Stephen King: Why Hollywood Rarely Does Horror Right

[J_UNTITLED]

- "One thing that seems clear to me, looking back at the 10 or a dozen films that truly scared me, is that most really good horror films are low-budget affairs with special effects cooked up in someone's basement or garage. Among those that truly work are Carnival of Souls, Halloween, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Night of the Living Dead, and The Blair Witch Project. All cost almost nothing to make and earned millions, while their sequels and remakes were crap (Dawn of the Dead in both its incarnations being the exception that proves the rule).

Horror is an intimate experience, something that occurs mostly within oneself, and when it works, the screams of a sold-out house are almost intrusive. "

See whole article From EW.com (Entertainment Weekly, The Pop of King)


Agree? Disagree? Discuss.

[Charles3669]

Agree 100%

[bkbluray]

Agree. Very good article. King is my favorite author (esp. his older stuff). I want to see The Strangers! Too bad the theatres around me are all just showing the huge summer blockbusters.

[GORT]

Intersting since most of the movie adaptations of his books are not what I would call great horror movies.

[bkbluray]

Originally Posted by FEP3108

Intersting since most of the movie adaptations of his books are not what I would call great horror movies.

lol that is very ironic.

[EricJ]

As much as I would normally punch in the face anyone who says "Discuss." (MAKE me, wimp ), King does have a point:

We consciously or subconsciously like a horror movie if it resembles our nightmares, and fact is...our nightmares are low-budget.
With fuzzy sound, shaky camera, remote washed-out locations, few extras, weird angles and handheld POV chases, and a quickly thrown together story that doesn't even try to make sense but creeps you out and gets right to the point.

One of the prime annoyances of the current horror-remake craze, is that they try so hard to "pay tribute" to the old films, they dress them up in adoring finery--
Relocating stalked suburban babysitters in Rockies vacation dream-cabins, turning high school prom nights into 5-star hotel Paris-Hilton bashes, and William Castle haunted-houses into art-deco gold-and-glass...
Horror is simply not something you can throw money at--Wealth is too comforting.

[Clark Kent]

The real problem is that Hollywood rarely commits a decent budget to most Horror projects. It's viewed by many studio executives as junk cinema mainly aimed at teenagers. When Hollywood figured out they could make a lot more money churning out PG-13 Horror movies it has almost ruined the genre.

[J_UNTITLED]

Originally Posted by EricJ

With fuzzy sound, shaky camera, remote washed-out locations, few extras, weird angles and handheld POV chases, and a quickly thrown together story that doesn't even try to make sense but creeps you out and gets right to the point.

I think there has to be a happy medium somewhere in there as there is such a thing as too shaky of a camera, too fuzzy of sound and/or too weird of angles... to say the absolute least.


Also, I would disagree that it's better when the story of a horror film doesn't make or attempt to make much actual sense or logic.


Really, it just all depends on what the movie itself is trying to go for and if it succeeds.

[jadedeath]

Hollywood shows the monster too quickly.

Either that, or they just won't give me a budget for my new and sick idea of "The Hills have Eyes: The Musical"

Logan

[theprophecy247]

interesting, but agreeable look at the exorcist

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Originally Posted by jadedeath

Hollywood shows the monster too quickly.

Either that, or they just won't give me a budget for my new and sick idea of "The Hills have Eyes: The Musical"

Logan

LMAO!!! If you need help with that one, let me know. I could definitely scare people easily with my singing "ability."

[Roland1919]

Originally Posted by J_UNTITLED

See whole article From EW.com (Entertainment Weekly, The Pop of King)


Agree? Disagree? Discuss.

Have to agree but WOLF CREEK was awesome and suprised me at the end. Love this movie. Ranks up there with the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

[jadedeath]

Originally Posted by Petra_Kalbrain

LMAO!!! If you need help with that one, let me know. I could definitely scare people easily with my singing "ability."

If you know people who can get budgets for this sort of thing, I've got scripts. *LOL*

Logan

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by bkbluray

Agree. Very good article. King is my favorite author (esp. his older stuff). I want to see The Strangers! Too bad the theatres around me are all just showing the huge summer blockbusters.

The Strangers developed more tension and stress in me than any movie since I was a child watching Psycho or The Birds.

Sadly, it had possibly the worst ending for a horror film that I can remember.

[jadedeath]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

The Strangers developed more tension and stress in me than any movie since I was a child watching Psycho or The Birds.

Sadly, it had possibly the worst ending for a horror film that I can remember.

Watch High Tension, that'll change your mind right quick.

Logan

[nick1091]

For the most part, I agree with what King had to say.

Someone once told me that the key to comedy is the regular turned absurd. That's close, in my opinion, to really effective horror.

Take something like Halloween. Many people have a fear of being home, essentially alone, in a dark house. What could be waiting for you behind that door, or up the stairs? It's almost a universal feeling. Now what do you do when there really is someone/thing there? You exploit a natural point of unease in your viewer and build the tension.

I think the problem with most modern horror is that they remove or quicken that build-up, so you almost don't have a chance to be scared with what lays behind the shadows. Instead, they cheapen it with jump scenes and false scares punctuated with punch music blasts, before some CGI-created monster leaps out to almost zero reaction.

There is though, the rare occasion when they build up the tension sufficiently, and then screw the pooch when it comes to the actual monster - Jeepers Creepers, I'm looking at you. The first half hour of that movie fantastically built the tension, then it all went downhill.

[Nameless Evil]

Originally Posted by Clark Kent

The real problem is that Hollywood rarely commits a decent budget to most Horror projects. It's viewed by many studio executives as junk cinema mainly aimed at teenagers. When Hollywood figured out they could make a lot more money churning out PG-13 Horror movies it has almost ruined the genre.

QFT

It bums me out that film adaptations of my favorite horror author (H.P. Lovecraft) has been piss-poor and geared toward a demographic (teenagers) who have no clue who HPL was or how good his books were.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by nick1091

I think the problem with most modern horror is that they remove or quicken that build-up, so you almost don't have a chance to be scared with what lays behind the shadows. Instead, they cheapen it with jump scenes and false scares punctuated with punch music blasts, before some CGI-created monster leaps out to almost zero reaction.

For the sake of trivia, the fakeout "jump" scene in a horror movie is traditionally referred to by directors as a "Bus".

This will make absolutely no sense to people who have never seen the original Val Lewton "Cat People" whose scene it was named after, and where it was first, best, and, more importantly, realistically used.

[Rob71]

Originally Posted by Nameless Evil

QFT

It bums me out that film adaptations of my favorite horror author (H.P. Lovecraft) has been piss-poor and geared toward a demographic (teenagers) who have no clue who HPL was or how good his books were.

Have you seen The Call Of Cthulhu?

http://www.amazon.com/Call-Cthulhu-Celebrated-Story-Lovecraft/dp/B000BQTC98/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1215480825&sr=1-2