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Today, I took a good few hours off my busy painting and posting schedule to watch a couple of movies. Having loaned And Now For Something Completely Different to my friend, I sat down and watched Hatchet (I shouldn't have, since it's an R-18 movie, but since when did ratings matter), and afterwards, I thought to myself "What a piece of gak. Have horror movies always been this bad?"

So I went and rented a Nightmare on Elm Street. Now that was a good bit of horror. A nice backstory mashed together with a more reasonable amount of violence and a bit of the creepy-happy killer made for an excellent movie. Now, reading through movie reviews for horror since then, I can see how it's really degraded over time. Leatherface has been distilled from an ill-educated mentally disabled bloke to a crazed lunatic who wants to kill everyone. What happened to it? Most horror movies nowadays are gratuitous bloodbaths with excessive language and lots of naked women. I'm fine with the last bit, but the first two points really make me grind my teeth.

Thoughts? Has the horror genre been ruined?

It's more gore and cheap scares now that actual build up and suspense. I think my girl is more of an expert at these things than me, though she's more into the "Saw" and "Hostel" sort of movies these days, a real gore junkie. Most horror movies these days are best reserved for parties or evenings with some friends so you can sit back and roast it all night long.

I should have mentioned Saw. Now, my religion has no bearing on this (contrary to what some people think), but I regard Saw as just plain sick. It's an excuse to watch people get tortured and killed in horrible ways.

I can't stomach them myself but she's got a thing for them, in a non-sickening way. I wish I knew why but she likes them, same with the Hostel movies. Sadism was a fad not long ago, now we're back at remakes and horrible reboots.

Have you seen Wolf Creek?

Much better than the US 'horror' as it doesn't let you know when something bad is about to happen by playing creepy suspense music.

In the Beginning, HP Lovecraft raised the shade of Poe and said, "Let there be Nightmares!" and it was so, with twisted, squamous things spawning and squelching beneath every bed. Unnameable monstrosities were raised from tombs beyond sanity and time to prance and gibber in the unwholesome light of the moon, the sound of their ululations driving men mad as they drank in the sweet smell of those sacrificed in their unutterable names.


It was then that the Crypt Keeper arose, and didst send forth his will, depicting frightening and sometimes gooy things, and he bade unto his minions John Carpenter and Wes Craven to bring these things forth onto the sainted 'silver screen', it lo, it was so.

But from this glorious defilement of the mind came forth height Stephen King, who began the corruption of the ideal with his heavy handed gore. And the movie producers saw his sales and avarice did seize them, and they beckoned unto their slaves and said, "Go forth, and we shall taste of these profit by the formula which this being hath contrived!"

And they went forth, yea, and did beget the Teeny Slasher Flick, and they were profitable, and didst multiply uncontrolled. The old ones were cast down in the name of Mammon by the studios, and this is how things now lay. It is up to you, Hero, to cast down these userpers and bring new dawn to the genre 'Horror'...

Cheesy 80's slashers have a special thing to them, for the most part they don't take their selves serious and they know it, that's what makes them fun to watch.

BaronIveagh wrote:
In the Beginning, HP Lovecraft raised the shade of Poe and said, "Let there be Nightmares!" and it was so, with twisted, squamous things spawning and squelching beneath every bed. Unnameable monstrosities were raised from tombs beyond sanity and time to prance and gibber in the unwholesome light of the moon, the sound of their ululations driving men mad as they drank in the sweet smell of those sacrificed in their unutterable names.


It was then that the Crypt Keeper arose, and didst send forth his will, depicting frightening and sometimes gooy things, and he bade unto his minions John Carpenter and Wes Craven to bring these things forth onto the sainted 'silver screen', it lo, it was so.

But from this glorious defilement of the mind came forth height Stephen King, who began the corruption of the ideal with his heavy handed gore. And the movie producers saw his sales and avarice did seize them, and they beckoned unto their slaves and said, "Go forth, and we shall taste of these profit by the formula which this being hath contrived!"

And they went forth, yea, and did beget the Teeny Slasher Flick, and they were profitable, and didst multiply uncontrolled. The old ones were cast down in the name of Mammon by the studios, and this is how things now lay. It is up to you, Hero, to cast down these userpers and bring new dawn to the genre 'Horror'...

Stephen King has his moments. The trouble with him is he can't help but show
too much. When he doesn't, I really like his writing.

I think Stephen King's horror is great. Sure, The Mist was a bit overdone, but it's the psychological side that makes it a work of true horror.

I haven't seen Wolf Creek yet, but I'll look out for it on the movie channels. I assume it's cut to get an MA15+ rating instead of R18+?

It's a mistake to look at a mediocre modern movie, compare it to an old classic and decide horror is getting worse. Horror movies have always been mostly terrible, with the odd good appearing every so often.

Other than romantic comedies, there's probably no genre of movies with a crappier ratio of success.

BaronIveagh wrote:
In the Beginning, HP Lovecraft raised the shade of Poe and said, "Let there be Nightmares!" and it was so, with twisted, squamous things spawning and squelching beneath every bed. Unnameable monstrosities were raised from tombs beyond sanity and time to prance and gibber in the unwholesome light of the moon, the sound of their ululations driving men mad as they drank in the sweet smell of those sacrificed in their unutterable names.


It was then that the Crypt Keeper arose, and didst send forth his will, depicting frightening and sometimes gooy things, and he bade unto his minions John Carpenter and Wes Craven to bring these things forth onto the sainted 'silver screen', it lo, it was so.

But from this glorious defilement of the mind came forth height Stephen King, who began the corruption of the ideal with his heavy handed gore. And the movie producers saw his sales and avarice did seize them, and they beckoned unto their slaves and said, "Go forth, and we shall taste of these profit by the formula which this being hath contrived!"

And they went forth, yea, and did beget the Teeny Slasher Flick, and they were profitable, and didst multiply uncontrolled. The old ones were cast down in the name of Mammon by the studios, and this is how things now lay. It is up to you, Hero, to cast down these userpers and bring new dawn to the genre 'Horror'...

Are you a bad enough dude to save the horror genre?

I thought 28 days later was pretty good.

If by "degraded" you actualy mean become more gory,then yes,many have.
If by "degraded" you mean the "quality"of the genre has declined,then no I don't think so,as horror has always had both good & bad films.

I should have mentioned Saw. Now, my religion has no bearing on this (contrary to what some people think), but I regard Saw as just plain sick. It's an excuse to watch people get tortured and killed in horrible ways.

It has a great storyline, great ideas (ok, weird, but still great)
its allways on the edge, all in all the saw movies are pretty good.

im still happy with all the old horror stuff though (halloween, freddy, chuckie, scream)

also depending on what you like horror wise, the beach is a pretty good psychological movie.

You need to go see "Drag me to hell", by Sam Raimi. It's quite possibly one of the best horror movies ever made, up there with the Exorcist and Rosemary's baby. The sound is so well-done all by itself that it should win an Oscar. Also one extra low-budget zombie movie I like is called "Hide and creep". It's extra cheesy and funny and has some kinda interesting characters. It's really no very scary, just sort of a comedy with some of the least convincing zombies imaginable.

I remember watching Ichi The Killer a few years ago which my friends had described as "The most brilliantly executed piece of horror/gore ever!"

After the first couple of scenes i was bored out of my mind. That's the trouble with modern horror; no story, just be really nasty and give it a cool title. meh.

Did anyone ever make and HP Lovecraft movies? I think i remember one from many years ago but i don't think it payed too much heed to the original story (The Shadow over Innsmouth).

Would love to see one of his better stories get made into a feature film.

The only H.P Lovecraft "movies" that jump to mind at the moment are "The Dunwich horror" and "Re-animator",both diffrent from the written stories.
I know that other Lovecraft stories have been made into film adaptations,I just can't recal any atm.

AHHHH, horror-movies, great stuff.

1) I own the collectors´ edition of "Attack of the killer-tomatoes" ( not sure about spelling; this isn´t real all-day-life-english...) It´s on the list of the worst movies ever made, but I think it was qiute good actually. It´s too long, but the tomatoes rolling over the floor and making mnarlgnmklkmramaa-noises all the time are just great. In the begining of the movie there is a woman washing dishes, when suddenly a tomato appears in the kitchen and attacking her. And the film has a glorious soundtrack, a choir, kind of black english humor, singing a song about killer-tomatoes and gene-food.
There is a scene where a helcopter crashes in the background. The scene doesn´t make sense at all and that´s due to the circumstance that the crash is real! It should just land, but then it came down. Nobody was hurt and they didn´t call the police but kept filming the burning wreck. The actors should stumble away from it and say something like.: " We knew that tomatoes can kill, but not that they´re able to fly now".

2) I didn´t watch it, but I read about it and I think this is the worst splatter-movie ever. " Pirate-Massacre" by Jochen Taubert. A monk travels to an Isle to find a treasure. He travels with a crew of pirates. The pirates want to steal the treasure when he´s found it. So the monk casts a spell and there´s an army of undead appearing. Now the splatter-and gorepart of the film begins, with the dramatic ending that the monk ets eaten by a shark. The crew couldn´t efford showing real ships, so they showed a wooden ship for children to play on on a playground and two different holiday-videos, showing the regisseur on mallorca; riding modern boats. The undead army doesn´t suddenly appear; you could see them lying in the bushes in the background. I would love to see this movie!
link ( in german, translation-programm needed )http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piratenmassaker


Automatically Appended Next Post:

J.Black wrote:I remember watching Ichi The Killer a few years ago which my friends had described as "The most brilliantly executed piece of horror/gore ever!"

After the first couple of scenes i was bored out of my mind. That's the trouble with modern horror; no story, just be really nasty and give it a cool title. meh.

Did anyone ever make and HP Lovecraft movies? I think i remember one from many years ago but i don't think it payed too much heed to the original story (The Shadow over Innsmouth).

Would love to see one of his better stories get made into a feature film.

I remember watching a Lovecraft movie where the protagonist is under sudden attack in a wooden house, he is grabbed by a tentacle and --- A BEHOLDER FROM D&D APPEARS! I couldn´t trust my eyes!

I went back a re-read the OP and somthing struck me as a bit funny.
How exactly (when refering to Nightmare on Elm street),is a deep fried child killer,entering ones dreams and slaughtering teens when they are at there most defenseless less disturbing than say,jigsaw in the Saw movies dispenceing his version of "justice"?is it simply that you "see" more of the acts of brutality in Saw?

I haven't really enjoyed a horror movie in many years. I don't know if it's just because I'm older or what.

The scariest horror movie for me was Friday the 13th part II. I actually was afraid to go to sleep after that. Poltergeist was pretty scary as well, it made me afraid of the TV snow.

Evil dead II wasn't that scary but a fun movie to watch.


GG

FITZZ wrote: The only H.P Lovecraft "movies" that jump to mind at the moment are "The Dunwich horror" and "Re-animator",both diffrent from the written stories.
I know that other Lovecraft stories have been made into film adaptations,I just can't recal any atm.

The Resurrected (based off "The case of Charles Dexter Ward") -1992
Dunwich Horror and several Reanimators.
There was a film based loosely off "The colour out of space" but I can't recall the name of it (aha: "the Curse" (1987) ).
Dagon (2001)
In the mouth of madness - 1995.

Stuart Gordon was a fan of Lovecraft, and 'modernised' Reanimator for the 80s audience. Also gave Jeffrey Coombs a career (he went on to play several major characters in various Star Trek shows).

That's a few of them.

Yes, the current trend of horror movies is a pale imitation of what the 80s slasher flicks, and a good horror film relies not so much on what you show as what you suggest.

chromedog wrote:

FITZZ wrote: The only H.P Lovecraft "movies" that jump to mind at the moment are "The Dunwich horror" and "Re-animator",both diffrent from the written stories.
I know that other Lovecraft stories have been made into film adaptations,I just can't recal any atm.

The Resurrected (based off "The case of Charles Dexter Ward") -1992
Dunwich Horror and several Reanimators.
There was a film based loosely off "The colour out of space" but I can't recall the name of it (aha: "the Curse" (1987) ).
Dagon (2001)
In the mouth of madness - 1995.

Stuart Gordon was a fan of Lovecraft, and 'modernised' Reanimator for the 80s audience. Also gave Jeffrey Coombs a career (he went on to play several major characters in various Star Trek shows).

That's a few of them.

Yes, the current trend of horror movies is a pale imitation of what the 80s slasher flicks, and a good horror film relies not so much on what you show as what you suggest.

Let me hear an AMEN!

A good writer/director knows that what the reader/viewer come sup with themselves is far scarier to them then gore.

Midnight Meat Train. Sounds dodgy, and it does indeed have Vinnie Jones in it, but I can highly reccomend it to you if you want a decent bit of modern horror. It's a Clive Barker, which helps.

And there is only one distinctly stupid bit in it, involving Ted Raimi.

Midnight Meat Train? Sounds more like a porno flick to me.

And Evil Dead was a hoot to watch. I loved the possessed hand scene, when Ash's own hand was beating him up. I skipped over the 'tree rape' though. I was never into hentai-style stuff, animated or not.

Most movie adaptations of HP Lovecraft stories are not very good. However, their is a film of the story "The curse of Cthulhu", which was made in 2005 but is in the style of 1920's silent films, complete with really crude special effects, as if it were made shortly after the story was published. It's actually a pretty faithful telling of the story.

Also one extra low-budget zombie movie I like is called "Hide and creep"

If you liked that then watch a film called braindead.
great movie, funny yet it has its moments




i think we can all agree though that the best zombie movie about is shaun of the dead

Best modern (post 1990s) zombie flick is definately Shaun of the dead. The rest take themselves way to seriously and leave out the social commentary.

Hell, Shaun even took the piss from 28 days later.

Alien, Halloween, Jaws, the Shining, Army of Darkness, BubbaHotep, Nightmare on Elm Street, the Ring, first 2/3s of War of the Worlds, all are excellent. For old style cool Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Thing from another world, and Frankenstein.

JD21290 wrote:i think we can all agree though that the best zombie movie about is shaun of the dead

Amen. I don't like the modern zombie films like Dawn of the Dead and 28 Days Later, they're just gory fantasies for zombie nerds to fap over.

Not to be picky, but in 28 days / weeks later they are not zombies
they are simply people infected with a "rage" disease, hence why they run and dont shamble about