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There's a horror movie that I have heard a lot of people say really scares them and for me it was a snoozefest. It's called "Session 9." I think it failed on every point for me listed above. I think part of the problem was it tried to straddle the "supernatural or supercrazy?" border too long. At one very brief point I thought a Poltergeist-type apportation effect had occurred but actually it was just lousy writing (people doing construction on an abandoned mental institution found intact gold wedding rings and things like that in the *crematorium*. FAIL.) After that I couldn't even remain immersed in the movie and was just in eye-roll mode as I sat through it.
Now, compare that to The Ring. I saw that in a run-down dollar theater with a group of friends. The theater screwed up and didn't have the 2nd reel ready so at one point the movie just stopped. Someone quipped, "so in 7 days are we going to ....?" and the audience laughed nervously. 10 minutes later they resumed the movie ... and we were all still drawn into it and creeped out. Of course, that theater was a scary place and could have been the setting for a horror movie in its own right. (Here's how weird it was: on top of decaying velvet curtains and ripped up seats, the mens room was tiled in black and dark robin's egg blue; even the urinals were BLUE. We asked the women with us after seeing that and they went into the women's room and came out a few minutes later. They reported the women's bathroom was black and dark salmon-pink. It was all just so Not Right.) #horror
failiest scare fail: event horizon. the only trick they seemed to know is "look! over there! ... 3...2...1...BOO!"
TO THE POINT WHERE I COULD COUNT DOWN TO THE BOO MOMENT!
it remains to be decided whether 'event horizon' or 'alice's restaurant' is the worse of the two, but it is not at all in doubt that these are two of the worst films ever in the history of ever. #horror
One of the most effective invocations of horror is Sarah Connor's slow-burn leukaemia story in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
Watching Sarah Connor's wordless, escalating distress develop, as each day she realises, that today may be the day that initiates the leukaemia that she is 'fated' to die from and that she is as duty-bound to her course of action, as she is to her cyborg 'daughter' and her carcinogenic time-bomb of an internal nuclear powercell, is as viscerally effective as the rope-bound Antarctic scientists, awaiting the result of the 'alien blood test' in The Thing.
All the more so, because just as the 'result' in The Thing arrives (like The Spanish Inquisition) when you least expect it, in TSCC the result is 'inevitable' and the 'cause' is unknown.
It evokes the same kind of universal, primal, body horror that the invasive 'portal installation' in Existenz and being eaten alive by the bear in The Edge do.
That last one is often overlooked, but Anthony Hopkins's unstopable, logic-driven, eidetic 'bookworm' (that was the film's original title) billionaire, is truly a science fiction creation.
Movies where the monster or threat isn't shown are the most frightening. I think that is why 'plague' movies work so well (if done by someone who actually consults a virologist or microbiologist for actual science fact, not fiction). Microbes are all around us living on our skin, in our food, in our water supply, and in the air we breathe. Anywhere from 5 million to a billion viruses can dance on the head of a pin like tiny, potential angels of death. #horror
Interesting article but I do disagree with some of your points. I'm not sure I buy the argument you make about requiring a certain belief system in order to find a story scary. Take The Fourth Kind, as they claim it's based on true events. I don't think I'd necessarily have to believe in alien abduction in order to find a story like this scary, if it's done well. #horror
@Allen_Richards: Same here. All the older threads seem to have disappeared off all the articles.
Just the latest in a long line of vaguely disturbing software glitches in io9 comment land.
Tension rises,
An-ti-ci-pation ratchets,
'Filled with torpor' (lol @annalee) I no longer am.
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked,
This way comes.
@Allen_Richards: Oh, thank goodness it's not just myself. I can't even read the responses to my posts. It stinks only to be able to read 20 posts out of 160+. #horror
@Allen_Richards: I just posted the same thing in another thread. I wanted to read while I handed out candy and all the older comments have disappeared.
Interesting article, but I gotta take issue with some points. I Am Legend (which I liked) was not a horror movie. I'm not sure what it was (an "apocalyptic movie"?), but it wasn't horror. Legend's major fail was its marketing: it was sold as a horror flick, but wasn't; so all the people that were expecting horror came out saying it sucked. Me and a friend that rented it, having no preconceived notions, ended up enjoying it.
With regards to Mothman... that's actually one of the more scary movies I've seen. But the caveat is that I dislike horror movies. I really hate having my flight or fight reflex toyed with. Instead of feeling the rush other people get, I get angry, and feel like I want to punch someone's fucking lights out (not that I actually would)... and that's disturbing to me, so I avoid them. So pychologically, Mothman really got under my skin... it's about as much horror as I'm willing to tolerate.
@Bigdamnhero: Horror is highly personal. Mothman Prophecies was very scary to me. I'm really suspectible to that sort of vague, deep horror of the unknown. What scares me is tied my way of engaging with the world. I can understand why others might find that kind of horror film tedious or lame, but it hits something deep in me. #horror
Well, to be fair, Altered States didn't have a whole lot to do with drugs past the initial concoction that he picked up in the jungle. It was more about unlocking the inner levels of the psyche to bring up the racial memory of early man hidden in the collective unconsciousness. What made it scary was that the viewer went most of the film unsure if any of it was actually genuinely happening or not and then in the final minutes of the film we see that he not only has found ways to tap into his own primitive self but is in fact able to alter the physical world around him to disastrous results.
That, to me at least, was what made that film scary.
Plus, Nina Sharp when she was young and hot and had both arms.
Bigdamnhero promoted this comment
brentbent: C.O.C.K.R.O.A.C.H. )for all the queer super villians out there( was starred
brentbent: C.O.C.K.R.O.A.C.H. )for all the queer super villians out there( was unstarred
@brentbent: C.O.C.K.R.O.A.C.H. )for all the queer super villians out there(: Yeah, buddy. That movie has never left me, either. Nothing like real life to scare the crap out of you. #horror
How about scare fail on movie premises that make absolutely no sense. My main example of this is The Ring (american version). OK, a girl was thrown in a well, so how exactly does that translate into her being on a videotape and the watching of the videotape results in your death? Or how about that crappy movie Pulse? Ghosts are using cell phone networks to attack people. When did ghosts become tech savvy? In fact the entire ghost / technology interaction genre makes entirely no sense to me and thus is a scare fail.
@Swearengen: I feel the same way about Damien from Oman. Just put the creepy, weird little sod on Prozac or Ritalin or something and send him to military school. He's no worse or different than any other sullen, over-indulged brat nowadays. #horror
mekki promoted this comment
brentbent: C.O.C.K.R.O.A.C.H. )for all the queer super villians out there( was starred
brentbent: C.O.C.K.R.O.A.C.H. )for all the queer super villians out there( was unstarred
"there is an entire subgenre of scary stories, like the Left Behind franchise, which is only scary for religious Christians"
Maybe the reason you were left unscared by Left Behind isn't because it was a Christian movie but because it wasn't a horror movie to begin with. It's a disaster movie, like The Day After Tomorrow and 2012, which also isn't a horror movie. In fact, why are you judging non-horror movies against a horror movie standard? Godzilla? Reign of Fire? Yes, they have their scary moments and frightening characters but they are not horror movies. And if they fail at horror it's still okay because they can rely on their true genre categories (drama, adventure, sci-fi and what not) to make up for them. They are not failures. For example, The Joker is scary but in no way shape or form would The Dark Knight ever be called a horror movie.
And, yes, The Exorcist is still scary. You don't need to believe in God to find a girl's head doing a 360 disturbing. Just like you don't need to believe in Elves in real life to buy the drama in Lord of The Rings. #horror
@mekki: while I would hold that Exorcist has held up remarkably well, reality would seem to disagree. I saw the rerelease in the theater, what.... 7 years ago? Anyway, aside from a very loud phone ring that got an honest jump from people, most of the scares elicited laughs from the audience. Granted, it was a mostly urban audience you spent a lot of time yelling back at the screen, but the masses were no longer scared or shocked. #horror
@DragonsDream: The same can be said for Paranormal Activity. Depending on the crowd, you either had a lot of people screaming at the scary parts and shivering silently in between or cracking jokes and laughing the whole way through.
Does that mean that Paranormal Activity is not scary because you were with the crowd that was laughing all the way through? To you it might.
But to the other crowd that was shacking in their boots, PA is horrifying. The same thing goes with The Exorcist. I am sure if you saw it with a different crowd, you'd probably get a different reaction. #horror
11/02/09
Now, compare that to The Ring. I saw that in a run-down dollar theater with a group of friends. The theater screwed up and didn't have the 2nd reel ready so at one point the movie just stopped. Someone quipped, "so in 7 days are we going to ....?" and the audience laughed nervously. 10 minutes later they resumed the movie ... and we were all still drawn into it and creeped out. Of course, that theater was a scary place and could have been the setting for a horror movie in its own right. (Here's how weird it was: on top of decaying velvet curtains and ripped up seats, the mens room was tiled in black and dark robin's egg blue; even the urinals were BLUE. We asked the women with us after seeing that and they went into the women's room and came out a few minutes later. They reported the women's bathroom was black and dark salmon-pink. It was all just so Not Right.) #horror
11/01/09
TO THE POINT WHERE I COULD COUNT DOWN TO THE BOO MOMENT!
it remains to be decided whether 'event horizon' or 'alice's restaurant' is the worse of the two, but it is not at all in doubt that these are two of the worst films ever in the history of ever. #horror
10/31/09
Watching Sarah Connor's wordless, escalating distress develop, as each day she realises, that today may be the day that initiates the leukaemia that she is 'fated' to die from and that she is as duty-bound to her course of action, as she is to her cyborg 'daughter' and her carcinogenic time-bomb of an internal nuclear powercell, is as viscerally effective as the rope-bound Antarctic scientists, awaiting the result of the 'alien blood test' in The Thing.
All the more so, because just as the 'result' in The Thing arrives (like The Spanish Inquisition) when you least expect it, in TSCC the result is 'inevitable' and the 'cause' is unknown.
It evokes the same kind of universal, primal, body horror that the invasive 'portal installation' in Existenz and being eaten alive by the bear in The Edge do.
That last one is often overlooked, but Anthony Hopkins's unstopable, logic-driven, eidetic 'bookworm' (that was the film's original title) billionaire, is truly a science fiction creation.
One of us! One of us! #horror
10/31/09
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11/01/09
11/01/09
10/31/09
The winner there has the be The Blair Witch Project. I hated every one of those whiny, contemptible morons.
-Kle. #horror
10/31/09
10/31/09
10/31/09
10/31/09
Just the latest in a long line of vaguely disturbing software glitches in io9 comment land.
Tension rises,
An-ti-ci-pation ratchets,
'Filled with torpor' (lol @annalee) I no longer am.
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked,
This way comes.
10/31/09
10/31/09
It's not April Fools - it's Halloween! #horror
10/31/09
10/31/09
10/31/09
With regards to Mothman... that's actually one of the more scary movies I've seen. But the caveat is that I dislike horror movies. I really hate having my flight or fight reflex toyed with. Instead of feeling the rush other people get, I get angry, and feel like I want to punch someone's fucking lights out (not that I actually would)... and that's disturbing to me, so I avoid them. So pychologically, Mothman really got under my skin... it's about as much horror as I'm willing to tolerate.
As you say, horror is highly personal. #horror
10/31/09
10/30/09
That, to me at least, was what made that film scary.
Plus, Nina Sharp when she was young and hot and had both arms.
10/31/09
10/30/09
10/31/09
10/30/09
10/31/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
Maybe the reason you were left unscared by Left Behind isn't because it was a Christian movie but because it wasn't a horror movie to begin with. It's a disaster movie, like The Day After Tomorrow and 2012, which also isn't a horror movie. In fact, why are you judging non-horror movies against a horror movie standard? Godzilla? Reign of Fire? Yes, they have their scary moments and frightening characters but they are not horror movies. And if they fail at horror it's still okay because they can rely on their true genre categories (drama, adventure, sci-fi and what not) to make up for them. They are not failures. For example, The Joker is scary but in no way shape or form would The Dark Knight ever be called a horror movie.
And, yes, The Exorcist is still scary. You don't need to believe in God to find a girl's head doing a 360 disturbing. Just like you don't need to believe in Elves in real life to buy the drama in Lord of The Rings. #horror
10/31/09
11/02/09
Does that mean that Paranormal Activity is not scary because you were with the crowd that was laughing all the way through? To you it might.
But to the other crowd that was shacking in their boots, PA is horrifying. The same thing goes with The Exorcist. I am sure if you saw it with a different crowd, you'd probably get a different reaction. #horror
10/30/09