Why do people watch horror movies or scary movies in general? Part of the answer can be found in the question: they either want to have some scares or some thrill, they like to be entertained, feel their heart beat. If possible, both a scare and a laugh.
Watching the 2017 reboot of IT and the 2010 A Nightmare on Elm Street, in the same week, made me realize the following: *There's a number of reasons why I have difficulty enjoying most of the recent horror movies, especially when it comes to reboots / remakes from 1980s classics. At first, I couldn't really put my finger on it. I thought it was merely a nostalgia thing. Now nostalgia might be hard to beat, at the same time, I knew that there was a little more to it.
Without furder ado, here's some reasons why I find it hard to enjoy most recent horror movies. They popped into my head while watching ANightmareonES, yesterday night:
Most of the recent horror movies ( post 2000 ) are just not ( very ) entertaining
You might argue that finding something 'entertaining' is a personal thing, which is true. But, I counted my laughs, while watching A Nightmare on Elm Street and I laughed once ( probably not even out loud ). This happened during an over-the-top scene, where a girl tried to run away from Freddy scissorhands Krueger and the floor changed into a pool of blood. I think the main reason I laughed was because this scene reminded me of 1970s / 1980s movies by Dario Argento, which I like quite a lot and, as a matter of fact, often find entertaining too.
There's no synthesizer soundtracks.
Now this might well be nostalgia, synthesizer scores remind me of my favorite childhood movies, but still...
these days, horror movie soundtracks merely seem to consist of (twelve-in-a-dozen type of ) 'creepy' background sounds - that sound as if they're found in a 'free to use' internet archive. Furthermore, most of the scares are brought about by 'cheap' sound effect tricks, often pumping up the volume.
Possibly even worse then the aforementioned, there's this tendency to hardly every use no sound.This doesn't help either. It just makes the viewer tired.
Practical effects are often replaced by CGI, computer generated ones.
I could go on and on about this ( this definitely is nostalgia and my personal taste ) but if you know something about movies and movie history you get my point, so I won't elaborate on this..
( related to the above ) The 'gore', in horror movies of late, is often too realistic and in your face.
When someone's throat is being slit, I prefer not to see it, especially if it looks realistic. Then there's something called suspense. It's often scarier if you don't show something, which segways into the following point:
Many of the post 2000 scary movies that I've seen contain too many horror scenes and too little build up.
This might have to do with the amount of focus people have these days ( myself included ) but squeezing in a scary scene, every two or three minutes, really isn't necessary. In fact, it has the opposite effect. There's hardly time to pause and it just makes me / the audience tired. Things also start to feel repetitious pretty soon. Besides, contrast is very important. If there's just noise and no silence, the noise becomes normal. If there's scares all the time, it stops being scary. You really start to feel like going for a toilet break instead.
Showing the 'monster' way too many times ( and from upclose ).
Especially in Nightmare on Elm Street, they kept showing Freddy Krueger's face ( nasty looking or not ) in close up all the time. Even worse, he was talking way too much. That's the opposite of suspense to me. Scary thus becomes annoying.
I could probably go on for a while but this wasn't meant to be a rant, more like an observation, from a guy who studied film, watched thousands of movies and really liked ( and still likes ) horror, especially the classics.
Now you might say that some things are better in ( horror )movies these days. I couldn't help but thinking that the acting in the 2010 A Nightmare on Elm Street was quite good. Nevertheless, I prefer 1980s overacting over good acting in these remakes, any day. Good acting does not seem to fit these type of movies. In fact, now I think of it, it seems out of place. If the acting is the part that impresses me most from a horror movie, that's probably a bad thing.
IT, with its 2hour14 minute run time was tough to sit through. It was the perfect example of way too many scary scenes, very repetitious. When watching A Nightmare on Elm Street, I checked the time after, apparently, 49 minutes ( which is half way through ). I felt I needed a break, to sit through the remainder, washed some dishes and started on this write up.
In Conclusion
Remaking a movie is one thing but making a movie with the same name as the original and changing half of the story is another. Is that to make up for lack of originality? This happens way too often these days and, in a way, I am disappointed to see that movies like these ( even this disappointing A Nightmare on Elm Street reboot ) still make a profit. I like to think that many who went to the cinema hoping for re-experiencing the past / out of pure nostalgia and then were disappointed.In all seriousness, I would rather have them not see these movies, so studios would start looking for original material once again but that seems to be pretty idealistic.
Perhaps it does not help to have grown up in the 80s and to start watching horror in the early to mid 1990s. The movies ( and their style ) from that era will always stay my favorites. Think of Critters, Gremlins, The Shining and A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Let's be honest, 1980s horror was - and many 80s movies in general were - very entertaining. It's almost as if the world was in a happier and funnier state back then. Also - as mentioned at the start of this essay - if horror isn''t entertaining, it should at least be scary ( some would say that 'gore' alone would do but I disagree with that. It's not enough for me\ ). Scary for me is often either based on an intriguing story or on suspense. The latter needs some decent build up. This is something that most recent horror movies seem to lack They seem to be too afraid to lose the audience's attention and fall into the trap of easy scares, which has the opposite effect. This way, most of these films become forgettable.
I am curious though. if teenagers who grew up with horror from the 2000s / 2010s like these kind of movies more than 1980s horror. Do they even watch horror movies from that decade? Do they check out the originals / the classics that all these reboots and remakes are based on? If you're one of those people or your kids are, I would love to hear from you / them.
P.S. If you enjoyed this write up and you're into horror and movies, I suggest you check out the blogs of @janenightshade and @modernzorker as well as go and find out more about @deadspace 's list of what he considers to be 10 must see Halloween movies
This post, that I wrote early 2018 with a little bit of back story on my Nightmare on Elm Street nostalgia might be a fun read too: https://steemit.com/film/@vincentnijman/daily-movie-recommendation-a-nightmare-on-elm-street-wes-craven-1984 It also links to a series of other films that I recommend.
P.P.S. I haven't seen The original IT ( that is actually from 1990 ) in ages, but I have no doubt that it has 1980s vibes written all over it, being based on a 1986s story by Stephen King. This post was especially triggered by the disappointing 2010 A Nightmare on Elm Street, as well as on a bunch of newer ( unoriginal ) horror flicks that I'm not even gonna name.
Spooky Image found on Free-Photos from Pixabay