What has gone wrong with hollywood horror?

I've not seen a Hollywood horror film in about 10 years (I think the 6th sense was the last truly spooky US film I saw) which comes close to being called eerie, certainly none have been chilling. It seems that directors have forgotten how to create suspense, play with lighting and camera angles. I think that this is largely because the reliance on computer graphics has allowed people to not concentrate on the art of cinema. The studios wanting a guaranteed hit (and marketable to younger audiences) only serves to make horror films more limp.





What do you think is wrong with these films? What do you think is missing from modern vampire, werewolf or other horror films?

What has gone wrong with hollywood horror?
Nothing is left to the imagination. My imagination is scarier than any special effects can create.
Reply:1. Not enough good storylines


2. Not enough suspense


3. Too much computer effects
Reply:Most movies suck now days because they don't end right.Its just like they give up or run out of ideas at the end.
Reply:whats gone wrong is that alot of the horror movies there TRYING to make these days have to much blood and gore in them, and to many sex scenes. now com'on does that make a scary movie.NO. They need to be more mystery and suspenful like that pop out stuff and leave the watcher waitng for whats gonna happen next, not a movie where somone cant drink there mountain dew cuz thrs to much gore and blood.
Reply:They left out the horror and added more Hollywood.
Reply:I've never been a huge fan of horror movies, but in my opinion they have gotten worse over the years because they are too focused on grossing everyone out. I think a movie can be very scary without all the blood and guts. It should be more about suspense. Some of the scariest movies I've seen are not even that bloody. It seems like todays directors just try to go out of their way to see just how graphic and disgusting they can make their movies. A good horror movie needs to have a good story and a lot of suspense and it should leave a certain amount of the gore to our imaginations. I won't even watch most horror movies anymore because they are just too graphic.
Reply:Seem to be missing the element of suspense.
Reply:I personally think that they try to add too much Glamour to horror movies these days. They tend to pick all these overly 'good' looking characters. In most movies that have a "serial killer" they even pick "gorgeous" people to play those parts. I can't be scared of someone pretty....


Even in vampire movies.... I get that they are gorgeous but when they "turn" and are about to kill someone they are supposed to be scary - Not pretty. I also agree that there is too much sex and stuff in the movies now. A scene is ok, but c'mon.... You should never watch a horror movie and at the end be able to say.. wow! did you see that chicks ****!


Lastly, I find that in most horror films now, it seems that they try to make you feel bad for the Killer. Your not supposed to want to root for the bad guy, because if you are, then your not afraid of them and it ruins the whole idea.
Reply:they don't have ideas.they don't want to make good movies, just money.they cut the movies to get as lower rating as possible.they try to put more famous actors so more people come to watch the movie.and many more reasons.
Reply:Nothing gives horror more impact than a strong sense of dread or foreboding. If a movie can effectively ratchet up tension, and do it in a manner where the audience is filling in the blanks with their own imagination and fears, then it will succeed in at least generating some scares.





The most recent example of a well crafted horror movie, in my opinion, was The Descent. Great use of lighting/sound, it plays with our inate fear of dark, enclosed places, our fear of being lost and disoriented, and the most primal fear of being something's next meal. Add to that the darkness within the human soul and it makes for an effective horror movie.





Rob Zombie's Halloween remake was good if not great. What I did respect was that it was a 70s style, unrepentant, straight-down-the-middle slasher film. The horror was in the violence and that it wasnt pretty. No one-liners, no 1-2-3-cat-sigh-slash cadence (you probably know what i mean).





But I agree, trying to cater to a younger, wider audience has done more to weaken horror cinema than pretty much anything else.
Reply:i think the main problems here are that:





1) there's no mystery as to why w/e is happening is happening


2) there's no semblance of a plot more a plot which is tacked on to make it seem like the writers are making a film e.g. Saw/Hostel


3) Extremely gorey films are good if they're done well e.g. Last House on the Left, Shaun of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead but the gore must come second to likeable main characters and a coherent plot which are all painfully missing from a lot of horror these days.


4) Horrors take themselves way too seriously now. They used to have a sense of humour w/o anything clever or interesting to be so serious about ie. Last House was a representation of feelings towards the government because of Vietnam.


5) You're looking in the wrong place for good horror. You need to look towards Asia for great horror, e.g. The Host, Ringu. Amazing films that scare the bejeezus out of you.


6) No originality except for in the ways to kill people department.


7) Everything is so unbelievable in these pictures that we're not scared because it's quite obvious that it's not real and so we don't become involved
Reply:yea. i totally agree i havent watched any of them since liek 5 yrs ago. i was just watching a clip form One Missed Call and that is definetly the saddest excuse for anything scray i mean come on what is this quote? ring-ring. "THAT'S NOT MY RINGTONE..." are u for real????????
Reply:Truth is American directors just can't direct on par with British/Australian and Japanese directors. See any Japanese horror film that has been ruined when remade by stupid American directors and studios, see The Decent, Shaun of the Dead, The Cottage etc, and the many other clasic horrors, and Australian film is getting really good right now, see black sheep and Black Water.
Reply:today its all bout naked ladies being murdered in the shower by computer aliens
Reply:its a horror story in its own right isn't it?
Reply:they are all boring torture movies or a pg13 movie. they cant make ruthless horror films anymore or something that really messes with your head. the last horror movie i liked was the new dawn of the dead. everything else = garbage
Reply:Short answer: Bad writers and spineless producers.


Thats my take on it I think directors out there could make a good horror but between the to problems mentioned above they don't have a good script or the budget to overcome that.
Reply:the 6th sense, though done by an Indian from PA. is actually styled after the J-horror genre.





Lately all we do is take J-Horror flics and Americanize them.





Most horror flics are idiotic, not scary, and action-like if not going the J-Horror route. Silent Hill was J-Horror, most movies were, its easier to see which were not. Let's see:





Dawn of the Dead, pretty good. The rest? I am Legend sucked because the ghouls were done on computer and looked so cartoony they stopped being scary. I read the book and loved it- I hated the happy ending of Legend though.





You are right, there have not been any good horror flics in 10 years. I love the gloomy Japanesse horror where the ghost is a little girl and she always wins, but there have been 5-6 movies with the same synopsis pretty much.





We need a truly dark horror flic that brings back American horror. So stop with the ghosts and faces, stupid movies like American Haunting and the new stupid flic coming out now about a mass infection that turns people into punks which take over a city and get back to good filmmaking.





I liked some of the filming in Silent Hill, I loved The Birds, the old one but Hill had the parallel ghost world that smacked of J-horror. Then I liked The Exorcism of Emily Rose for drawing me in.





I dont consider Hostel and Saw 1 thru 15 to be horror. They are not scary but gross.
Reply:suspense..u need really good unpredictable suspense.





Suspense kills u..its so good.





I think nowadays movies lack suspense.





Oh I just remembered..watch the Skeleton key..i swear it has so much suspense and is so eerie..i was freaked out in the end and promised myself i am never going to old-town America.
Reply:I agree with you completely. It seems like it's all about the money and ratings - which are biased bc you can't rate the quality of a movie by how many people go see it!





I think it is all about building intensity without doing the typical flash shot of a murder or a knife piercing and chopping off body parts - that is annoying and is the cheap way out. A scene that is not cut and edited provides much more truth to the plot and makes it more suspenseful naturally.





I hope that perhaps we can start to find quality films in independent directors that are still in it for the art not the money.