A Suggestion for Writers of Horror Movies

[blas87]

Oh, the low budget horror movies are the worst. You don't need big name actors or a billion dollars to make a great movie, and that's been proven, but if you can't afford the technology or the special effects, please, don't do it.

Anyone who is familiar with Family Video's yearly collections of Horrorfest films, every year, it gets worse and worse. I stopped renting any of them last year. I mean, it just gets so cheap, so disgusting, so weird.....you can't even stand to watch the horrific acting and cheap effects.

[Hyena Dandy]

Horror movies are right now a victim of an annoying trend in a lot of movies.

Basically, being made by someone to be in the style of something they didn't UNDERSTAND the success of.

Look, obviously, at remakes. The best horror movie I've seen in a while (in theatres) was Scream 4. Not scary, but made me think more than any other. And the sequence where the killer is beating themselves up is really, REALLY disturbing. It had an interesting scene where one character is playing the trivia game from the original movie (guess the movies or I kill your boyfriend).

The killer says "Name the remake of the groundbreaking horror movie that-"

And the actress takes a deep breath and spends literally 15-20 seconds naming remakes. And NONE of those remakes were very good.

They didn't understand what made the originals scary.

[BlaqueKatt]

They didn't understand what made the originals scary.

Or they changed them to make the "villan/killer/monster" more human, um no it was scary because it wasn't the guy next door. Jason Voorhees would not keep a hostage, Fred Krueger was a transient(more or less), not someone who worked at a daycare, and had a secret room with pictures of his victims.

I've also been reading a lot of "zombie apocalypse" novels, and the main character is ALWAYS, a former soldier with combat experience/police officer, an expert in numerous martial arts, a former eagle scout, a sniper, and a survivalist. The protagonists wife/girlfriend/kids are all crack shots with weapons(or have a "knack" for getting perfect headshots as soon as they grab a firearm the first time), and no one ever breaks down from stress/injury(they also manage to survive horrible injuries in the midst of the collapse of society-one book even had a protagonist have to cut off his own hand, but he found an abandoned heavily fortified compound, with a cache of weapons, and the children he was with, yes children, who had supposedly been half-starved and watched their parents get eaten, managed to become expert shots within a day, as in never missing a headshot, I really don't think a five-year old is really capable of that), and they always save a group of women from marauders. It's absurd.

[Greenday]

Since starting Shitty Movie Night(TM), I've picked up on a lot of trends. Basically we watch horror movies, then rip on them the entire time. It's quite fun.

One thing I'd like to see a horror movie do? Have someone bleed from the mouth...and not die. That's surprise the hell out of me.

[Gravekeeper]

One thing I'd like to see a horror movie do? Have someone bleed from the mouth...and not die. That's surprise the hell out of me.

I like how *every* major or mortal injury results in bleeding from the mouth. Its never a horrible, wheezing, coughing I've punctured a lung and actually have a reason for horking up blood either. Its always a dainty, singular droplet. Unless its a bad guy. Then he'll act like a 4 year old with a mouthful of Koolaid trying to gross out his sister.

[blas87]

You guys want to see a really, really bad low budget movie? Rent "Clear Lake, Wisconsin"

No, it's not a true story. No, that town is not abandoned. The quality of the actors and the budget itself was probably less than the first Paranormal Activity movie.

That, or Beauty and the Beast, a Dark Tale. Some movies just should NOT be made. How cheap. There are probably college film classes with better quality than that.

I mean, I hated those movies so much, I wanted to dump them in the river so that no one else would waste two hours of their lives on them.

[Mytical]

Another little peeve. Dark is good, I like the dark in monster movies..but please keep in mind the line between Dark..and really really dark. You know, where you really can't see anything, and not in the 'its supposed to be spooky way', but the "Ok was that a rabbit or a goat?' type of way. Guess it falls into the cheap effects thing, but lets at least see what is going on..even if it is "Hey I can't see whatever is attacking us!"

[DrFaroohk]

Another little peeve. Dark is good, I like the dark in monster movies..but please keep in mind the line between Dark..and really really dark. You know, where you really can't see anything, and not in the 'its supposed to be spooky way', but the "Ok was that a rabbit or a goat?' type of way. Guess it falls into the cheap effects thing, but lets at least see what is going on..even if it is "Hey I can't see whatever is attacking us!"

Yes, dark movies are a pain in the ass. I'd rather there be light. And whoever is holding the camera...don't just flash it around. It's obviously worse in the home video movies like cloverfield, but even some others the camera is just zipping around...who the hell thought that was a good idea??

[Gravekeeper]

Yes, dark movies are a pain in the ass. I'd rather there be light. And whoever is holding the camera...don't just flash it around. It's obviously worse in the home video movies like cloverfield, but even some others the camera is just zipping around...who the hell thought that was a good idea??

Honestly, anyone that uses shaky cam should just be stabbed in the thigh until they stop. I hate shaky cam so much. That and quick shots used to make things ( and actors ) seem faster than they are. Remember back when if you wanted a fast, martial arts type fighter, you had to get a martial arts type actor? Bruce Lee, Van Damme, Seagal, Norris, Chan, etc. Now you just use blur and use a bunch of quick cut shots on some wax chested meat head with 3 days of "sexy" stubble to make it seem like he's fast. -.-

[Lace Neil Singer]

Personally, I'd like to see more horror movies based on real life serial killers, but that's just me. I've seen a few of the existing ones; Dahmer, Gacy, Bundy and Monster; and they were better than a lot of made up horror movies I've seen.

I also would like it if horror movie writers would just quit with the following:

* Splashing gallons of blood around. Look, I understand that slashing someone with a knife is going to produce blood, but I've seen horror movies where characters get injuries like blunt trauma and the blood flows anyway. It's just gratitious.

* Trying to be as disgusting as possible, the whole "gross out" factor. A friend of mine watched Human Centipede and thought the move was shit, pun not intended, cuz of this. Basically a massive gross out factor, no plot, and no characters that he cared about. I'd be happy to watch a horror movie that had no gross out factor if it was genuinely scary and had no disgusting stuff tacked on to try and make it as nasty as possible to watch.

* Idiot characters. You start to hate the characters if they're basically brain dead and do cretinous things the whole time which land them in the mess they're in in the first place; like what guywithashovel said in his first post. You should be able to connect with them, so that you can see yourself in their role... rather than spending the whole movie shouting at the screen cuz the characters are being stupid.

* A strong plot. Sounds obvious, but a lot of horror movies seem to veto this in favour of a) gore and b) having big breasted actresses fling their clothes off. Which some people like, but I'm kind of fussy and prefer movies to have a good storyline. Yes, even horror movies.

[AdminAssistant]

Personally, I'd like to see more horror movies based on real life serial killers, but that's just me. I've seen a few of the existing ones; Dahmer, Gacy, Bundy and Monster; and they were better than a lot of made up horror movies I've seen.

Audiences handle gore/blood/sex much better than things that are truly psychologically disturbing. Scariest horror movie I've ever seen is Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer...not just because of the extremely graphic and realistic violence, but because it was just so...disturbing.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I've heard of that movie, but never seen it. I've read about the case in books and also the book so I don't think it would bother me overmuch. I see the point tho; people don't like to think too much about things that really happened.

[AdminAssistant]

I've read about the case in books and also the book so I don't think it would bother me overmuch.

At one point, one guy is beating up a dad while the other is molesting the mom. Kid runs in and they snap his neck.....and if that doesn't bother you, there's the scene where the guy tries to rape his sister. It's horrifying on a completely different level.

[Lace Neil Singer]

A lot of the books I've read have worse cases in detail; for example, a horrific but little known case known as the Incubis case. The guy broke into the houses of rich women, despite the best security money can buy; raped them, then shoved objects into their body orifices, packed their mouth and throat with dog shit, and left them to die of suffocation. A lot of pathology books have post mortem photos and/or photos taken of bodies in situ. Believe me, I'm not easily shocked. I just don't like stuff in horror movies that's either thrown in to gloss over the lack of a plot, gratitious or just basically disgusting and obviously there for gross out or shock factor.

[Mytical]

^ Lack of a real plot is a big peeve of mine. I've seen a few movies where the effects were a joke, the actors graduated from "No Acting talent University", and the gore/etc flowed...but it was half decent because of a decent (even if not realistic) plot. By not realistic I mean demons, etc. I've seen movies that had decent effects, etc that were basically ruined because of no plot.

Get me interested in the movie, and I can forgive the stupid stuff. The good stuff can not get me to forgive no plot however. I can suspend belief IF the movie is good.