Cinematography : Why is the film industry making the horror films a 'low' genre? by Erik Toth

It is funny that whoever would do that. Horror movies make the most money as long as they have PG13 ratings. Older movies are too slow for today's audience. They don't have the attention span to allow a story to develop. Now it is just get in , set up all cliche characters and kill them off in the most bloodiest of ways.

In the 1980's people were asking, where are the slow, scary, atmospheric horror movies of the 30's and 40's. During that time (the 70's and 80's) older movie goers and critics labeled the current trend as "splatter" films devoid of character and atmosphere and not as scary and tense as the "golden age" of horror. The critics of the 1980's and 1990's disliked the remakes of old horror classics. They said the audiences of today (the 80's) were the MTV generation and needed gore and breasts and quick cuts to stay interested. The times and the styles and the audiences change yet they seem to change in a circle.

Yes. It deppens of the special efects. Each age, the way of make the victms of terror movies be killed or blooding create new influences. After Video Copilot all is going to walk in circle again. Now we need of new and more realistic special efects from video copilot or some new tecnology to make revive the terror movie sequence. How will be the next generation?

I don't think it depends on the special effects. I believe that good horror comes from good storytelling and compelling characters. New and more realistic special effects and new technology will not make horror films better for any generation. The films that have survived the years are the ones with great stories and characters we relate to. Not the ones with the best kills. Personally, I can be scared watching a horror films that doesn't have any special effects at all.

A film is a film, no matter what the genre is. Horror or drama, it's just about how you tell the story. Looking at the so-called scariest films made, I can see that those films are made by directors who are not known as genre directors. At least not the horror genre. They made those films with the same dedication they would any other film they would make, regardless of effects or not. But a horror film is made to stimulate one of our most primal emotions: fear. We love to be scared while having the safety of knowing it's not real, and that's why horror films are good business, and sadly in very few exceptions, good films. Taking a quick look at imdb, I find that most of the mainstream horror films are made by young, up-and-coming directors. These films are shot with a relatively low budget, and consists of some semi-naked teens being killed in sadistic fashion. You don't put much effort in scriptwriting, you make a film with some gory, over the top special effects, supermodel wannabe actors, and label and market it as the scariest film you'll ever see this year. But the thing is, we have different triggers as to what we are afraid of. Some people are afraid of spiders, some are not. Some are afraid of axe wielding maniacs, some are not. As a director, I couldn't make a film about something I wasn't afraid of. How can I make someone believe in something if I myself is not convinced? It's a difficult task, and I would love to make a horror film one day, one who will scare the living shit out of people. Horror classics like The Exorcist and The Shining scared my out of my wits as a kid, and I still find them creepy. Watching them over again makes me realize the craftsmanship and effort put into those films. While I might be disturbed or maybe even freaked out by films like Hostel or Saw, they really don't frighten me in the same way. And another point I'd like to make; to really make a great horror flick, one have to be inventive. Be one step a head of the audience, avoid like the plague established clichés, and keep them guessing. There's been much more crap than gold in this genre, but maybe it's a good thing for us who would like to make something great.

My favorites are definitely the slow-burners that build a sense of dread. The Shining, Alien, Silence of the Lambs (though it's not technically horror) all do a great job of building characters and suspense before any bloodshed. It's that creepy feeling of something horrible to come that separates the popcorn fare from the true classics. But those require solid scripts and years of development, which many filmmakers don't have the patience for.