About Horror Films
Today I watched two horror pictures and honestly, watching these made me re-evaluate why I watch them in the first place. My first horror picture was A Nightmare on Elm Street. I was about six or seven years old and I really enjoyed this movie. They used to show it as a Late Night Movie on ABC. For some reason, this movie didn't scare me, but the plot intrigued me. What if someone could take your life while you're asleep? If anything, my creative juices were flowing even then before I knew I was a writer.
As I got older, I started to enjoy the blood, guts, and gore of it all; the more bloodier the movie was, the more I relished and enjoyed it. Presently, genre pictures have evolved. There is a huge period of horror pictures I've never seen (which I want to and will!) like the forties and fifties creature features in black and white. I could get down with those movies. What I am not enjoying are the throwback to exploitation films which include rape and/or torture to women. Even with films having the just desserts for the "villain(s)," they still leave a nasty feeling that merits a shower to wash it off.
These previous films (the reviews are coming shortly) make we wonder what I take away from the pictures in the first place. I named this blog for a reason (it's the thrill of it!) but I'm not being thrilled anymore. Every picture I watch is upsetting and unsettling. I can't even see merit in the film's existence in the first place. For me, that film is V/H/S. It was the first horror picture I considered turning off because I was ultimately disturbed by one particular clip in the whole thing. Why do we like horror? I used to think about how horror was used in a subversive way; reflected society to us in a way to shock us or make us think. Now I feel there's more shock value than anything else.
I'm disappointed with the horror genre, but I've always been shying away from those movies lately. I can't think of the last horror picture that will stand the test of time like The Exorcist in the last five years. Again, I haven't watched as much as I'd like but that's how I've been feeling lately.
Maybe I'll even amend this post a year or so down the line or write a part two, but I'm completely disenchanted with the genre now. Perhaps I'll focus on horror writing instead? Write about Edgar Allan Poe every day? That'll be interesting. Until then, I'll be optimistic but still distant to the genre.
As I got older, I started to enjoy the blood, guts, and gore of it all; the more bloodier the movie was, the more I relished and enjoyed it. Presently, genre pictures have evolved. There is a huge period of horror pictures I've never seen (which I want to and will!) like the forties and fifties creature features in black and white. I could get down with those movies. What I am not enjoying are the throwback to exploitation films which include rape and/or torture to women. Even with films having the just desserts for the "villain(s)," they still leave a nasty feeling that merits a shower to wash it off.
These previous films (the reviews are coming shortly) make we wonder what I take away from the pictures in the first place. I named this blog for a reason (it's the thrill of it!) but I'm not being thrilled anymore. Every picture I watch is upsetting and unsettling. I can't even see merit in the film's existence in the first place. For me, that film is V/H/S. It was the first horror picture I considered turning off because I was ultimately disturbed by one particular clip in the whole thing. Why do we like horror? I used to think about how horror was used in a subversive way; reflected society to us in a way to shock us or make us think. Now I feel there's more shock value than anything else.
I'm disappointed with the horror genre, but I've always been shying away from those movies lately. I can't think of the last horror picture that will stand the test of time like The Exorcist in the last five years. Again, I haven't watched as much as I'd like but that's how I've been feeling lately.
Maybe I'll even amend this post a year or so down the line or write a part two, but I'm completely disenchanted with the genre now. Perhaps I'll focus on horror writing instead? Write about Edgar Allan Poe every day? That'll be interesting. Until then, I'll be optimistic but still distant to the genre.
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