spaceSuicide's Horrortastic Horrific Horror Film Thread...Of Horror!

[elevenism]

i don't understand what was so good about "it follows."

it wasn't BAD, but why the big hype? i suspect it's kind of like "omg, horror movies are stupid but this one isn't! it has like, a theme, and metaphors and shit!"

and THAT's why the critics go nuts. same reason they went nuts for the babadook (which was actually scary.)

also, 6 months of hype and searching for a way to see "it follows" had me thinking it was gonna just blow my mind.

that happens.

what i LOVED about "it follows" was the whole eighties throwback aesthetic, ESPECIALLY the music, by this cat called Disasterpeace.

But horror movies don't NEED themes and metaphors. that's not why most of us watch them.

[Space Suicide]

But horror movies don't NEED themes and metaphors. that's not why most of us watch them.

Doesn't hurt sometimes when you have mindless sequel drivel junk like Friday the the 13th series does. I think like the first two or three are worth a shit. Everything after was vapid bullshit I could give two fucks about.

[Swykk]

4 is the best Friday the 13th. If you haven't seen it, remedy that ASAP. 6 is fun too.

i think It Follows was awesome. While slashers can be great, sometimes horror can use plot and theme, there's room for everything as long as it's well done.

[Khrz]

But horror movies don't NEED themes and metaphors. that's not why most of us watch them.

Maybe not necessarily metaphors, but I do appreciate it when a horror movie tries to at least be clever about it... Otherwise it becomes old quite quickly, menace menace maniac undead slaughter butcher death twist and cut...

[elevenism]

Maybe not necessarily metaphors, but I do appreciate it when a horror movie tries to at least be clever about it... Otherwise it becomes old quite quickly, menace menace maniac undead slaughter butcher death twist and cut...

i agree with the both of you, and i'm certainly not trying to come off as a fool here. @Space Suicide , i don't like friday the 13th at all. ALL slasher and torture porn flicks are mindless drivel in my mind. @Khrz , i definitely like clever flicks.

But i watch movies like No Country For Old Men and Inception, and, hell, MOST of the other movies that i watch to feel that spark of mental literary criticism, to realize deeper themes and meanings and pick out symbolism. The more of that type of shit there is, the better i like it.
That, for me, is what separates great movies from good ones.

What i'm saying is, i watch horror movies because i wish to be scared.
I get into paranormal horror. I don't grade it on the discussion worthy plot elements or allusions.
In the horror movies i like, the idea is that there is some sort of ghost or demon.
And that motherfucker is HORRIFYING.
Is the conjuring clever? is insidious, or paranormal activity?
To me, they aren't. They are just SCARY. There is some unknowable evil lurking in the shadows and its very existence and attempts to interact with humans is WRONG and disturbs my sense of what reality should be.

THAT to me is a good horror movie.

Now, It Follows was extremely clever with its std allegory. But it didn't scare me. Not a little bit. Not for one second.

The Babadook was great. It managed to create a monster that was actually scary and ALSO served as a great metaphor for the woman's depression and its effect on her child. But the metaphor wasn't what made me like it. I liked it because the titular BAAAbaaaaaDOOOOOOOK! scared the shit out of me.

So anyway, i don't know, to me it's almost like horror movies shouldn't even be reviewed the same way as regular movies.

If i'm asking you if a horror movie is good, i'm asking you if it's SCARY, not about it's intellectual merits, you know?
And don't get me wrong, i'll take allegory and symbolism and, hell, changing narrative distance, whatever you wanna throw at me. That's great, as long as the flick is still scary.

When i hear all this massive hype about a horror movie, i expect it to be because that shit was terrifying.
And that's why "it follows" kind of let me down.
It was a good movie. It just wasn't scary or disturbing on any level.

by the way
menace, menace maniac, undead slaughter, butcher death, twist and cut...?

menace menace, maniac undead slaughter, butcher death twist, and cut...?

lolz. you can slice that one up a few different ways.

[Khrz]

When i hear all this massive hype about a horror movie, i expect it to be because that shit was terrifying.
And that's why "it follows" kind of let me down.
It was a good movie. It just wasn't scary or disturbing on any level.

Well, that's an entirely subjective problem here. It has less to do with what horror movies should be, and more with what you expect from them. Some people will think Guardians of the Galaxy is the epitome of science-fiction, and some other will point to 2001...
Personally I'm not interested in horror, fantasy is my thing. The Twilight Zone is my starting point. I don't care about violence, I loathe torture, and I see death as an unavoidable yet unnecessary trope.
Horror, as a genre, is to me the opportunity to explore the dark parts of our comprehension, those fears and questions for which we have no vocabulary, no real narrative. Every other genre explores a different set of human emotions, for which we have a clear map by now. Horror (since actual fantasy is pretty much a dead genre by now) is the opportunity to explore what's beyond that map, the "here be dragons" of the human condition. On that regard, I found Under The Skin amazing for instance.
That's also why I find most horror movies underwhelming eventually ; because I want my fix of eldritch mystery, only to find out it's all just another revenant/monster/psycho being all evil and bloodthirsty. Not that it surprises me, but by the time the movie has come to this, I have already explored its premise on my own with more satisfying results. As I said, it's subjective. It has its exceptions, the first Evil Dead blew my mind, because although it was about evil spirits/demons, it felt completely aimless, random, with no agenda other than having a wee bit of lethal fun with those lesser creatures stuck in a cabin with them. I thought Paranormal Activity was good, because for a long while it's just normal life going subtly wrong, details being slightly off, things that could actually happen in your life and that you brush off in a few seconds, like that time when a whole row of books fell off my shelf in the middle of the night.
On the other hand, a friend of mine hated Blair Witch because those campers were scared of a bunch of faggots (no pun intended, it's simply how he described the stick figures and that pun doesn't work in french anyway).
Just like critics expect Sci-fi movies to be more than spaceship dogfights and space cadets or Romance to be more than the main protagonist reaching third base, they want horror movies to be more than jump scares. I'm not saying that's what you expect from them obviously, just laying down the rationale behind the high praises movies like It Follows tend to get.