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windbane on 27 May 2007
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HappySqurriel said:
windbane said:
 

I would not lump Saw in with those other movies. It's not a horror movie.

What is the height of horror movies to you? Friday the 13th (the first of which was also a murder mystery, believe it or not), Nightmare on Elm Street, and Halloween? Because those probably defined the genre for awhile in America, and that's pretty much what the current horror movies are like.

Scream started the teen horror movie trend, and The Ring started the Japanese horror trend. Do you prefer those paths?

My problem with horror movies is the cheap scare. Most start off innocent, then have a nice fake scare (far too many bats and cats), then the gore starts with loud sounds to startle you. That includes all paths I've mentioned.

Hitchcock, I'm told, did more suspense than horror, so I look forward to watching those. I'm just not sure what kind of horror movie you prefer, because the genre has never been maybe what it could be. Maybe you like The Exorcist?

Oh, and in my opinion, Manhunt was a great game for what it did, so you can disagree with my opinion but you can't tell me I'm wrong.

 

First let us define horror, according to the Horror Writers Association

Webster's Collegiate Dictionary gives the primary definition of horror as "a painful and intense fear, dread, or dismay." It stands to reason then that "horror fiction" is fiction that elicits those emotions in the reader.

If we accept this definition, then horror can deal with the mundane or the supernatural, with the fantastic or the normal. It doesn't have to be full of ghosts, ghouls, and things to go bump in the night. Its only true requirement is that it elicit an emotional reaction that includes some aspect of fear or dread. Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones is therefore just as much a horror novel as Stephen King's Salem's Lot. Tim LaHay's Left Behind series is just as full of horror as Dan Simmons' A Winter Haunting. By this definition, the best selling book of all time, the Bible, could easily be labeled horror, for where else can you find fallen angels, demonic possessions, and an apocalypse absolutely terrifying in its majesty all in one volume?

In his 1982 anthology Prime Evil, author Douglas Winter stated, "Horror is not a genre, like the mystery or science fiction or the western. It is not a kind of fiction, meant to be confined to the ghetto of a special shelf in libraries or bookstores. Horror is an emotion." He was correct and his words have become a rallying cry for the modern horror writer.

Saw is a horror movie and even IMDB has it listed as a horror movie. Anyways ...

The height of horror movies? The Shining, Alien and Jaws. At the time movies like The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby were very good horror movies but (because of how secular we are now) are not scary like they used to be.

Movies like Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elmstreet, and Halloween are far (FAR) better versions of the same type of "Gorror" movies that are being created today; these movies are better mainly because they decided to develop motivations for the murder's actions, built interesting characters that you don't want to see die, and actually had a story line so there was a motivation beyond seeing graphic violence to keep watching the movie.

20 years from now people will still watch and talk about The Shining, Alien and Jaws but few people will have any memory of the current crop of crappy horror movies.


Wow. Here's what I just saw on IMDB for Saw:

Genre:

Crime / Horror / Mystery / Thriller

So yes, horror is listed, but is secondary and only part of the genre description.

I've seen The Shining, and it was good. Alien and Jaws...ok.

I think people will remember Scream and The Ring.