Ive noticed that in this forum (as well as in general) there is quite a bit of bitching against Horror films and how they are just cheap thrills and just not imaginative and how the remakes kill the original. Whilst this may be true could it not also be because of the fact we are so familiar with the format of a horror film that almost nothing surprises us?

To me, (and many may disagree) one of the freshest and (to an extent) original spins in Horror films that ive seen in recent years, i think has to be The Strangers has been one of the better horror flicks. Mainly cos it didnt depend on tons of gore and killing about half of its main cast.

My film studies teacher says (and i solely disagree with him on this) that we as audiences like the predictable factor in most horror films and that we dont like to be challenged when it comes to horror films. The reason that i disagree with this is cos, if we like predictability then whats the point in like 10+ horror films coming out in one year? Or at all? Cos basically if thats the princaple for making horror films then really, once youve seen it one horror film then youve seen them all...

 

Your views would be much appreciated :D Could use it in Film Studies ^_^

The recycling of ideas and concepts to suit new generations is interesting. Don't believe marketing slogans that new films are scarier, gorier, or more extreme than those in the past. Films like Cannibal Holocaust in 1980 showed violent gore, brutal rape, ruthless real-life slaughter of live animals. Don't think violence, gore, shock are new or cutting edge.

 

Having said that, I do believe that creative, new ideas are out there. The Asian horror we talk about on this board has certainly changed the genre in the last 8 years. Like with anything, you need a really talented director to make a good film. And these directors don't have to do just horror! Sam Raimi, Stanley Kubrick, William Friedkin, Roman Polanski, Rob Reiner - you may not think of these as horror directors but they have all just so happened to direct some of the best horror films ever.

 

There is very little talent in the horror genre these days... ideas? There are plenty of ideas. I've read about 20 Dean Koontz novels that could probably be made into fantastic thriller films. The problem is, again, lack of talent.

Just to reply to Consie's point about "Cannibal Holocaust"... Actually, I think that this is the one "video nasty" that lives up to much of the hype, it's a really extreme, gruelling watch and in a lot of ways can be read as an allegory of the Vietnam War, which had just ended a few years before the film was made.... It actually was a transgressive film, and certainly gave the idea of "found documentary footage" to "Blair Witch", "Cloverfield", "[Rec"], et al.... "Cannibal Ferox" on the other hand, was just sh!te, completely lacking in any kind of imagination.....

 

There is nobody that really has the guts to make a film like "Cannibal Holocaust" these days... The guys who did "Hostel" are just paying lip-service to a film that really was worthy of the name "horror"....

Just to reply to Consie's point about "Cannibal Holocaust"... Actually, I think that this is the one "video nasty" that lives up to much of the hype, it's a really extreme, gruelling watch and in a lot of ways can be read as an allegory of the Vietnam War, which had just ended a few years before the film was made.... It actually was a transgressive film, and certainly gave the idea of "found documentary footage" to "Blair Witch", "Cloverfield", "[Rec"], et al.... "Cannibal Ferox" on the other hand, was just sh!te, completely lacking in any kind of imagination.....

 

Absolutely! The makers of the Blair Witch did a good job marketing the film, apparently some people did truly believe the footage was real. But when Cannibal Holocaust was released, rumors were so rampant and audiences so appalled that they believed real people had been killed on camera and Italian police arrested the director! He sat in jail for days until he could prove that the actors in the film were actually still alive.

Absolutely! The makers of the Blair Witch did a good job marketing the film, apparently some people did truly believe the footage was real. But when Cannibal Holocaust was released, rumors were so rampant and audiences so appalled that they believed real people had been killed on camera and Italian police arrested the director! He sat in jail for days until he could prove that the actors in the film were actually still alive.

 

Yes, they reacted with HORROR to what they saw, so "Cannibal Holocaust" absolutely does its job as a horror film as far as I'm concerned... Remakes and the endless sequels which just regurgitate over and over again simply do NOT do the job, they are frankly boring, stale, familiar, and well, we all know what familiarity breeds dont we....? :rolleyes:

 

Just to reply to Joao Felipe with regards to his film tutor (who, frankly I dont believe has any business teaching a Horror class with his attitude towards the genre, I reckon I could teach your class ten times better than he could....LOL), I really think he needs to check out some of the new breed of European Horror out there... Particularly films like "Haute Tension", "Ils", "Martyrs" and "Frontiers", NONE of them could ever really be considered to be "predictable", or, indeed "[Rec]" which just blows your mind, creating the sort of absolute nail-biting tension that the awful, stale George Romero film "Diary of the Dead" absolutely failed to deliver, it was like, "George, move on already....". Mind you, even Romero hasn't sunk as low as Dario Argento has........

 

Horror has to find new ideas and new ways to surprise (as it did with "Texas Chain Saw Massacre", Night of the Living Dead, "Suspiria", "Deep Red", "Halloween" "Don't Look Now", "Cannibal Holocaust, "Videodrome", "Evil Dead", "Scream", "Haute Tension", "Ringu", Ju-On, "Audition", "Dark Water", "Kairo", "Saw 1" and "[Rec]") or it'll just die, like it did in the 1980s when you had all these terrible "slasher" films which totally milked the "Halloween" idea long after John Carpenter had moved on to bigger and better things....

 

Of course, not all remakes are bad - Carpenter's "The Thing", Phil Kaufman's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and Cronenberg's "The Fly" being two examples of incredibly edgy horror which develop on the originals and take things in different, more interesting directions in terms of themes....

Ive noticed that in this forum (as well as in general) there is quite a bit of bitching against Horror films

 

well horror is the genre that most people wanna talk about..thats why there loads of descussion = its like pop = girl groups-singers and retro = 1980s

Carpenter's "The Thing", Phil Kaufman's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and Cronenberg's "The Fly" being two examples

Can you count? :P

 

i would really wanna see a un-cut version of Cannibal Holocaust. There's part of me that likes extremley gorey films.

Can you count? :P

 

i would really wanna see a un-cut version of Cannibal Holocaust. There's part of me that likes extremley gorey films.

 

There are clips on youtube... if you can handle the "turtle scene" then you can probably handle the whole film.

 

I'm sure the uncut version is available in the UK by now. I'm always shocked to hear how the UK was among the most eager to ban, sensor or edit films up until the 90s. Thankfully it seems that trend has ended.

Edited October 27, 200816 yr by Consie

There are clips on youtube... if you can handle the "turtle scene" then you can probably handle the whole film.

 

I'm sure the uncut version is available in the UK by now. I'm always shocked to hear how the UK was among the most eager to ban, sensor or edit films up until the 90s. Thankfully it seems that trend has ended.

Yeah i've seen parts on youtube..... i should be able to handle the film, i've watched films like Re-animator, City Of The Living Dead and Zombie Nosh (all of which are proper $h!te :lol: ) without flinching.

Someone posted this on another forum:

 

"Horror is much more than just flesh and blood, and horror of the past HAS proved that. There's just something in modern horror that is missing. Something that was there in the past, but is gone. Unless the fratboys of modern horror don't grow up and try to capture that timeless magic ('cause it IS timeless, yet, for some reason, people now think it's dated), horror's pretty much damned. As are remakes."

 

I think that sums it up for me.

Here's what Tippi Hendren (from the original The Birds) had to say about the possibility of a remake of The Birds:

"Can't we find new stories, new things to do? Must you be so insecure that you have to take a film that's a classic and try to do it over?"

Her co-star Rod Taylor said he often "cringes" at the thought of any remake but will hold judgement especially if Clooney is the lead which he has been tipped to be..

DIGITALSPY

 

I agree with Tippi Hendrens comment.. I was looking around IGN and they had a poll asking which Remake you are looking forward to... The list?

Friday the 13th

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Hellraiser

My Bloody Valentine

Night of the Demons

Piranha

The Birds

The Wolf Man

 

oh.. dear.. god.. :mellow:

Can you count? :P

 

i would really wanna see a un-cut version of Cannibal Holocaust. There's part of me that likes extremley gorey films.

 

Yeah, my bad... :blush: The "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" thing was an afterthought, and I didn't edit properly..... :lol:

 

There are clips on youtube... if you can handle the "turtle scene" then you can probably handle the whole film.

 

I'm sure the uncut version is available in the UK by now. I'm always shocked to hear how the UK was among the most eager to ban, sensor or edit films up until the 90s. Thankfully it seems that trend has ended.

 

Well, it has and it hasn't.... You still cant get a totally uncut version of Lucio Fulci's nasty, grubby little exploitation film "New York Ripper" legit in the UK, the most recent UK DVD version (released a couple of months back) from Shameless still has about 20 seconds of cuts, and they've refused a certificate altogether for "Murder Set Pieces".... Frankly, just what the fukk IS the point in cutting films or censoring films in 2008...? Does the BBFC think we're just stupid, that we'll just kowtow to their rather dubious sense of 'morality'; that we can't order stuff off Amazon or download from P2P sites......? Film Classification boards are an absolute fukkin' IRRELEVANCE in the digital, internet age IMO.... Geez, there's just something so bloody 80s about the BBFC let's face it..... :rolleyes: :lol: :lol:

 

There is absolutely NOTHING the BBFC can possibly prevent me, or anyone else, from watching if we have a mind to, the silly buggers can ban or refuse certificates or hack away all they want... They are ultimately impotent...

^They really cant :lol: I got into Saw V on saturday and im 16.. And theres no way a scrawny teenager like me could pass for 18.. The cinema dont care for the ratings... As long as they get the money a 12 year old could get in... (ok thats stretching it a bit...)

You cant blame them for trying though :lol:

Edited October 28, 200816 yr by Joao Filipe

have you seen rob zombie's remake of halloween? I heard really bad reviews saying it was just a gore fest but i actually thought it was great. I loved thaat most of the film focussed on michael's childhoos where as that was skimmed over in the original...

^I saw 10minutes of that film and switched off. Im sorry but that thing killed the original.. The suspense and thrill of Halloween was that you didnt know what was behind the mask so to take it off (even if it was as a kid... it doesnt really matter) completely ruins the thrill.. Ill probably end up watching it as my mate wants to watch it on (surprise surprise) Halloween