too. The not quite dead bad guy, the getting between different areas stupidly fast for the sake of scares etc.
I like when films play with the genre they're in, Cabin In The Woods and Tucker & Dale vs Evil were both great for it.

These days the guy in mask stalking teens thing is so done to death I'm not sure how you could make a by the numbers one, ghost movies are where it's at now.

poundapunnet

Not a fan of slashers, but The Woman in Black springs to mind as a recent example of by-the-numbers done well. Seriously old fashioned predictable movie with plenty of horror clichés (big city guy in the country, ignoring warnings from locals, vengeful ghost, the bit in the train station at the end) but well made, with more than a few genuine jumps from just old fashioned haunty-housey-ghosty-glimpsey bits.

Ole Rodrigo

Dawn of the Dead remake.
The Hills have Eyes remake.
Evil Dead remake.

Not entirely by the numbers but done well nonetheless, I thought.