Where have all the good horror movies gone ?

[stingger]

Glad to see its universal....here (dare I say)
most theatres seem to have a floor covered in sticky coke and pretty drab standards of seating.

I do have to admit it has to be a very special movie to get me out of my front door, in my opinion standing in gunk, sitting in ill fitting seats and being surrounded by fidgiting strangers
and the smell of the popcorn machine over heating half way through the movie .... I offten think "why did I pay ?5 for this?" then realise "its the Cinema experience" just does'nt cut it for me.

[crazy a]

I don't think it's so much "where have the good horror movies gone?" as much as "where has the feeling gone?"

By this, I mean that there's more to a horror movie than a good (or bad) mask/makeup. There's more to it than a slashing knife and pouring blood all over the place (although that has its place too, if done well). And there's a helluva lot more to it than a bunch of pretty screaming teenagers.

I haven't seen the TCM remake yet, but I somehow feel I'd get better creeps watching the original. It has a certain look, a certain FEEL. Some years ago I was up late and decided to watch NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. The black-and-white one from 1968. You know the scene where the undead guy is wandering around the cemetary in the beginning? That alone creeps me out. I had to turn it off, it got to me that much.

PSYCHO is one I'll watch every time. Hitchcock knew how to put a little fear into you.

I think the last "scary" movie I saw was THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW, about voodoo and turning people into zombies. I don't recall much blood in it, and the zombies weren't rotting hunks of flesh. But psychologically, it really worked a number on me. And perhaps that's the problem: the audience actually sees the kill and the blood, there's not enough there for the mind to amplify. The final death scene in THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT: I watched it in my well-lit living room and that ending really gave me the heebie-jeebies.

I'd like to see HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES because from the few interviews I've read, Rob Zombie seems to have the right idea as to what makes a movie scary.

The silent movies PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI. NOSFERATU. Nothing today can beat Max Schrek in that movie. Nothing.

And yeah, there was a period I was really into horror, buying Fangoria and Gorezone every month. Studying the horror film. Maybe I should get back into it....