HORROR FILMS

[StephieM]

Thought I'd add a little Halloween spirit to the forum. :tongue

Three questions...

What is your favorite horror film of all time?
What is the best horror film you've seen lately?
What do you think is wrong with horror films today?

My favorite horror film of all time is "Lost Boys", not only do I think it was a great movie, it holds sort of a childhood sentimentality to it. It's one of the movies that piqued my curiousity in film structure, so when I first watched it, I had to watch it over and over again. I think I drove my dad nuts.

My favorite line in the movie is when Micheal first goes to the cave and David gives him Chinese food to eat. Micheal is eating white rice and David says..

"You're eating maggots Micheal, how do they taste?"

The best horror film I've seen lately is "The Amityville Horror". It was a bit cliche and it put me in mind of "The Shining", but it did have me raising the covers up to my face a few times, even made me yell out once. :eek:

Horror films aren't like they used to be. I love the old horror films, unpredictable with blood oozing gore. :) But I think time and seeing the same kind of films over and over again has made horror films today more predictable. When I first saw the ax in Amityville horror, I just knew it would become a weapon. (It doesn't really take a genius to figure that out.) It hurts too when your a screenwriter, it's almost second nature to pick a movie apart and know what's coming next without thinking about it. I could almost guess how a movie is going to end just by watching the begining. I'll have to tell you, it's ruined a few surprises.

Another thing with horror movies today is when a certain movie hits, then there is three or four more following behind. When "The Haunting" came out, suddenly we're being bombarded with haunted house movies. I'm not sure the exact order, but there was "House on Haunted Hill", "The Haunting of Hell House", and not too far behind "Thirteen Ghosts". Same with Zombie movies, "Dawn of the Dead" is the only good one, IMO. Also '"crazy house masacre movies", "Wrong Turn", "House of 1000 Corpses", and "Texas Chainsaw Masacre". Not saying that most of these movies don't hold their own, but there's nothing like beating an dead horse when it comes to horror flicks.

Steph

[sandoz]

Does John Carpenter's The Thing count as horror? If so that was the scariest movie I've ever seen, though the special effects look pretty average by today's standards. Poltergeist would come a close second. Guess that dates me a bit... haven't seen much new stuff. Those are both good Halloween movies.

Four Weddings and a Funeral was horrific, if that counts.

Good flicks you've listed there...

[scarletpeaches]

My problem with horror movies is suspension of disbelief. I know these films are fiction, so they don't scare me.

The only one that chilled me was The Blair Witch Project, precisely for the reason I've just given. Is it real, isn't it? I watched it on my own, in the dark, and the last scene? Wow.

I loved The Lost Boys but it didn't scare me in the least. I'm a sucker (sorry) for vampire flicks anyway, good or bad.

[Aldenard]

Hmmm my favorite horror film of all time? Well that's a hard one. It would probably have to be Se7en. It wasn't scary or anything, it was just a damn good film. (If I could say Oldboy I would, but I think that's more of a thriller; but it is one of my fav movies of all time).

The best horror film ive seen recently...hm...well, the only one Ive seen this year is Saw II and that was alright. Had a great begining and killer ending but the middle was bogged down heavily by many unnecessary and irrelevant scenes.

I know this wasn't a question, but I would also like to state that I believe asian cinema is truly the master of horror films. Movies like Audition and the Eye are by far some of the most disconcerting films Ive witnessed. (Ichi the Killer comes to mind too). Asian horror films seem to have captured the perfect essence of mood, characters, gore, and psychological horror in their films. It has only been recently that American cinema has caught on to this, and begun to remake many asian horror classics (The Ring, The Grudge, and Dark Water are a few examples.), though many times they butcher the original material.

My two cents.

[StephieM]

Asian horror films freak me out. The first time I watched "The Ring" it had me crawling back into my chair with the pillow over my face. I didn't think it was enough, so I had to watch the original version. :)

"The Grudge" was pretty creepy too. Never heard of the other one.

Steph

[scarletpeaches]

After seeing Fallen with my cousin, we said our goodbyes, then as we'd arranged to call each other to say "It's me, I'm home safe, goodnight," he called me up and started singing, "Ti-i-i-i-me, is on our side, YES IT IS!"

[StephieM]

Didn't they also use that song in a recent movie? I'm trying to think of the name of it, it was about a serial killer who kills people than takes on their identity. His mom thought he was dead and sees him on a ferry and tries to warn the police. Gosh, that's really going to bug me. :Headbang:

It probally isn't even the same song. :o

I loved The Lost Boys but it didn't scare me in the least. I'm a sucker (sorry) for vampire flicks anyway, good or bad.

Me too. For some reason I'm really fascinated with vampires, maybe it's the immorality. Even if it's a stupid vampire movie, I'm going to pay my 9 bucks to go see it. :) "Dusk til Dawn" was pretty awesome. I liked "Interview with the Vampire", but I thought the book was so much better. I love Anne Rice, her characters are so indepth.

Steph

[scarletpeaches]

Taking Lives? That ferry thing rings a bell.

[StephieM]

YES! That's it! Thankyou, now I won't be up all night thinking about it. :)
At the begining after the "killer", shoved his friend from the bus out in front of the car, I thought he sang that song as he walks down the road. Could be wrong.

Either way, that song is freaky.

Steph

[scarletpeaches]

Any film with Denzel Washington doesn't scare me, though, it just makes me *swoon* (To go back to Fallen temporarily).

[Boo_Radley]

Lifelong horror movie fanatic, here, so this thread is much appreciated.:)


What is your favorite horror film of all time?

George Romero's Dawn of the Dead. No one working in the genre in the last forty years has mastered the "horror film as allegory" approach better than Romero. Whether it be The Crazies, Martin, Night/Dawn/Day/Land of the Dead or even Bruiser, no genre filmmaker does it like Romero. The guy's a genius as far as I'm concerned, and very few filmmakers have been as consistent with the quality of their films as Romero has. And with Dawn, he poked so much underhanded fun at 70's consumer culture that the film not only qualifies as masterful horror, but bloody funny satire, as well.

What is the best horror film you've seen lately?
I had to give this one a bit of thought, but I'm going with Shaun of the Dead. This flick showed so much revery, affection and obvious respect for the genre, as well as the above-mentioned Romero, and the humor was precise and hilarious. The tagline, "A romantic comedy...with zombies" is also quite accurate as there's a sweetness and tenderness to the relationships in the film which makes the characters that much more likeable. Also, the film is ingeniously clever -- almost everything which happens in the second half of the film is foreshadowed in, and in some cases a duplicate of, the first half of the film.

What do you think is wrong with horror films today?
Holy crap, you just opened a HUGE kettle of fish...

For one, horror movies should NEVER be rated PG-13. It totally defeats the purpose. And I'm sure the reasoning is, "Hey, horror is really hot right now...but a PG-13 movie will make more money than an R-Rated movie because an R won't get the younger kids into the theater, so we won't make as much money." It's a venality that sickens me.

Remakes. Are we, as screenwriters either professional or aspiring, to believe that there's such a lack of original material out there that the only thing to do is go back and remake films from days gone by? I think not. Instead, it's yet again motivated by the dollar sign -- there's money to be made by name recognition. I see nothing wrong with a remake of an original film which left room for improvement (such as The Fly, which was mediocre at best but made brilliant by David Cronenberg when he revamped it in '86) but to tinker with a film which is a horror masterpiece to begin with -- Dawn of the Dead, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Psycho -- that's just a slap in the face to true genre fans. And just think, we still have the remakes of Evil Dead, Halloween (rumored) and The Hills Have Eyes to look forward to...

Sequels. An extension of the remake complaint in that there's so much other stuff out there to be done in the genre. But, the wallets have spoken and demand to have their stomachs filled, so we get the milking of filmic cows and now, films with sequels aren't referred to as "series" but "franchises" -- which should tell you something. Again, it's that venality which turns my stomach. I could understand a sequel to a film which might have a genuine further story to tell about its characters, but these are very rare.

Lastly, a horror movie, to be totally effective, calls for you to care about its characters and not want to see them killed. Sure, Friday the 13th and other such genre flicks may be an exception but then they're what I refer to as "fun" horror flicks -- you don't watch them to get involved in their storylines, you watch them to see what kinds of tricks the FX artists have come up with this time around, or to get some cheap kicks.

But movies such as The Exorcist, the original Dawn of the Dead, the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, to name a few -- these films were successful because the characters were real, they were human beings, and horrible, horrible things happened to them. You CARED. They weren't already infamously known as, say, BJ queens like Paris Hilton (who appears in House of Wax -- incidentally, another unnecessary remake) or as a trouble-prone Hip Hop star such as, say, Busta Rhymes (in Halloween: Resurrection -- incidentally, yet another unnecessary sequel). I like REAL actors in my horror films -- not "faces", personalities who you'd never be able to see as being anyone but whom we see them to be in the news every day.

And as far as that goes, I'm really not a big fan of seeing "huge movie stars" in genre films because, much like pop icons, we see them outside of films every day in news and other media, and it makes it that much more difficult to see them as the characters they portray in movies, which kills the whole "character has to seem real" thing. If you see Tom Cruise in a horror movie playing a murderous butcher you don't see a murderous butcher -- you Tom Cruise. You don't think, "wow, that murderous butcher is insane," you think, "wow, I can't believe he really knocked up Katie Holmes." Know what I mean?

Anyway...I'm sure I went way beyond the simple answers you were probably looking for, but...dammit...I'm passionate about my horror flicks lol

[Aldenard]

I know you're probably going to hate me for this (if you dont already) but I'm going to have to disagree with you on many of your complaints Boo.

About the PG-13 film: yes, I can understand how infurierating it can be for a horror film to be placed in this rating simply to get more money (AVP was ruined because of this...well maybe it woulda sucked anyway). But I don't believe a horror film CANT be PG-13. Look at the Ring for example. It can be very scarey but not have to rely on pointless gore and sadistic violence. There are some very good psychological horror films (such as the Sixth Sense) that can be quite chilling, but recieve a PG-13 rating, not because they sought more money, but because of how the horror was portrayed.

About the remakes bit: Yes, I understand we all want more original film ideas to actually be produced, and remakes for the most part suck. But not all. I absolutly love Romero's Dawn of the Dead also (one of my favorite horror films as well) and I was heavily opposed to it being remade. I saw the remake however, and though it is nothing compared to Romero's classic, it is entirely unique unto itself and takes the concept of the original and runs with it in an entirely opposite direction. I thought of it more as a re-imagining of the original, and thought it was a fairly good zombie film. (though I think the best zombie film of the past 15 years is 28 Days Later).

About the sequals bit: Yes, I agree with you for the most part here, but some sequals can be good. The Saw II sequal, for example, didn't simply create a new film with the same bad guy. Instead, it expounded upon the first, and through several clever twists, made you think of the first film differently.

I do agree with you about how the audience must care about the characters, though I don't believe they must like them. They simply must have some emotional feelings about them. Some of the more effecient scenes in horror films comes when a character the audience hates is tormented and tortured, and this gets the audience riled up and involved in the film.

I realize you are probably going to disagree with all of that, but that's just how I feel.

O, and I should also say that another one of my favorite horror films (if it could be called that) is American Psycho. Any of yall seen that?

[Boo_Radley]

Nope, you won't hear any arguments from me. We're all entitled to our opinions, and I only see listening to others as seeing different ideas on the same subject.;)

I'm also a huge fan of American Psycho, by the way. Christian Bale is perfect in the lead, and the jet-black humor is quite potent.

Wait...I will disagree with you on with one thing. 28 Days Later wasn't a zombie movie...the people weren't dead, they were infected with a disease which made them raving, homicidal maniacs. But, that's a discussion for horror movie boards LOL

[StephieM]

What do you think is wrong with horror films today?
Holy crap, you just opened a HUGE kettle of fish...

I was going to say a huge can of worms, but that works. ;)

Great reply!


For one, horror movies should NEVER be rated PG-13.

I'll have to agree with Aldernard on this one. As long as the movie pays off, I could care less about the rating.



Remakes. Are we, as screenwriters either professional or aspiring, to believe that there's such a lack of original material out there that the only thing to do is go back and remake films from days gone by?
I don't know. I'm fifty/fifty on this. Some really great horror films, make equally great remakes, yet others suck big toe. I'm sure at one point in my day, I've seen the original "Dawn of the Dead", but can't remember it to know wether the remake adds up. But I must say the remake was pretty good. Psycho wasn't that great. Liked the original better.

Neat little tidbit: My husband used to live across the street from the house that was used in Psycho. Just the outside part of it. They used a different house for the inside. People actually live in it. Doesn't look a bit scary in real life. It's in Kent, Ohio.

Back to the subject.

"Evil Dead" is a great movie! But shamefully I hope they remake it. Now, Halloween, that's just sad.

When it comes to remakes, keep in mind there is a whole new generation out there who have never heard of the "originals" until the remake gets made. Besides that, I don't know any kid who would want to sit around watching old horror flicks with cheesy special effects, (thinking in a kids point of view of course), unless they are really into horror. Why not give them a chance to see and experience the same movies we grew up watching, only in a way they are not going to get bored.

They better never remake "The Lost Boys", that is where I draw the limit.

As for sequels, I'm right up there with you. How many Friday the 13th's are they going to make until they finally run it into the ground. Freddy vs. Jason, was just a complete waste IMO. And they should of left SCREAM alone after the first one. The other two were only forced into the making to bring in some more of that green, greedily taken from ignorant kids who don't know any better. Same goes for "I Know What You Did Last Summer." And I totally agree with you when they use "familiar faces" to hype up the sales. People who should not be acting, ever. Give me a fresh face any day.

Glad you posted!

Steph

[dpaterso]

The Thing -- the original B/W Thing From Another World which I saw as a boy on TV, and the Carpenter remake which I saw in the theater, both scared the bejabbers out of me.

In the theater watching The Thing, the girl sitting two seats along from us screamed and climbed over her boyfriend to get away when the doctor did the paddles thing to the guy on the table. I knew exactly how she felt.

Walking home later, my other half turned her head to me and exhaled like the bogus humans in the film, and I leapt across the (thankfully empty at 2 a.m.) street.

I'm quite the wimp.

Vampire films have never scared me, tho' I happened to catch John Carpenter's Vampires on TV last night and was absolutely terrified... by how awful it was. Really truly awful. Probably supposed to be a clever pastiche.

I like reading old horror movie scripts like the Val Lewton classics but when the films show on late nite TV or the Horror Channel they're invariably slow, boring, outdated. Blasphemy, I know...

-Derek
My wittle web page - hack stories, failed novels, dud screenplays, terminal writer's block. (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57)

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[StephieM]

I was watching "the 100 scariest moments in horror" and got a glimpse of "The Thing". I've never seen the movie, but that face was enough to give me nightmares until I'm eighty years old. I think it rated in the high 40's, 47 or something. I didn't get a chance to see number one. But if "The Thing was number 47, number one must of been terrifying.

Steph

[dpaterso]

A quick Google search on "the 100 scariest moments in horror" gave a link to IMDb.com which lists the 100 films. Think cello music... just the first 2 notes should be enough. :)

-Derek
My wittle web page - hack stories, failed novels, dud screenplays, terminal writer's block. (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57)
The fool, the meddling idiot. As though his ape's brain could contain the secrets of the Krell.

[Boo_Radley]

I was watching "the 100 scariest moments in horror" and got a glimpse of "The Thing". I've never seen the movie, but that face was enough to give me nightmares until I'm eighty years old. I think it rated in the high 40's, 47 or something. I didn't get a chance to see number one. But if "The Thing was number 47, number one must of been terrifying.

Steph

I recorded this last year, when it first aired, on cable TV. The show was produced by long-time Fangoria Magazine editor Tony Timpone. I can't say I completely agree with the #1 spot (not a big fan of that film, I won't say the title for those who've not seen the show and want to be surprised) but needless to say, in my opinion most of the films on the list were much scarier than the one which came in first.

Steph, if you're a horror fan you'll love The Thing. It ranks quite highly (namely, number two, right after Halloween) on my own Favorite John Carpenter Movie list. :)

[StephieM]

A quick Google search on "the 100 scariest moments in horror" gave a link to IMDb.com which lists the 100 films. Think cello music... just the first 2 notes should be enough. :)

-Derek
My wittle web page - hack stories, failed novels, dud screenplays, terminal writer's block. (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57)
The fool, the meddling idiot. As though his ape's brain could contain the secrets of the Krell.

I seriously could not think of it. My ten year old daughter thought of it before I did. She was sitting next to me, and started humming the music. :tongue

Steph

[harrisbloom]

Did someone mention, "American Psycho?"

Dunno if you can see my previous posts on these boards but I mentioned that as my favorite movie of all time. Number two is Willy Wonka and then is Silence of the Lambs

My fave horror flick of the last five years is Shaun of the Dead, though 28 Days Later was great too.



I don't think there's anything wrong with horror flicks today - well, I should say, nothing specific to that genre...I mean, a lack of imagination and a willing to try something different is obviously an issue, but I think one can say that about Hollywood in general. Unless you're Charlie Kaufman, that is.