Is there any hope of saving the horror genre?

Question

All recent "horror" movies fail to be more than teenage scream flicks. What ever happend to creativity? Clive Barker, George Romero (failed with Land of Dead)... is it just me or is the horror genre dead?

Answer 1

No it is not just you. I feel the same way. Lately, all the horror flicks being made are just gory graphics with no real story line.

I miss the old days. Don't get me wrong - those old school flicks were quite cheesy and slasher type but at least most of them had a story line that kept you interested and actually made you jump. We actually looked forward to when a new scary movie came out - it was like a little event where I live (High School Ritual) everybody who was anybody went to opening night of the latest scary movie.

These new flicks - there is no element of surprise or just sheer terror.

Answer 2

I'm only 15 but I actually like a lot of the old horror movies but the slasher films are the best(High Tension, the Saws, The Devils Rejects, Hostel, Scream). I will admit there are some stupid horror movie that should have never been released such as The Grudge 1 and 2, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, When a Stranger Calls, and for the worst Boogeyman!!! Basically it just depend on what the people want. my generation wants gore and my parents generation wanted less gore and more suspense. Hollywood is going to cater to that because they want to make as much money as possible.

Answer 3

Horror goes in cycles. Most of what passes for "Horror" is actually slash-gore. I am personally more inclined to the supernatural scare films, like PULSE. And there are plenty of these kinds of films around.
Some ancient epics have incredibly horrific scenes in them. If some scripts were more like Graham Mastertons Horror novels, then maybe the Horror Genre would be more pre-eminent.

Answer 4

Yes there is hope. Someone will be creative enough to find ways to scare us. Recently, I feel horror films have tried too hard to be "realistic" using special effects and technical details to depict things like wounds, monsters, etc. In my opinion, the scariest films were those that brought terror in through your mind using suspense, story line, and tapping into the emotion of fear, rather than through blood and gore. Of course, that is more difficult. You need a good writer as well as director (preferably not the same person).

Answer 5

Yes there is hope! But only if Hollywood abandons the slasher/gore mentality and gets back to true horror movies like Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, Halloween, etc. No real gore but very scary.

Answer 6

It hard to make the horror like they used to. They really need to go back to dark, possibly even black and white,look. All the special effects in the world cannot make up for an unexpected surprise jumping out in a dark scene.
I thought the movie SAW did this very well, but it is certainly becoming a lost art.

Answer 7

There has been some really good foreign stuff of late (i.e. Wolf Creek, High Tension) and my money is on Eli Roth. He is a bit misogynistic for my taste, but he gets the job done.

Answer 8

Folks get used to the same stuff of blood, tears and anger, and it's very difficult to move a movieblood-thirsty audience like the one we have. Every TV film is incredibly violent and contains lots of blood, tears and anger.

Answer 9

Hollywoods main thing these days is remaking movies and that
gets old after a while!

I agree with you! Hellraiser is one of my personal favorites!

Answer 10

Its getting harder and harder to shock people nowadays. We are pretty desensitized by movies and the media that its gotten almost impossible to come up with something original that scares us.