The Up and down Horror genre

DaBreno

A thread running on the Horror board about the best film ever got me thinking about the state of this genre. The consensus over there is The Thing and The Shining are two stand out examples. I think anything from John Carpenter in his early days could make that short list. (Halloween!!) All of that was a long time ago though and the genre has been extremely hit and miss since.

Wes Craven should be dragged over the Coals or at least locked in a room with his own recent films for 2 weeks for giving us Scream. I thought the whole cheap fright Teen horror crap had gone but this film brought it roaring back in recent years. Where would TV3's Sunday night schedule be without the likes of "I know what you did last summer" etc.
Kudos then to M. Night Shayalaman for his role in reviving the Horror genre with Sixth Sense and Signs. I love the very slow build up that pays a lot of attention to fleshing out characters and releasing bits of unease and forboding a bit at a time.

After this, I thought this kind of film would become the standard. The excellent Stir of Echoes , What lies beneath and The Others followed. All these favoured character building, slow pacing and suggestion over CGI crap(The Haunting!! :mad: ). Great films to watch in the cinema too, you could feel the tension in the place. We also had a slew of brilliant Asian flicks like The ring, The Eye, Grudge etc. Hounarable mention too to the low budget Session 9 for what I thought was a great ending.

Sadly, this line of films seems to be drying up and Teen fodder like The Bogeyman is back in fashion. Ever watch this type of crap in the cinema? You can see the "shock" coming 5 minutes away and the sound effect for the cheap shock is provided by a Guitar player, Piano player and a Drummer who all assualt their instruments at the same time. You get some 15 year old freak of a girl in the seat in front of you going "OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!" everytime some crappy chase is on. Muck!

Any good things on the Horizon?

ps. anyone remeber Michael Manns The Keep? Great film.

garred

Yeah there has been very few horrors that have grabbed me by the balls recently. Personally I liked Scream when if first came out (could'nt watch it now though). It brought the slashers back with a bang. Hated NOES, Freddy Kruger with his stand up comedy routine, WTF was that all about.
Some of the films you list (sixth sense, lies beneath, etc.) might not be classified as horror to some (I'll include myself) but thats for another days debate. More or less everything has been done now, there's not much plot lines left to explore (hence the number of remakes) and not many more ways to scare/frighten (I know thats not just what horror films are about, but it is to me). Looks like we have to look further afield (korea, Japan) for our films but I'm not a big fan of the dark/moody film types. There are a lot of horrors planned for release over the coming year so we'll see how Hollywood does. I have a pain in my ring over the Ring debate but it looks like remakes are the way its going.
Come on Hollywood...grab me by the balls!!

TerrorFirmer

Personally, I hated the few years that teen slashers were what constituted the "horror genre" in Hollywood.

Now, its remake season, with The ring, The Grudge, the Amityville Horror, and The Eye, among others being released or pencilled for release in cinemas

I have to agree with you on the teenage crap like "Boogeyman", and "Cursed" - both appalling movies.

Although for me, a good horror is judged solely on how frightening, and unsettling it is to me, I don't buy into the pathetic arguments that "deep" directoral techniques, clever uses of "X" and "Y" etc are what make a good horror film, as others suggestion in recent topics. Sure they help of course, no body denies that, but we have to remember, this genre does not have to be constructed in the same way a drama, a historical movie or such has, because at its core -

Horror is all about being scared. As long as it scares me, I think it a good horror.

And although Hollywood is churning out some turkeys like "Cursed" and "Boogeyman", they are also having a fairly good period with regards to movies that AREN'T aimed solely at the young teenage market, with movies like "The Amityville Horror"

I think its going well, in fairness, I'm much happier now then I was when everyone was harping on about "Scream" and other tosh like "I know what you did..." as the ultimate in horror....

ps. anyone remeber Michael Manns The Keep? Great film.

Yes, with our very own Gabriel Byrne! Got it recently, very very dated though, even more so then films of the same period...

ObeyGiant

DaBreno wrote:

ps. anyone remeber Michael Manns The Keep? Great film.

The Keep was awful. A great idea for a movie ruined by a budget too small to properly realise the director's ambitions - so instead of a BEING OF UNSPEAKABLE HORROR, we have a rubber suit with light bulbs for eyes.

Karl Hungus

It's not an issue to do with horror at all really, but rather the high profile pap that hollywood churns out. It's the same for every genre there is, there'll be great films, but there'll be watered down dung produced aswell. And there's also the fact that Hollywood moves in trends, rather than making a good film by virtue of it being a good film, they'd make a film because that's the kind of thing that's being done right now. Case in point, the 'Epic' film genre, with blatant garbage like Troy and Alaxander being pumped out like the proverbial enema, flushing out the last dregs of the genre long after the moment.

So while the flood of ****ty slashers in the wake of Scream have all past their cash-cow sell by date, someone still had the balls to make a film like Haute Tension, not as a cash-in, but because it was a good film worth making, and damned if it doesn't piss all over everything else in the genre.

Karl Hungus

ObeyGiant wrote:

The Keep was awful. A great idea for a movie ruined by a budget too small to properly realise the director's ambitions - so instead of a BEING OF UNSPEAKABLE HORROR, we have a rubber suit with light bulbs for eyes.

Ah come on, the sheer fire between Gabriel Byrne and Jurgen Prochnow was a sight to behold, amazing preformances altogether! Enough to redeem the film of it's pathetic monster.

Tusky

I actually thought 'Scream' was a decent slasher flick when it came out... the series of ****e slasher movies that it spawned were not so decent tough.

Paligulus

I know there's a bit of a debate over the original Japanesse horror movies vs. the hollywood remakes.(personally I thought the Ring 1 was great. The grudge was very good but it seemed like the horror equivalent of hardcore porn!!!One scary seen after another with no plot...)

Whichever side of the debate you're on you have to admit that these film have completly kicked the a$$ of every horror film in the last few years (since Nightmare on elmstreet??!!!!)

It can only help to improve the genre...

acri

i think feck-all films should make it to the horror genre these days. a horror is something that frightens the pants off you. i think the only film that did that was the first alien. most of the films these days are more suspense or action. for a real horror, one should probably avoid hollywood. has anyone seen Audition? that did a really good job of bringing the viewer into a terrifying reality, then a massive sigh of relief, and then a most unwelcome bout of reality again. love it. i think thats the formula with most jap horrors. it was the same formula for Perfect Blue.

Etain

If you watch The Keep without first reading the novel, there are gaps in the story. I saw the movie with a friend who hadn't read it, and had to explain what was going on, and why, here and there through the movie. F. Paul Wilson wrote it.