Modern Horror Movies

D_Barzillai Whackingsauce

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My opinion is this : They are lacking imagination. Everything is at the film makers tips these days. What I found to be most effective about "Classic" Horror Films is : They had to rely on other methods other than over the top graphics and special effects to give a scare. For me a Top One Horror Film is "The Exorsist" The effects were all "Practical" that being real and on camera ; make up, stunt rigs, and who could forget pea-soup. For me what scares the shit out of me is subtlety, what remains un-seen, maybe heard, or felt in a sense.
 

D_Barzillai Whackingsauce

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I do. But I also think most of the modern effects fall into "Over the Top"

I guess that comment about pea-soup was more tongue and cheeck, but it still falls into the area of "innovative." Prop vomit, is still pea soup, and or Oat meal. I think they maybe could have toned it down to make it more effective, but I do feel it's still better than something digital.

B
 

Ethyl

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Psycho still rules.

Amen, brother.

Halloween is often considered John Carpenter's best movie but I prefer The Thing. Suspenseful story and the graphic special effects still hold up to industry standards.

The Fog was also creepy. The remake blew but Carpenter's story and execution was spine-tingling.

Silence of the Lambs is a bonafide classic.

I also thought Blair Witch Project was scary. Your mind is allowed to wander and what I can imagine is more frightening than anything onscreen.

Session 9 is a more recent flick that isn't frightening per se but this sense of dread is pervasive throughout the film.

I find fairytales to be more frightening than anything I see. Why hasn't anyone adopted the tale of Bluebeard and written it for the big screen?
 

SpoiledPrincess

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I saw the Exorcist when it was first shown, I think I was 15, it didn't scare me a bit. However, when I watched it with my ex bf who'd been eating shrooms he practically crapped himself :)
 

jack99821

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The Exorcist never scared me at all for some reason. It's more of a "shocking" movie that gets less and less potent as time goes on.

Anyway, I ran across a nice Court TV write-up on Ivan Milat (of Wolf Creek), complete with recent updates. It has no ties to the film and doesn't even mention it. I haven't read the whole thing, since it's just a compilation of what I learned before from many different sources.
 

SpoiledPrincess

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There was a Korean version of Hansel and Gretel in 2007, and I believe several horror films were based on the fairy tale too. Tales from the Darkside was based around a Hansel and Gretel scenario
 

SpoiledPrincess

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It was one of those anthology films, it's a long time since I've seen it but as I recall this boy was captured by a witch (debby harry) and to play for time he told her tales which were the separate little tales within the framework.
 

Ethyl

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It was one of those anthology films, it's a long time since I've seen it but as I recall this boy was captured by a witch (debby harry) and to play for time he told her tales which were the separate little tales within the framework.

I remember watching that at the movies and thinking Debby Harry made a halfway decent witch. :smile:
 

jack99821

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The Exorcist never scared me at all for some reason. It's more of a "shocking" movie that gets less and less potent as time goes on.

Anyway, I ran across a nice Court TV write-up on Ivan Milat (of Wolf Creek), complete with recent updates. It has no ties to the film and doesn't even mention it. I haven't read the whole thing, since it's just a compilation of what I learned before from many different sources.

Heh, of course I forgot the link.
Ivan Milat, the notorious Australian Backpacker serial killer -- the Crime Library - The Crime library
 

JustAsking

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Amen, brother.

Halloween is often considered John Carpenter's best movie but I prefer The Thing. Suspenseful story and the graphic special effects still hold up to industry standards.
...

One of my favorite movie lines from The Thing: "I don't know what it is, but it's wierd and ticked off."
 

dionysis79

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Sadly, I have not found a recent horror movie that has genuinely scared me. What ever happened to the classics? The new horror movies seem to be more about gore than really horrifying you. Anyone agree?
 

B_NineInchCock_160IQ

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I've never really liked horror films, but I think some of the recent trends in the genre have represented multiple low points.

Everything Rob Zombie has directed would be one of them. His films are inane, empty, amateurish derivative crap.

There's also the trend now toward shock/gross-out/torture horror films like Hostel or Saw which really don't have much at all to offer over the average snuff film. Final Destination might also fall into this category, though that borrows elements from the Scream/I Know What You Did Last Summer "smart/hip teen horror film" subgenre as well.

That trend (the smart/self-aware teen-skewed horror films) I didn't mind so much. But after the first Scream, the level of cleverness went downhill and eventually this subgenre was just as derivative and unoriginal as the classic slasher genre it was lampooning.

The trend of copying Japanese and Hong Kong horror films I also find pretty dull. The Grudge and The Ring fall into this category. The redone Exorcist might as well. Similar to the shock films, they offer a few creep-out thrills in the form of "creepy" visuals- like pale girls with matted hair or little Japanese boys screaming like cats- and not a whole lot else.


The horror films that I like are those that have substance beyond the cheap scare/thrill/gross-out/creep-out. Films that either have some kind of interesting story behind them, or are directed by people who understand what it means to build up suspense and make a film psychologically unnerving without resorting to the cheap carnival side show cop-out shit I listed above. Films that really have something to offer in terms of great character performances or inventive visual or narrative styles I can also appreciate. Basically.... if the movie can stand on its own even without being "scary"... because movies don't scare me... then I'll probably like it.

Examples of the above would be Alien/Aliens, The Shining, Sleepy Hollow, The Terminator/T2, Fire in the Sky, Jurassic Park, The Sixth Sense, Akira, Scream, Jaws, 28 Days Later.
Many of those could be filed under multiple genres, but I think almost all of the best "horror" films can be.