Dear Reader,
I hated horror movies. I absolutely couldn’t stand them one tiny bit. However, due to the nature of the scripts I am writing, I recently found myself wanting to get a better idea of what works in the ‘in-betweeny’ world of the slasher movie. I’m talking about the group of kids being stalked and then killed by a crazed killer. As I discovered, not exactly horror (at least not the one’s I’ve been watching) but they had more of a thriller kind of vibe going on and I like that.
I began with films like P2, (not really a slasher, but I was a beginner) and then Prom Night (2008) which really, was just a bit crap. After watching these, I was yearning for something with a bit more guts to it. I watched Halloween, the original, of course. Considering the rep it has, I was really surprised when watching it at the absence of the, ever popular in modern cinema – ‘jump-scares’. It was incredible. Halloween was all about the creepy guy who just ambles casually towards you holding a knife. Super effective. I get that these older horror movies aren’t perhaps so scary compared to a lot of the more modern attempts, but it certainly displayed a talent to provide the ‘horror’ without piling on the gore (again, a modern horror movie favourite). Following this, I proceeded to watch Halloween II and I was thoroughly impressed. Although, I was not impressed by the fact that Michael Myers had shrunk by about 2 foot. He was a lot less scary.
Feeling like the ‘classic’ horror movies were where I felt most comfortable and actually felt chilled by the horror, I’ve since watched The Omen – a movie which has made me dislike children even more than I already did, Psycho II – I’d already seen the original and thought I’d give this one a go. Again, thoroughly impressed and may even be my favourite movie sequel EVER, even though Norman was older, he was still great to watch!
I have to admit, that I really like the atmosphere of the older horror movies. The story still seems to take precedence over the horror content, which seems to dominate modern horror cinema. The action is far more subtle and with the focus being given on the actual story, it is far more sinister when the killer actually strikes. In fact, I’d have to go as far as to say that I am a big fan of the classics and their use of minimal gore, yet creepy killers. I suppose it’s because cinema hadn’t been dumbed down yet, where to make a horror movie, some people seem to think that every pixel must be oozing with gore and horrific scenes. Personally, I don’t think that makes a horror movie, that makes a gorefest and it seems like the art of making a good horror movie has been lost, way back in the 80’s.
Not to diss every modern horror movie, Scream has got to be my absolute favourite movie out of all the genres. There is just something about it that makes me want to watch it over and over again! I like movies that reference other movies, so perhaps its that – being able to go “Oh yeah, that’s from ‘insert movie here'”, you know? Maybe you don’t know, maybe I’m just a horror movie amateur who is lost on the scary movies of old. Maybe. But I don’t mind. I’m happy here.
Thanks for reading
xxx
Found The Plot 