The Evolution of the Horror Genre

I think horror has once again become a valid genre of filmmaking and not one that is derided and made fun of. Horror is now being taken seriously again. Some of the best films were made in the 50's and 60's like Peeping Tom and Psycho, really stylish films that knew how to scare an audience and present these dark themes in a way that enhaced the fear. Then in the 60's and 70's with the popularity of grindhouse cinemas and the release of The Texas Chainsaw massacre, and its subsequent succes, the film industry, thought they would just make as many films like this with as many kill scenes and as much blood and gore as they could. and in doing so they completly missed the point of why the TCM was so succesful and what made in great. I think that the exploitation films of the 70's and 80's , as well as the 80's cash-ins in addition to the sanitizing of charachters like freddy and Jason, making the lovable comicbook goons. I think this arose from the censorship of films and the fact that people wanted to make money, and these kind of changes would allow horror to reach and appeal to a wider audience and thus make alot of money.

Horror movies follow on from a tradition of storytelling and mythmaking throughout the generations, tales to warn children of the dangers of life, but also told just to scare, and these storytellings were always group activities, and so always held a high place in society, but the censorship and mindless awful special effects made these horror films something to be mocked and not feared, So the fear had to be reintroduced.

Now horror has gone back to telling realistic, human stories, presented in a believable and frightetning fashion. Building tense, claustrophhobic atmoshperes of impending fear and doom. Terrifying the viewer with intelligent supernatural tales, that strike a chord with universal fears that every one possesses deep down. No longer elying on special effects, but not showing too much and letting the viewers imagination create the horror. Understanding what makes for frightening imagery.

There has definetly been a rennaissance in the horror genre, since the advent of Scream, whihc re-alighted everyones interest in horror films and the lore and myth invovled. It gave it a history and a set of rules, like science fiction.

I think the Japanese horror industry has had alot to do with the sea change in the genre. It has pushed others to make better films and has given a new visual identity to horror films. It has informed a new aesthetic which has allowed the genre to be seen with more credibilty. I has forced horror movies to be more intellectual, this also happened as result of Wes Cravens New Nightmare and Scream, which due to its nature of postmodern cynicism and intelectuallism,and its references to the rules and myths of horror, changed the way horror films would be made forever. No more could horror films be stupid , simple and straightforward, everything had to have a smart , informed funny script and original believable characters, stories and twists

Yes, but 95% of whats being released today sucks.

I agree, and the same thing is happening again, that happened in the late 70's early 80's, which was after the success of a few films like TCM and Friday the 13th, studios saw there was a market and a slew of films were churned out 95% of which were utter garbage. The same thing happened after Scream, a few good films are released in its wake ( IKWYDLS,etc,) and a whole lot of lesser , pointless films saturate the market,from studios who want to make a fast buck, but even these films are forced to be of a better quality.

However there is renewed respect for the genre and good films have been getting made, by people who grew up on and love horror.Ring, The Grudge, Wrong Turn, Dead End, Cabin Fever, Shaun of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead(rmk), Final Destination, The LASt Horror Movie, The Blair witch, audition, the eye, dark water, and many more, also all these films are classics already and will be referenced so in years to come. Not for decades, if ever before have so many excellent horror films been made in such a period of time.

This saturation of horror films and the low quality of them is what gives horror a bad reputation, but so many good films have been made in the last ten years that they give more of a balance to the credibility of the genre, and can be used to defend the reputation of horror films.

I don't know about how great I Know What You Did Last Summer really was.... It doesn't really fit the realistic argument either. The end of the first and the beginning of the sequel don't pan out (much like the F13 series) and he still came back after being shot and buried.

Originally posted by papabeard

However there is renewed respect for the genre and good films have been getting made, by people who grew up on and love horror.Ring, The Grudge, Wrong Turn, Dead End, Cabin Fever, Shaun of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead(rmk), Final Destination, The LASt Horror Movie, The Blair witch, audition, the eye, dark water, and many more,

Maybe he's trying to prove that the horror genre is devolving. 😛

A few are good though.

Yeah, I read the title and laughed. The genre is de-volving if anything, and Japanese horror is so ridiculously overhyped, overrated, and falsly held in such high regard it's sickening.

Originally posted by papabeard
I think the Japanese horror industry has had alot to do with the sea change in the genre. It has pushed others to make better films and has given a new visual identity to horror films. It has informed a new aesthetic which has allowed the genre to be seen with more credibilty. I has forced horror movies to be more intellectual, this also happened as result of Wes Cravens New Nightmare and Scream, which due to its nature of postmodern cynicism and intelectuallism,and its references to the rules and myths of horror, changed the way horror films would be made forever. No more could horror films be stupid , simple and straightforward, everything had to have a smart , informed funny script and original believable characters, stories and twists

Im sorry but did you just say that Wes Cravens New Nightmare had intellectual stimuli ? That movie was a 100% Bomb and I would give you my dvd for free

So what horror films do you like?

How can something be falsely held in high regard, it is a personal preference so therefore cannot be false.

Also this devolution was part of the point i made, A few good films are made and interest in the genre picks up, then the market is flooded by crap, but there have been so many good influential horror films made , from the period beginning with Scream, that the mainstream horror genre will never regress to the mindless crap that was so prevalent in the 80's , thus showing an EVOLUTION.

I would like to retract the use of IKWYDLS as an example of a good film, it is not great but it did exhibit more intelligence as a direct result of scream, so in fact all it took was one film SCREAM to reignite peoples interest in horror films.

nah i think Scream was much better than IKWYDLS, at least the ending was decent.

Yo dude stop with the multiple posts. Is it really all that physically ailing to click 'Edit'?

Originally posted by papabeard
How can something be falsely held in high regard, it is a personal preference so therefore cannot be false.

When people don't stop and think about what they're boasting as incredibly ingenuitive and unique, you're wrongfully praising a redundant and stale genre. I've been down this road before, but have you ever seen the pattern in Japanese horror? The Ring? Ringu? Ju-On? The Grudge? St. John's Wart? Shiriku? The Eye? All movies with ghosts and girls with long black hair and jump scares.

There's nothing "inventive" or "unique" abut those movies. People are so goddamn fed up with American horror that ANYTHING out of will quell them. Then, once they get into these redundant spectre stories, they fall into the SAME EXACT TRAP they did in American horror. Recycled plot lines. The Asian ghost is the equivalent of the U.S. slasher and so many people are too naive to notice, and that clouds their judgment.

Originally posted by papabeard
Also this devolution was part of the point i made, A few good films are made and interest in the genre picks up, then the market is flooded by crap, but there have been so many good influential horror films made , from the period beginning with Scream, that the mainstream horror genre will never regress to the mindless crap that was so prevalent in the 80's , thus showing an EVOLUTION.

Interest in horror movies never died. It's always been a marketable genre, especially with kids. Even the worse "Nightmare" and "Friday" movies still made millions of dollars. On top of that, there have been VERY FEW "influential" horror movies in the past 10 years. "Scream" is just one of those horror classics that came and gave the genre a shot in the arm, creativity wise, breaking the stupid cycle of mindless slashers. Then, there were the imminent copycats and what not. Then the de-evolution of the genre came with the rehashes and remakes.

To say that horror won't regress is totally naive, as it's been happening for quite a while now, just not in the form of carbon copy slashers. Horror has never been too high on the originality scale anyway, and to suggest there will ever be a time when it will totally break form and start spitting out incredible, unique films, enough to merit calling it a true "evolution", is merely a pipedream.

One step forward, two steps back. It's old hat for this genre.

well written Cine.

To coincide with your comments, I still maintain that the horror genre is the most difficult genre to churn out a quality film.

Horror and comedy.

I concur it's hard to make a successful horror movie, and that's why we see everyone falling back on the old films. It's a shame that 75% of the movie going public, which includes 50% of horror fans worldwide, are content with what we get because year after year, it's the same old song of unoriginality and recycled plots and what not.

If the same old same old still works, then what's leading us to believe it will get any better? Evolution, indeed. Try revolving.