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Author
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Topic: Has horror, lost it's horror?
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted July 29, 2008 12:16 PM
My wife and I were watching the "The Fly" the other night, and while there were some good gross out scenes in it, I talked with the wifey afterwards and we discussed horror in general, and while some Generals have been horrifying (snicker), horror, in films, hasn't been horrifying in a film in years.
It seems that most horror films really don't elicit horror either to the audience, or from the audience, being more one bloody venture with intestines bursting left and right, but perhaps we have become so desensitized, that not much really strikes us as horrifying.
Hannibal lector slicing, dicing and preparing for dinner his latest tasy victim, doesn't seem so horrifying, when we read in our paper or have plastered on our TV screens the "consciousless crime of the day" on the network news, (and we all love our "Dirty Laundry"), so that when we see, (perhaps) well crafted horror on screen, it just doesn't "do it" for us anymore, more intent on seeing the latest nublie young bare breasted woman on screen and how many seconds it'll take for her to take her top off, (and then how many seconds later she is decapitated), and then wondering two things ...
Why in the hell would she go to "Camp Runamuck"?
and ...
I just blew 8.00 dollars on this?!!
Am I the only perpetually anal person about this out there, or are there very few truly good horror films anymore?
Your opinion, gentleman?
While on the subject, what is the last TRULY horrifying film that you saw? I'm not talking about something jumping out of the screen and giving you a quick jolt, but a truly horrifying film?
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Paul Adsett
Film God
Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted July 29, 2008 02:16 PM
The first time I saw Psycho in 1962, it scared the pants off me.
The Roger Corman films of the Poe stories, such as 'House of Usher' were pretty scary at the time. They are still pretty creepy, but Vincent Price has become such an Icon of the genre that he now seems like an old friend and is no longer scary. But Corman's films were so well made that they are still a joy to watch.
'The Shining' is I think one of the scariest horror films ever made, and has stood the test of time. Ealing Studios 'Dead of Night' is also very very creepy, as is 'The Innocents' with Deborah Kerr.
When I was about 8 years old I saw 'The Spiral Staircase' with Dorothy McGuire and George Brent: it literally terrified me and I could not bare to watch the film again until I was in my forties. I now have a super 8 print, and it still creeps me out.
One of the all time best is 'The Wicker Man' with Christopher Lee (NOT the recent version with Nicholas Cage, which is a disaster). The final scene of this film is unforgettable.
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted July 29, 2008 07:50 PM
To add another layer to the discussion, I think part of the problem is that we become, not necessarily jaded, but more experienced, and while something would scare us when we were kids, it doesn't have the same impact as adults.
A good example is the late 70's horror film, "The Manitou", which is laughable these days, but there was a scene that got me when I was a kid. This person dies, (man or woman, I can't remember). The body suddenly jerks up and just starts floasting across the room. The head completely turns around and shrieks "MANITOU!!" and then the body floats above the staircase and falls limply down the stairs.
I have always been a "techno junkey" and so while other people would be shocked and horrified, I would look at it and go "cool", like the neato effects in "Life-force", (that dried mummified dead guy that rushes up to the prison bars and just disinegrates).
I have a scene in a screenplay that I wrote, working title being "Plague" (with a real neat "Twilight Zone" styled shocker of an ending!), and one of the happenings is that everyone over two years old dies of the plague and for some reason, the younger live.
In one scene, Dex (The private detective) over hears a rising "din" as he drives through the town. he turns down the radio to hear a wailing. He stops the car and gets out and looks around.
What he hears is the wailing of countless babies. We never see any of the babies, we just see housefronts at different awkward angles, (editing having quicker and quicker cuts between full shots to extreme close-ups of DEX intermingled with the housefronts.), and those baby screams coming on all 6 channels of surround sound, rising to a din.
You don't have to see the children. The horror would certianly be felt by the mothers in the audience as there are all these unattended and dying babies. All you hear is the cries. KMothers that I've told this scene to think I'm sick, but had to agree that it was very effective horror. (I don't mention that, at almost the very end of the film, now wild dogs are fighting over the leg of a dead baby.)
Which brings me to my point. I think the only way to really truly make an effective memorable horror film is to portray something that would be a true fear that they could potentially face.
There's even a script that I refuse to write about terrorists holding a school's buses hostage, (and blowing up one of the buses full of children to make a point), as I could truly see some really sick son-of-a-bitches actually attempting to emulate it in real life. Would it make an intense thriller/horror? Most definitely. Is it societally responsible? Definitely not.
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Paul Adsett
Film God
Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted July 30, 2008 11:40 AM
Anyone see the original 'House on Haunted Hill' with , the Master himself, Vincent Price ? I remember seeing this in my little home town in Wales, and they even had that William Castle gimmick 'Emergo' installed! At the appropriate point in the film, a door opened alongside the screen and a skeleton floated across the audience, being reeled in by the projectionist! Now that was showmanship! ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
Incidentally a great movie tribute to William Castle is 'Matinee' starring John Goodman. A wonderful movie on several levels, combining 50's nostalgia with a love for film showmanship.
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted July 30, 2008 12:11 PM
All good points. Some directors are better than others at creating an atmosphere. Though it became more of a carnival ride, the remake of "The haunting", while a shadow to the original, had a very atmospheric setting.
Some are quite good at it. Someone already mentioned "The Others", which I also admire.
I believe the familiarity with a subject, something that people in reality fear, is the best way to go. 99.99 percent of people will never meet a "Jason" or "Freddy" in thier lifetime, thier dolls won't morph into "Chucky", (heck, the sudiences actually root on the killers!).
There have been a couple of films that dealt with it, but I always thought a film where you can take away a persons very identity with the click of a mouse, is very scary.
Perhaps the very definition of "Horror" has been so convoluted in peoples minds, (mine included), that people have no idea as to what makes horror, horror.
Heck living ooze like the blob, if done right, slowly creeping up on an arm and eating it every "ooze" of the way, is pretty cool.
A good example of horror, in my mind, is the Thing (the remake), as it had both the elements of a awesome creature, and also the scariness of not even knowing if you ... are you.
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Paul Adsett
Film God
Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted July 31, 2008 09:45 PM
Osi, did the 'Emergo' skeleton come shipped with your print of 'Haunted Hill"? ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Osi has opened a great thread here, and I think we are all agreed that the modern blood and guts horror movies just do not hack it (pun not intended ). The truly terrifying and creepy movies mostly seem to be from Hollywoods golden age of the 30's ,40's and 50's. I have already mentioned 'The Spiral Staircase'(1946) as a film that really creeped me out, but there is one other film that just came to mind, which absolutely terrified me and caused nightmares well into my twenties. The film is 'The Red House' starring Edward G. Robinson. It is about a forbidden red house set way out by itself in the middle of a wood. Something terrifying happened there, and the film gradually reveals its awful secret. This is a film which will induce a claustrophobic terror and gnawing anxiety in most viewers. It is a little known film but is available on DVD. Seek it out, and make sure you do not watch it alone. The epitome of psychological horror.
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The best of all worlds- 8mm, super 8mm, 9.5mm, and HD Digital Projection,
Elmo GS1200 f1.0 2-blade
Eumig S938 Stereo f1.0 Ektar
Panasonic PT-AE4000U digital pj
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted July 31, 2008 11:26 PM
It is interesting timing as "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" is the review at the top of the list on the reviews at the moment.
Pound for Pound, the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", is a great horror/sci-fi flick, (especially if you've been able to see the original cut the director intended, as the studio demanded that the prologue and epilogue be added to the film,
as it was too terrifying, as far as studio heads were concerned)
By the way, speaking of classic horror, one of the great almost forgotten horror classics has been restored and looks truly impressive, being released by Criterion DVD ...
Vampyr!!!
This film is amazingly atmospheric. The Photography is incredible. I loved all the trick photography, (for instance, the shadow shovelling dirt, backwards. A person and his shadow doing the opposite, great stuff!!) The whole film almost feels like it's done in slow motion. It's plaed out like a dream. I have read that the director actually smeared vaseline or some other substance over the lense to purposely give the image on screen a hazy feel. It has little dialogue and was made during that whole period when silents were switching to sound and so it could be just as easily shown as a silent.
The wonderful thing is that this film actually made it onto standard 8mm. It was entitled, "Castle of Doom", (3X400) for release in america with a synchronized soundtrack. Very rare now, (I snatched up the one copy I saw on ebay in the last five years, that's how rare!), but well worth it!
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Stewart McSporran
Master Film Handler
Posts: 272
From: Glasgow, Scotland
Registered: Nov 2003
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posted August 02, 2008 04:03 AM
I think there's a difference between gore films and disturbing films; and I like the latter. Some of the most disturbing films I recall are Quatermass and The Pit, Jacob's Ladder, Angel Heart, Night of the Demon, Village of the Damned, etc.
I showed the original Frankenstein to my 11 year old nephew last week (on the video projector). The next day he made me promise never to show him scary movies again. Along with the silence, as mentioned above, the other element of this film is its unremitting cruelty; apart from the female lead (and the monster!) no character seems to care a jot about anyone bar themselves. The final scene with the creature in the windmill screaming as he burns is still disturbing. A shocking and distrubing film, yet we never actually see anything horrific - a lesson methinks.
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