Horror Chat The current state of horror films

Nowadays the horror films are

  • A) Better than before

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    21

Paperinukke

Studio Ghibli Ninja
Premium Supporter
Apr 13, 2014
1,321
Finland
What do you guys think? Are we still getting the same quality films as before or has the modern horror developed to be too dependent on cheap jumpscares and other gimmicks? Or do filmmakers actually make better horror movies than ever before? Discuss! :)
 
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ive voted worse than before , my opinion is on the bases of everything has been done really , in the last 10 years different horrors have been made , the likes of paranormal activity movies (1st couple at least) where a breath of fresh air . also watched as above so below which i enjoyed alot .
but most of them are same old same old , always the same story , i think maybe the horrors are running out of ideas
 
I put worse than before, as they used to have proper stories, all these (in my opinion) awful Saw movies and hill have eyes type of films they really aren't for me. Horror was once a lot more than gore
 
I like a movie that literally make me jump out of my seat. Though I will watch any horror movie with monsters, gore. As long as the effects are good. I will watch some horror from 80's and 90's, but thats just for comic relief.
 
I think there are some good horrors around still but not as many as there used to be. I'm not a huge fan of the found footage genre and they keep repeating it so I would say it was better before. Still some good Horrors coming out but not as many classics as there used to be.
 
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I agree about the story telling element of modern films which seems to be lacking across the board in all genres. Horror or should I say modern horror films use shock tactics and loads of gore to grab their audiences. Been very very few films in the 20 years especially in the horror genre I would call classic. And someone please tell modern film makers that CGI is not required in every scene of every movie............
 
I try to not glorify old horror movies too much, because there were many bad movies in the past too, that's not a brand new phenomenon or anything. The genre of horror has always been extremely tricky to master and it still is. Though I have to admit the horror movies I adore were mostly released centuries ago. I still think that in a way the situation is the same it has always been, every year we get a weird mix of horror films and few real gems hidden in them, for example It Follows or Spring. The reason I'm worried is that in my opinion many of the best horror movies from the last years are good because they used an old formula and did it really well, bringing the spirit of the old films back to the present day. So is there any new themes to explore? I do hope there are. Currently I just want that this found footage boom passes as it has been only a big excuse to make films with a low budget and earn a lot of money, no imagination included whatsoever. The Blair Witch Project is a five star film for me, but after that I have seen only a few movies (like Rec) that hasn't completely sucked.

P.S. The writer of this message still considers Hitchcock's Psycho to be the best horror film ever made.
 
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Worse . You can get the odd stand out new movie then everyone jumps on the band wagon trying to replicate it's success .

Then the Squil its like a foot ball score sheet Scream 5 Incidious 3 . Blair Witch Progect 2 Alien 5 .

What ORIGONALITY is that . New ideas need to come through . Studio's are frightened of new .

One of them needs to GROW A PAIR AND TAKE A PUNT ON THE NEXT generation Carpenter , Craven , Hopper .

Rant over .

@Paperinukke

Brilliant thread THANKS for letting me vent :) .
 
I've always thought this was a dumb argument. There were so many bad horror movies being made in the '70s and '80s. I think most of this line of thinking is nostalgia coming from people who grew up in the '70s and '80s. Adults in the '70s and '80s probably said the same thing, and people will be saying the same thing 30 years from now. In the past decade we've gotten:
  • It Follows
  • The Babadook
  • I Saw the Devil
  • Let the Right One In
  • The Descent
  • The Cabin in the Woods
  • Drag Me to Hell
  • Inside
  • [REC]
  • Trick 'r Treat
  • The Host
  • Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
  • Kill List
  • Thirst
  • The Mist
  • 28 Weeks Later
  • Silent Hill
  • The Loved Ones
  • Pontypool
  • Antichrist
  • Eden Lake
  • Housebound
  • A Serbian Film
  • Oculus
  • Cloverfield
  • You're Next
  • Feast
 
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@lolwut

Thire where some bloody good ones to . Yhea some poop . Some that will still look good when I'm dust and a memory .

Hell our 14 year old girl did a project at School Dracula she thought F W Murnau Nosferatu Max Schreck Dracula was BETTER than Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dacula played by Gary Oldman .

Thats the test of time with a movie made almost a hundred years ago .
 
I've always thought this was a dumb argument. There were so many bad horror movies being made in the '70s and '80s. I think most of this line of thinking is nostalgia coming from people who grew up in the '70s and '80s. Adults in the '70s and '80s probably said the same thing, and people will be saying the same thing 30 years from now. In the past decade we've gotten:
  • It Follows
  • The Babadook
  • I Saw the Devil
  • Let the Right One In
  • The Descent
  • The Cabin in the Woods
  • Drag Me to Hell
  • Inside
  • [REC]
  • Trick 'r Treat
  • The Host
  • Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
  • Kill List
  • Thirst
  • The Mist
  • 28 Weeks Later
  • Silent Hill
  • The Loved Ones
  • Pontypool
  • Antichrist
  • Eden Lake
  • Housebound
  • A Serbian Film
  • Oculus
  • Cloverfield
  • You're Next
  • Feast
Yes indeed, it's always good to notice that something being old doesn't mean it must be good nor does something being new mean it must be bad. You can say that the modern horror films just don't hit the spot like the old ones used to of course, people like different things. I prefer older horror films too. I agree that it's a mindless argument to just say that once everything used to be so good and now it's just all wrong, it's always a stupid thing to say no matter what the subject is, like how some people tend to say how nowadays music is so terrible and bad and it used to be so good. There has been good and bad music, good and bad movies, but who wants to remember the bad ones.
 
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There are the odd found footage movies that work and work very well, I was fond of Afflicted from a couple of years ago and There Are Monsters this year (plenty of cheap jump scares but did create a very unsettling feeling, just didn't know where to go with itself after a while). Clown and Stung were decent as well. Trouble is once movie studios create a success story then we're screwed as everyone else jumps on the bandwagon regardless of the genre. They then "sequel" the hell out of it so even if the original had any semblance of originality it's long since beaten to death.

Long since gone are eerie horrors coming from Italy, no more Fulci or Lenzi. Oh and I always add an extra star to a film if they're willing to do practical effects for it, CGI is killing a lot of stuff stone dead.
 
Usually a gem in the rough to discover each year. Used to be a lot of unique stuff coming out in the early 2000's and now it is hit or miss with stuff being over done. Movies like the The Descent, It Follows, Wolf Creek, Primal, etc... Does show some promise that it can be done properly but studios seem to be looking to do series instead of investing in a unique movie that could do well.

Hopefully the people behind the movie It Follows can continue with another unique movie. Australia is a country that I continue to keep an eye on for horror movies, over the past couple years, as they seem to come up with some unique ones here and there.
 
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thank for great thread @Paperinukke !

I'm with @lolwut.

excellent and poop horror were made back in the day. excellent and poop horror is being made today. we tend to glorify things that are made in the past. books, music, films. I guess it's only human...'when I was young everything was better' kind of thing.

we have interesting horror movies coming out this year :

the witch
the final girls
victor frankenstein
crimson peak
tales of halloween
deathgasm
shut in
goodnight mommy
creep
krampus
insidious 3
...and so many more...

some are out already. some not. I do not say these are good or excellent but what I've read so far, they sound very interesting. so horror fans - let's not give up hope !
 
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Thanks for the tag @Paperinukke :thumbs: I voted "Worse than before".

I was born in 1985, my first horror movie as a kiddo was Stephen King's "It". Horror sub-genre I enjoy are horror thrillers, psychological horror, suspense, every horror movie with Monsters (Dracula, Vampires, Frankenstein, Werewolf ...) and Zombie/Infected movies.

The horror movie market is flooded with bad movies. When you want to shoot a cheap movie, horror is probably your right choice. You don't need much money and there is a big market with fans who like those bad horror movies and buy it. And this is where it fails. A good horror movie tells a complex story, it must be very well photographed, the acting must be very credible. Most of the time they got a sublime topic which other genres besides Drama don't talk about. Fear, Diseases, Exasperation. You don't like a Drama about cancer but you like The Fly. And these points are missed in most of all horror movies in the last decade.

The Cabin in the Woods is not a horror movie, it is a poorly done comedy movie. The same category like Scary Movie. You watch it and you think are they serious or are they doing a parody on the horror genre. All cliches are there, dumb characters, dumb story, bad acting, a totally waste of time and a insult to the genre. So awful. But everybody likes it so hey lets shoot more of these dumb movies. Which topic the people should like!? Oh okay I got some ideas: found footage, ghosts, documentary style, possessed killer dolls, creepy kids, haunted houses. Or only boring jump-scares!? It should be dump and 2-dimensional characters and a lot gore. It works. Sadly.

A decade ago they did intelligent writing, interesting story with good twists, it was well photographed, full of ideas, top actors was chosen for the characters. This is all missing. And I didn't grew up with them. I couldn't understand sublime topics and intelligent scripts when I was 15. I found them in the early 20s.

And I don't say EVERY horror movie in the last decade is bad. But most of them.
 
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Yeah, there has been pretty steady stream of horror films trough the ages, some are just terrible, some fine and some become legends (Friday the 13th, Nightmare on elm street, Halloween, Shining...... and so on)

I think the same pattern continues today, there is lot of ok and just fine movies out there but every once and awhile there is one or two that make the superb cut :thumbs: (Evil Dead remake, Cabin in the woods, Saw, The Mist..... and so on) I am very exited to see what future horrors we might see (movie wise ;))

My conclusion: Different than before, but not bad :thumbs: :mask: :vamp: :twd:

 
My problem with horror movies recently are that they are all following the same pattern of ghosty paranormal type stuff
Insidious, the possession, oculus, ouija, conjuring etc etc I prefer slasher type horrors like the old halloweens, Friday's and elm streets
A few recent horror films that I've enjoyed with different plots have been sinister, the purge films, deliver us from evil, cabin in the woods, evil dead
 
Usually a gem in the rough to discover each year. Used to be a lot of unique stuff coming out in the early 2000's and now it is hit or miss with stuff being over done. Movies like the The Descent, It Follows, Wolf Creek, Primal, etc... Does show some promise that it can be done properly but studios seem to be looking to do series instead of investing in a unique movie that could do well.

Hopefully the people behind the movie It Follows can continue with another unique movie. Australia is a country that I continue to keep an eye on for horror movies, over the past couple years, as they seem to come up with some unique ones here and there.

The Loved Ones is a really good one. Snowtown is one of my favorite films of the decade, although it's debatable whether or not that's horror.

thank for great thread @Paperinukke !

I'm with @lolwut.

excellent and poop horror were made back in the day. excellent and poop horror is being made today. we tend to glorify things that are made in the past. books, music, films. I guess it's only human...'when I was young everything was better' kind of thing.

we have interesting horror movies coming out this year :

the witch
the final girls
victor frankenstein
crimson peak
tales of halloween
deathgasm
shut in
goodnight mommy
creep
krampus
insidious 3
...and so many more...

some are out already. some not. I do not say these are good or excellent but what I've read so far, they sound very interesting. so horror fans - let's not give up hope !

Can't wait to see The Witcher and Goodnight Mommy!

Thanks for the tag @Paperinukke :thumbs: I voted "Worse than before".

I was born in 1985, my first horror movie as a kiddo was Stephen King's "It". Horror sub-genre I enjoy are horror thrillers, psychological horror, suspense, every horror movie with Monsters (Dracula, Vampires, Frankenstein, Werewolf ...) and Zombie/Infected movies.

The horror movie market is flooded with bad movies. When you want to shoot a cheap movie, horror is probably your right choice. You don't need much money and there is a big market with fans who like those bad horror movies and buy it. And this is where it fails. A good horror movie tells a complex story, it must be very well photographed, the acting must be very credible. Most of the time they got a sublime topic which other genres besides Drama don't talk about. Fear, Diseases, Exasperation. You don't like a Drama about cancer but you like The Fly. And these points are missed in most of all horror movies in the last decade.

The Cabin in the Woods is not a horror movie, it is a poorly done comedy movie. The same category like Scary Movie. You watch it and you think are they serious or are they doing a parody on the horror genre. All cliches are there, dumb characters, dumb story, bad acting, a totally waste of time and a insult to the genre. So awful. But everybody likes it so hey lets shoot more of these dumb movies. Which topic the people should like!? Oh okay I got some ideas: found footage, ghosts, documentary style, possessed killer dolls, creepy kids, haunted houses. Or only boring jump-scares!? It should be dump and 2-dimensional characters and a lot gore. It works. Sadly.

A decade ago they did intelligent writing, interesting story with good twists, it was well photographed, full of ideas, top actors was chosen for the characters. This is all missing. And I didn't grew up with them. I couldn't understand sublime topics and intelligent scripts when I was 15. I found them in the early 20s.

And I don't say EVERY horror movie in the last decade is bad. But most of them.

The Cabin in the Woods went completely over your head if you took it at face value and can't tell that it's not meant to be taken serious. It's a satire of horror films that deconstructs all of the tropes you mentioned. It's actually a smart film. Also, there are such things as horror comedies - one doesn't have to be one or the other.

And of course horror movies are still being made with all of those things.
 
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The Loved Ones is a really good one. Snowtown is one of my favorite films of the decade, although it's debatable whether or not that's horror.



Can't wait to see The Witcher and Goodnight Mommy!



The Cabin in the Woods went completely over your head if you took it at face value and can't tell that it's not meant to be taken serious. It's a satire of horror films that deconstructs all of the tropes you mentioned. It's actually a smart film. Also, there are such things as horror comedies - one doesn't have to be one or the other.

And of course horror movies are still being made with all of those things.

Okay, when the movie wants to be a satire what happened to the horror!? With all the laughter they missed it then. It didn't gave me laughter and it didn't scared me.
It is an awful mix of Evil Dead and the Truman Show and it is not so ingenious as it wants to be.

And yes, of course these movies are still being made, thats why I said not all. But most of em. The little gems like "It Follows" got it but they don't get
a spotlight. You need to see 10-20 horror movies till you found one what will stay with you. I don't want to hate, I'm just bored with what is popular in this genre.