A Critical View on Modern Horror Movies

“I think that we’re all mentally ill; those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better – and maybe not all that much better, after all.” (King, Stephen. Why We Crave Horror Movies). We’re all a little crazy sometimes. Some of us a little more than others. An average person might dip into some messed up, curious thoughts. That’s why someone shouldn’t think to much. That is also why we have horror films! There has to be more to it though.

Many movie critics claim that horror movies nowadays are more violent and bloody than they used to be. This genre has definitely changed for the worse. Some would disagree but, this is only my opinion. Some movies like the notorious new-age “Paranormal Activity” try to depict a story that is truly believable to follow their viewers after watching the film. That makes them not as scary and jumpy but they are designed to scare you in the long term.

On the other hand we have movies like “Saw”. This serious consisted of 7 movies all with tons of blood and gore. They weren’t very scary but they did have lots of blood.

Cynicism kind of ruined the horror genre. It was never going to win awards and be seen as art, but horror is probably the most fun to watch. Unfortunately this evolved (degraded?), as all social memes do, into movies trying to be “B” movies, movies trying to be more violent/gross/edgy than its predecessors, and movies trying to take old franchises and reboot them for a quick cash in.

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Modern horror movies are uninspired shells of what was going on in the 70’s and 80’s. The 70’s took the genre a little more seriously and those movies were heavy on atmosphere and character development. They treated them like actual films and not like some parody that hits the basics of what “fans” of the genre expect, or what people think those fans want. The 80’s was the pinnacle for practical effects. There was heart and soul put into even the cheapest and most campy horror film and that’s evident. What do we get now? Remakes, reimagining’s, and CGI heavy crap, totally void of any atmosphere, cheap jump scares at every predictable turn with characters that no one could possibly give a damn about.

The genre changed because people don’t have the passion that they used to. It’s all about putting out something that will make the biggest profit while spending as little money in the process. Original horror is out there, but why should a major studio take a chance on any original idea that is out of the gates guaranteed to not win anyone an academy award? The downward trend of horror has probably already passed the point of no return and will remain a joke genre with “sleeper” hits that come and go once every few years. Nothing changed psychologically to people with the changes of horror movies from what we know. “For myself, I like to see the most aggressive of them – Dawn of the Dead, for instance – as lifting a trap door in the civilized forebrain and throwing a basket of raw meat to the hungry alligators swimming around in that subterranean river beneath.

Why bother? Because it keeps them from getting out, man. It keeps them down there and me up here. It was Lennon and McCartney who said that all you need is love, and I would agree with that. As long as you keep the gators fed.” (King, Stephen. Why We Crave Horror Movies). Horror films are generally a representation of the times. You could make comparisons to the torture in the news dealing with Iraqi soldiers and how that in turn inspires films like the “Saw” and “Hostel” movies. “Most of the media violence is war and international affairs. The incidents and violence in horror movies is highly exaggerated compared to real life killings and violence. You normally don’t hear of a man torturing mean spirited people with puzzle related death machines.” (Scheulin, Patrick. Personal interview. 5 September 2013). The old saying of less is more is still effective and should be utilized more. Our minds create more horrific scenarios in regards to what we don’t see rather than what we do. There’s an artistry that the makeup and special effects artists of the world had done. When we were actually shown a death in the movies that was worked on it didn’t really shock me. It made me wonder how they pulled it off.

You’re journeying into the land of nature/nurture and personal responsibility. There’s never going to be a solid answer whether any horror films are changing people psychologically. If that was true however, that horror movies affect people psychologically then our murder rates and just general crime rates would most likely be a lot higher than what they are. In a recent interview with a friend he also claims the same idea, “Everyone can take things into consideration and act upon their views. If this was 100% true than the world would be doomed because everyone has seen a horror movie. It could be, but I think it’s stupid that anyone would act on a movie they saw. That’s like me watching “Batman” and trying to be a vigilante” (Bishop, Collin. Personal Interview. 5 September 2013.) Obviously after this essay you can see that there are some changes that happened to the horror genre. Some people agree with my opinion that horror has definitely gone down the drain, but there are people who believe the new age horror movies are just as good, if not better. Of course horror movies got more bloody and violent, but that is because people just want to see the next craziest thing. So if that is what the people want to see then the company is going to make these films because companies love money!