Why do horror movies suck? I know why!

It appears the new generations of moviegoers are being desensitized to much of what we try to scare people with in horror movies nowadays.

However, I'll give a couple of examples of some truly horrifying situations/good camera work/inventive ideas.


1. It was one of the Freddy movies, I can't remember which, but it's where the girl is running up the stairs and they turn to marshmallow. For me, this is one of my biggest fears, having my progress slowed down while trying to escape from something that wants me dead. Granted, I was a kid when I saw this, so of course it's going to be scarier. But if I'm running away from something in one of my nightmares, it always seems as though there is something trying to slow me down. My muscles fatigue easily, I move extremely slow, I keep falling off my bike or I can't get the car started. There's always something preventing you from getting away. That's a fear of mine.


2. Hostel. I know, I know. Lots of people didn't like this movie, but I think there's one scene in the movie that stands out from all the rest from a perspective of good cinema. When the main character's friend (I can't remember their names) wakes up in the torture room after being out the night before partying. The only thing you see is what the character sees. Everything is black except for this one small hole, you know he has something over his head. He's looking around and you can hear his breath quicken: he's inside a dingy little room, one barely working lightbulb overhead, the walls are lined with all kinds of power tools and knives and various cutting objects used for surgery. He sees the door open and some man in hospital scrubs with a big plastic apron on comes walking through the door, looking over the various utensils.

That's a really good scene out of an average movie, in my opinion. If you put yourself into that situation, tell me you wouldn't be shitting yourself. This is what's missing from a lot of horror films nowadays, in my opinion. The lack of personal fear.
Everyone is different, we all have different things that make us cringe or want to look away. Films play too much on gore, to which we are mostly desensitized, at least I know I am. They also are based too much on the supernatural thriller type, which is a byproduct of converting the old Japanese/Korean horror films of the same kind. The Ring did it well, but they should have stopped there. I also believe the Ring had the best "scary picture/scary sound out of the blue" moment, when they showed that girl in the closet with her face sucked thin and her skin all green and stretched out. I admit it, that part got me good. I was actually glad it did, because that means that I haven't been completely desensitized.

Also,they are just recycling old movies. the horror remake market is insane, and every single one of them sucks. Period. If you disagree, you're wrong. The second problem is the explosion of the "torture porn". Stories are barely a byproduct of the violence anymore. it's a constant string of how violent and disturbing can we make every scene in this movie. movies like the haunting(the original, bastards) frightened me far more than any of the modern horrors, and you never once see anything in that movie but some bending doors. Kids don't want to use their imagination anymore, just show us everything in all it's cgi glory! I like letting my twisted imagination do some of the work to scare me...


I think horror movies started playing to a general audience rather than play on a specific fear, object, or idea that would make a more niche crowd truly scared. The idea of getting big returns on films is the driving force behind most of the film industry today, and that eliminates trying to play on a specific fear that would genuinely make a lot of people cringe. Or maybe we are just desensitized to everything and the only way to "scare" us is with startle tactics of throwing shit up on screen that you otherwise wouldn't see coming and using the painfully overused "creepy kid" character. I don't know why they think this would scare anyone. Personally it makes me want to run up and ring the little fuckers' neck rather than run AWAY from them.

I'm done.