The Decline of Horror Films

My last hope for the horror film industry was completely smothered when I walked out of the theater concluding my viewing of The Mist. I'm never too optimistic of short story adaptations, however I felt this film was going to be different. First of all, Stephen King-perhaps the king of horror novels and short stories, wrote the short story. Second, the director of the film was Frank Darabont, director of the 1994 Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman classic, The Shawshank Redemption. After anticipating The Mist for months by stalking the website, setting the movie poster as my desktop wallpaper, and watching the trailer over and over again, the poor excuse for a horror film contained specials effects belonging in the 90s and as much suspense as can be seen in Troma's famous The Toxic Avenger. I'm not bad-mouthing Toxie. The difference between the two films is that The Toxic Avenger was very self aware of its grotesque and crude nature while The Mist, on the other hand, tried so hard to be more than a horror flick that it fell face first into its own muck. And for me, that was the last straw.

In a horror industry now defined by lame torture movies such as Hostel and Saw, I had hoped that Darabont's film might possess some elements of good old fashioned fright films: creepy music, cacophonous sound effects that makes you want to cover your ears, exciting monsters, and edge-of-your-seat suspense. Yet it failed and now we find ourselves on the edge of our seats only when someone's eye is about to be gouged out or waiting for intestines to spill all over. Don't get me wrong-I admire special effects and make-up artists such as Howard Berger and Gregory Nicotero incredibly, but something is clearly wrong when all a horror movie has going for it is effects. It's not horror and it's not suspense; it's shock treatment for a jaded and numbed audience who has forgotten about the horror movies of old.

The kings of horror and suspense such as John Carpenter, Dario Argento, Wes Craven and David Cronenberg knew hot to please an audience yearning for fear without having to resort to tacky and overtly grotesque scenes. Films such as Suspiria, Opera, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Thing, The Frighteners, Carrie, and the original The Wicker Man stand out in horror history. The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre puts the remake to shame while Rob Zombie should be shunned for unmasking Michael Myers, perhaps the most infamous psychopath in horror movie history because of his mystical and mysterious nature. Even The Amityville Horror, though mediocre, is a landslide better than the remake. The 70s and 80s breathed life into horror movies and they thrived. The Exorcist, The Omen, Poltergeist, The Shining, Manhunter, Night of the Living Dead, and Rosemary's Baby are more films to add to the list of greats.

And now, what are we left with? If you scroll through a list of horror films produced over the past few years, you will come across The Ring, The Grudge, Dead Silence, The Fog, Ghost Ship, House of 100 Corpses, House on Haunted Hill, 30 Days of Night along with other disappointments. With the exception of a few quality scares such as The Descent, Feast, Behind the Mask, and Slither, the horror industry has taken a deep plunge into a pit and it may not return anytime soon. Attempts to spark the flame under horror lovers bottoms such as the “8 Films to Die For” and the Emmy nominated Series, “Masters of Horror” have succeeded to a degree, yet they don't get as much publicity as the weaker, higher budget horrors. I know that there are plenty of independent films worthy of recognition, but they will never be released in theaters and they will never be recognized so long as Hollywood keeps producing rubbish year after year. The problem is that directors and producers feel as if they have to show more in order to get more from the audience. What happened to keeping the audience in suspense by waiting until the finale to reveal the monster or the breathtaking big murder scene? These new horror flicks are producing a chain reaction. The more creatures and blood and guts that films show, the more the audience will want to see in the future.

I don't know what the solution to this problem is or how to go about finding one. Yet the quality of horror movies is plummeting. Hollywood is sacrificing substance for shock treatment. So my advice is to go rent one of the old classics, watch it, and think about everything it contains that contemporary horror movies don't. Learn to appreciate old school techniques of horror more than graphic and unnecessary disembowelments and hope that someone in Hollywood gets the picture.