The Decline of horror

[Crises^]

Now I hear this statement alot "horror movies are shit nowadays, there nothing like they used to be".
I agree with this statement in the sense i used to enjoy horror alot more say 10 years ago I'm 25 btw to put that into context.
Now my question to you lot is do you think horror is declining because or the scripts or do you think it has to do with the desensatisation(not sure if that's a words) due to more graphic movies and games becoming the norm or just the scripts are repeating it self over time.

I am asking this because i used to always say this but recently i watched all the old nightmare on elm streets remembering them to being amazing when i was younger but after i watched them i found that today horror is actually better minus the ring and brain dead .

Do you think horror is better or worse nowadays?

Why is it better or worse?

Regards
Anthony

 

[Hellz_Barz]

I'd say its worse because they've replaced the horror with just gore rather than suspense and the dread they used to inspire. I haven't given up on it though I really liked the trailer of the lady in black. Probably because ghost stories scare me more then anything else cause how do you fight a ghost?

 

[Frybird]

Now I hear this statement alot "horror movies are shit nowadays, there nothing like they used to be".
I agree with this statement in the sense i used to enjoy horror alot more say 10 years ago I'm 25 btw to put that into context.
Now my question to you lot is do you think horror is declining because or the scripts or do you think it has to do with the desensatisation(not sure if that's a words) due to more graphic movies and games becoming the norm or just the scripts are repeating it self over time.

I am asking this because i used to always say this but recently i watched all the old nightmare on elm streets remembering them to being amazing when i was younger but after i watched them i found that today horror is actually better minus the ring and brain dead .

Do you think horror is better or worse nowadays?

Why is it better or worse?

Regards
Anthony

Well, it's neither, pretty much.

(Except when talking about J-Horror, wich has indeed declined quite a bit due to the oversaturation on "creepy black hair ghost curse" movies and cheap 3D Stuff)

In my opinion, Horror always largely sucked, with some excellent stuff far inbetween.
Before Torture Porn "ruined" the horror genre, Slasher Movies did. And before that...i don't know, cheap creature horror or pseudo sequels to classic horror stuff or something.

Horror is a genre that has almost by definition a lot of cheap, crappy or dumb flicks, and a few that are worth the effort to actually go out and find them.

Granted, as of this year i can only say that i enjoyed "Grave Encounters", and that probably only because i'm a sucker for First Person/Found Footage Horror, but the stuff i actually love seems to still come slow and rarely, but steady.

 

[instantkarma5]

Its a result of technology. Doesn't leave much to the imagination any more. Horror movies aren't worth remembering or sticking with you after you leave the cinema or watch it so they just fade out of your imagination. It has all gone downhill except for a few shining lights. ( The Descent) <--fuck that movie.

 

[mcattack92]

I think it is because everyone is already de-ensitised to violence and horror that it has lost it's effect on the average viewer. Now days, horror movies and shows have to inovatae the ways they tell their story and how horror is used.

 

[TheCrazyAu55ie]

i gotta agree horrors really gone down hill lately i dont even remember the last time i saw a really scary movie

 

[Mr Thin]

I can't tell if you are complementing or insulting The Ring, but it scared the shit out of me.

Either way, you're harder to scare because you've already been scared.

For example; Saw, in my opinion, is one of the best horror films I've seen, but I wasn't really horrified by it. I think it's fantastic and intense and, well, horrifying, but it doesn't affect me all that much personally because I've been scared before and I'm used to it.

 

[dyre]

Horror is a genre that has almost by definition a lot of cheap, crappy or dumb flicks, and a few that are worth the effort to actually go out and find them.

Pretty much this, except I haven't found any that are worth the effort yet :\

Drawing emotions from audience in a film is fairly easy, but actually scaring them on some meaningful level? Pretty damn hard.

 

[Mafoobula]

Problem 1: We don't give a flying crap-cake about the characters. Just because 90% of anyone with a name is going to die doesn't mean they can get three second stereotyped personalities and that's the end of it.
This is true particularly when the stereotypes are of people we, as a whole, are not supposed to like or relate to. Are you going to feel bad when the archetype douchebag gets the ax? Does anyone cry for the brainless skank?

Problem 2: We can see the countdown timers above everyone's heads. It seems like in most of these horror movies, we figure out who the survivors will be before 10 minutes in. The result of this is that we tend to distance ourselves from the people who we just KNOW will die.
Couple this with the above mentioned poor characterization, and the only reaction the audience has when these people DO die is maybe a little squick if it's that kind of gore-fest movie. This nicely segues into...

Problem 3: Squick and torture are NOT horror. It might elicit similar responses from the audience as true horror might - tension all over the body while the gruesome murder is happening, for example - but it's mostly just a conditioned response. Speaking of conditioned responses...

Problem 4: Loud noises and scary images appearing very quickly are NOT horror. The best example I can think of are the "screamer" tricks all over the Internet. You know, where a page says something like "this magic eye message will blow your mind" so you concentrate on the image, and then it very quickly switches to something scary-looking, usually accompanied by a scream of some sort.
That stuff isn't scary, it's just startling, and it's annoying.

Problem 5: Desensitization. Be it from movies, video games, the news, the Internet in general, or maybe some other cause, people in general seem to be developing a tolerance to both the old-school and the new horror. Did you know that a lot of people consider Jaws to be one of the best horror movies ever made? My humble opinion: It isn't.

Problem 6: Horror just isn't that popular anymore. Action (mostly sci-fi and comic book based), romantic comedies, big damn Oscar bait dramas, some comedy, both high-brow and cheap, that's what today's viewing audiences like.

 

[InfectedStar]

Horror movies ARE shit now-a-days, instead on focusing on the survival of the characters and the fear aspect of it anymore they've now decided to resort to cheap violence. A great example of this is Straw Dogs, the original with Dustin Hoffman was goddamn, piss-yourself, scary, and it struck fear and dread into the audience. The new Straw Dogs on the other hand is just shit, it's now had all that fear and dread atmosphere taken out and turned it into nothing but non-scary violence, and gore and it's just garbage.

 

[Rawne1980]

Because horror is now blood and gore.

There are no actual parts of sheer terror just some teenager being slashed up in "ahhh I bet you are terrified now" kind of ways.

Plus the "i'm just going to put this electric radio next to my bath while I get in .... nothing bad could possibly happen" type of deaths.

I will leave you with Psycho. Arguably one of the best horror movies of all time.

The famous scene where the woman gets stabbed to death in the shower. Not once do you see the knife pierce flesh. It leaves it up to your imagination which makes it all the better in my opinion.

 

[VaudevillianVeteran]

There isn't really any terror involved with modern day horror and as technology improved well...horror declined.
Seeing a large-breasted teen get teenager get stabbed to death is all well and good, it's more when a thriller/slasher is billed as a horror. Plus, well, the movies were better without the technology.
For example, John Carpenter's The Thing, one of the best horror movies in my opinion (which they will be remaking...) because fuck CGI.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I am asking this because i used to always say this but recently i watched all the old nightmare on elm streets remembering them to being amazing when i was younger but after i watched them i found that today horror is actually better minus the ring and brain dead .

Nightmare 1 is good. The rest get steadily worse. Your first time is always going to be superior.

The problem with horror movies these days is they've accelerated along with the world. A GOOD horror movie needs to tap into the deepest well of your soul, and if you're sitting their worrying about the gallon of Coke you've just drank, it just can't get there.

(There's an idea for a horror movie...Needing to go for a pee but not being allowed to)

Do you think horror is better or worse nowadays?

There's very little horror these days. There's torture-porn, schlock and freak-out - but they're all tied back into the action movie genre. Spoilers/Reviews have also chased away most of Horror's impact as well - Cloverfield was reviewed not by how terrifying it was, but how shaky the camera was.

Why is it better or worse?

Ignorance of rules. Horror needs to be slow, it needs to be visceral without being just buckets of blood and it needs a damn story - which is what a lot of cinema is missing out on. Just a story that carries the plot and makes you think.

Want a good modern horror? Inception. The Matrix. (forgetting 2/3)

Horror is so rarely done well, and so often left without hands.

A good horror film makes you shudder AFTER you've left the theatre. Far too many films these days only focus on you while you're within their lair.

 

[drummond13]

The special effects are better, which is why a lot of those old classics don't have the same impact.

But with the rise of Eli Roth and the Saw movies, a lot of horror movies have become more about grossing people out and less on being actually scary. This is not a good direction.

 

[Cropsy91]

Well, it depends. American horror declining? Fuck yes it is. Horrible, cliched scripts, CGI out the ass, god-awful remakes that forget everything that made the originals great. That sums it up for Hollywood anyways, indie horror still comes out with some good films here and there though.

Foreign horror nowadays seem to fare a lot better though, the Japanese and British in particular have put out some genuinely great horror films over the past few years, with some assorted goodness from other countries as well.

But yeah, a big part of the problem is that with the advent of CGI, film-makers no longer feel the need to rely on (much more effective and realistic) practical effects or imagination, and that has really taken it's toll on the genre.

 

[Thaluikhain]

There isn't really any terror involved with modern day horror and as technology improved well...horror declined.
Seeing a large-breasted teen get teenager get stabbed to death is all well and good, it's more when a thriller/slasher is billed as a horror. Plus, well, the movies were better without the technology.
For example, John Carpenter's The Thing, one of the best horror movies in my opinion (which they will be remaking...) because fuck CGI.

I'd second that as a great horror movie, though I didn't like the special effects. They put alot of effort into the small, isolated group, one or more might be really a killer alien, and the others are just frightened and trigger happy, which isn't much better.

...

I'd second the comments people have made about torture porn crap, and characters you don't care about. That's just lazy.

 

[Dogstile]

I'm assuming its just we've all gotten older. The older I get the less scared I get of everything.

 

[satanslawer123]

horror has always has been ethier really guite good or ethier a pile of crap, the horror we have now is just relying on the gore theres no story behind it. dont get me wrong gore is good as long as its realistic and isnt over used, the descent did really well with this and didnt go over bored and had a decent story backing it up. but old horror wasnt all that great apart from a few good titles.