I need to come clean about something. I've never watched a horror movie made in the 21st century. Not one. Psychological thrillers, yes. Spoofs of horror movies (think Shaun of the Dead), yes. Legitimate horror movies? No.
I'm a big fan of super cheesy horror movies from the 70's and 80's. Movies like To All a Good Night (killer Santa Claus), Dark Tower (a bunch of Americans and an Eastern European fight an evil spirit in Barcelona) and Lord of Illusions (lots of bad effects- even for its time- and lots of Scott Bakula). These are super weird movies with plots that required a bigger budget than what was allotted. The concepts are cool, but the way these concepts are done are not always so cool. The B movies of this time seemed to step off from more major films. You can watch a post-apocalyptic 80's movie and not consider it a Mad Max knock off. The writers were able to take a major idea (like a post-apocalyptic world) and take it in a new direction.
I feel like the horror movie industry of the 21st century has lost this ability. Now, I had this thought while I was at Wal-Mart. I was in the movie section, looking for a gift, and I noticed just how many horror movies there were. There were a lot. Probably half the movie section was dedicated to horror. And a lot of them looked alike. I recognized some of the movies, like The Conjuring and Ouija. And then there were the movies one row over. American Conjuring and Ouija: Origins (note, there was a prequel to Ouija, but that wasn't the title). I saw these and I was really disappointed. Because based simply on the title, I can give you an idea of what happens in the movie. American Conjuring deals with a haunted house and super creepy spirits that want everyone dead. Oh, and it's all-American. Somebody watch it and tell me if I'm wrong. If you're going to do a knock off, have the sense to make the title completely different. Please.
Now, I'm not saying that these movies are any less scary. They're probably freaking terrifying. But there's no creativity. To me, the writers saw a very successful horror film and said "Let's do that." Um, hello? It's already been done. To me, it's like their taking the script, changing the location and the names of the characters and mixing up the order of the jump scare moments. They film it, slap a title on it and send it straight to DVD. They don't even put in the effort to come up with an original title! It's not that hard! But at the end of the day, it's the jump scares that sell.
Anyway, that's my thought. The successful horror movies tend to be original. All the knock offs are exactly that. Knock offs. If you really want to be scared, watch The Fog or The Howling. Happy Festivus.
End of thought.
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