The Modern Horror movie.

The modern horror movie has died. the over-commercialization and low-quality, high-profit belief has given us pieces of shit like The Grudge, The Ring, Funny Games, One Missed Call, When A Stranger Calls and countless sequels, remakes and adaptions that generally fall under lack-luster and general failure. The worst part is that these hack films make MILLIONS of fucking dollars. These shitty movies are directed by shitty horror directors who think that adding a suspenseful tune from Tyler Bates will cure all of the woes and problems with the movie. What the should do is rewrite the entire movie from top to bottom, but instead they add another million dollars towards marketing and hope for the best.

Soon the great directors and writers like George. A. Romero, Dario Argento, Sam Raami and Tobe Hooper will die and so will real horror movies. Then I'll end up being one of these fucking morons that go see the newest American adaption of a Japanese horror movie. I can already feel it. I can feel myself speaking valley-girl and walking out going "Oh my god, that was soooooo scary.", I fucking know it.


Recently I saw The Strangers. I didn't enjoy it, nor did I hate it. I note that the film makes adequate usage of walk-ons from nowhere and a generally good use of character. It's not a horror movie. it's another suspense-thriller about some nutty fucks who like killing people. Those type of things actually happen but Rob Zombie's depiction of nutty-killers with The Devil's Rejects makes The Strangers look completely sub-par.

It's truly the fans and the companies that ruin horror movies. The BEST horror movies are the Independent and British horror movies. These major companies ruin it because they want some fucking Casey Affleck motherfucker in the film and center the release, market and premise on the film on them when the director probably wants Casey Affleck to fuck off and do another Ocean's movie so he can make a good horror movie without the pressure of making Affleck the center of attention.

George A. Romero and Dario Argento are possibly the last living remnants of a old horror scene. Romero is the man who brought you Night Of The Living Dead (minus any remakes or Russo films). He followed up his cult masterpiece with the legendary Dawn Of The Dead in 1978 that told the story of a small
group of people living in a mall during a zombie invasion. It's widely considered to be one of the GREATEST horror movies of all time. It was original. He of course used his zombie aspect from NOTLD but in Dawn he thought of so many ways to kill zombies (including getting a head cut off by a helicopter propellor) as well as make compelling character progession that is nearly impossible to find these days.


It's not ALL grim in the world of horror movies though. There are quite a few great directions like Edgar Wright, Neil Marshall, Thomas Alfredson and many others who come from Europe and make genuinely great horror films that America cannot compete with.

Hopefully our American industries will see the quality over the quantity of tickets sold matters just a little.

Here's some great horror and suspense films likely to keep you entertained:

(Pre- 2000)

Night Of The Living Dead
Night Of The Living Dead (Tom Savini remake)
Dawn Of The Dead
Day Of The Dead
Evil Dead
Evil Dead 2
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Rosemary's Baby
Exorcist (duh)
Black Sabbath
Children Of The Corn
Psycho
Suspiria
The People Under The Stairs
IT (fuck you, I thought it was scary)
Seven
The Lost Boys
Re-Animator
Scanners
Silence Of The Lambs
Zombi 2
The Shining

(Post 2000)

Saw
Saw 2
Saw 3
(After that they just get stupid and you just want answers)
Feast
Descent
Slither
Ginger Snaps
August Undergrounds Mortum (fucking... just... yeah... just... fuck)
Shaun Of The Dead
Frailty

There are of course more great horror flicks and you're free to add some of your favorite via comments.

- Josh.