What happened to scary movies?

I love the zombies, but other than that I’m not a big horror fan. Connie likes the horror stuff, so I’ve brought home a few rentals over the past couple of weeks, Wes Craven’s Cursed, The Ring 2, and White Noise.

To my surprise, based on these selections, horror movies just aren’t scary anymore.

I hate the cheap jolts like:

  • the woman closing the medicine cabinet to find the killer standing behind her in the mirror

  • the cat jumping out an open window

  • the ghost girl or something lunging out of an overflowing bathtub

There aren’t any scary moments that are earned in these movies, but there’s plenty of this cheap stuff.

The tree through the window part of Poltergeist, the first 15 minutes of Scream, the last 15 minutes of Audition - that’s scary. What happened to movies of that caliber?

It seems like the current auteurs of horror have really lost their way.

Posted by chuck at October 27, 2005 8:02 PM

Comments

I have to agree w/ Chuck that the movies he brought home did not produce a scare, but there are some in the theatres now that do. Although I am 0% religious, The Exorcism Of Emily Rose had me looking in the backseat of my car on the ride home, turning every light on in the house when I got home,and fearing closing my eyes to go to sleep. Saw 2 made my stomach muscles hurt after clenching them so hard out of anxiety throughout the entire movie. Chuck did not want any part of accompanying me to these films, so he missed out. There are scary movies out there, but Chuck is just too chicken to go see them because he can’t handle gore and/or being truly terrified (thus his dislike of certain haunted houses that will actually scare you). So although I will admit that Chuck is the EXPERT on most topics concerning film, you’re not going to find any scary movies if you’re not brave enough to go see the ones that WILL leave your pants soiled.

Posted by: chuck's brave girlfriend at October 31, 2005 11:04 AM