HORROR MOVIE ETIQUETTE: little kids are scary + THE PURPOSE OF HORROR MOVIES??

[bigtimecow]

NOT
i can't stand seeing horror films that use this element; i only say this because i just saw a trailer for "mirrors" and what do you know, THE LITTLE KID'S REFLECTION DOESN'T MOVE WHEN HE DOES AND HE CHUCKLES OH MAN

HORRIFUCKINGFYING

[wobzire]

Kids are just useless.

[Dimnos]

No kids have one use. They make a great excuse when you when you want to get the hell out of someplace/thing. "oh i would love to <what the F ever> but i have to get home and check on the kid"

[wobzire]

My bad. Kids are at least as useful as a puppy.

[Dimnos]

Now i wouldnt go that far. Puppies are much more useful.

[liquidstatik]

kids have one use.

;)

[Guitar Woman]

:lol

[Dimnos]

lol Im not talking about the gary glitter use

[Cherry Nirvana]

I hate watching horror movies with the so-called "creepy little kids". They're more annoying than they are horrifying. Makes me want to kick them.

[JJ_Maniac]

"Home Alone" should be considered a horror movie. That Macaulkay Culkin is the stuff of nightmares

[darkvare]

if i was in a horror movie i would shield myself with a kid they almost never die

[WhiteRat]

"Home Alone" should be considered a horror movie. That Macaulkay Culkin is the stuff of nightmares

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAwyd4jh_x4

Close enough.

[bigtimecow]

something else about horror movies that i've thought about lately:

typically i am disappointed after i watch horror movies because i watch movies for two reasons pretty much, either to be funny / fun or to have a compelling story / characters / development blah blah blah. i'm just wondering the purpose of horror films: is it to have a compelling story + scary elements (in order to classify it as horror) or is it just to be scared? or is it for gore? is it for fun?

i know each horror movie can be classified differently; for instance, the ALIEN movies have scary elements but are also full of action and a pretty good story, but then you get movies like the grudge / the ring / shutter / one missed call etc. that seem to be all about scaring the viewer rather than actually telling a good story

i dunno, did i answer my own question? is there more to the horror genre than i actually know? FUCK >:

[Zomboid]

The purpose of horror movies is hard to define when you consider utter trash like all of these sequels and remakes as horror. I think that the old classification for horror movies included a good story and managed to scare you as well, and that was great, because even if you didn't scare easily, you could at least enjoy the story. Some like Psycho, for instance, isn't all that scary nowadays, but it's still got a compelling story and there's a lot that you can appreciate about it. They used to be, and sometimes still are, treated with respect and care by the filmmakers and they genuinely wanted to put out something good.

That's not to say that schlock didn't exist in the "golden age" of horror movies either, but the vast majority of the movies coming out weren't all sequels, remakes, and rip-offs.

Then you can get into the FUN horror movies, like the evil dead series, dead alive, return of the living dead, etc. Those movies were still made well and again, the filmmakers put forth real effort into making them as enjoyable as possible. They're not the same as the more serious movies, but they're different and enjoyable in another way completely. Buckets of gore is great, but it still needs to be handled effectively and that's something that a lot of new movies fail to do. They just shovel in as much shitty dialogue, jump scares, music video camera effects, and gore as possible and hope to emulate the success of GOOD movies.

At least, that's what I think. Oh yeah, I'd classify Alien as Sci-Fi/Horror, and then everything after and including Aliens is Action/Sci-FI.

[bigtimecow]

well said Z, well said

[darkvare]

the purpose of horror movies this days is gore in my opinion how else would you justify the existance of the saw and hostel series

[bigtimecow]

i actually enjoy the saw series, although it is a bit hard to follow, but i like the story so far and of course the gore is fun. not really scary anymore though

hostel i can't say shit about because i only saw the first one and it was retarded

[Zomboid]

I liked the first Saw, but then it just got really fucking dumb. I like hostel for the fact that it was the first big movie in a long time to use traveling as a scary thing. Plus, aside from his bitching about people downloading Hostel 2, I like Eli Roth. Cabin Fever was entertaining and original and he seems to have an appreciation for the genre, instead of being one of those people at fucking Dark Castle who keeps churning out sub-par remakes like house on haunted hill.

[Krythor]

I remember Cabin Fever was really unpopular with this forum but I liked it then and I still like it now. It's original and genuinely funny. Again, alot of people here thought it was unintentionally funny but I don't think it was. There's no way you can argue that a movie that bothers to set up that racist end credits joke in the first 30 minutes isn't TRYING to be funny.

[ElPila666]

If you guys love gore and torture you should try Frontiere(s), is an horror french movie kind of like the hostel series

[Fathom Zero]

I liked Cabin Fever.

[darkvare]

cabin fever was nice i like final destination series they come up with such creative ways of killing people

[Zomboid]

:(

[bigtimecow]

cabin fever was nice i like final destination series they come up with such creative ways of killing people

some of them may be "creative" but the series is more funny than anything. a few notable scenes (i think both of these are from the first one):

when the kid decides to break up the pigeons and runs in like a retard and gets crushed by glass

at the gas station some kid lights a cigarette and ali larter slaps it out of his hand and goes "what the fuck are you thinking?"
"i'm thinking... suck on my junk BIATCH"

:lol

[MattJack]

The only scary movie that has ever really gotten to me is The Exorcist. It just freaked me the fuck out, but I grew up Catholic so all that s*it hit close to home or somethin

Every "horror" film I've seen since, idk, age 14, has just been a gore-fest. Seeing people get their shit cut off or thrown in front of a speeding microwavable oven just doesn't do it for me. A horror movie, to me, has to bu*t fu*k you psychologically.

Im jus sayn

[MattJack]

PS
Yeah little kids aren't scary in the slightest, or demented dudes with axes or cleavers. b-o-r-i-n-g

[Krythor]

I agree about the Exorcist. It annoys me when people say they found it funny rather than scary, but imply that most typical horror garbage isn't. I think it's a case of people trying hard to take themselves out of the movie, latching onto the absurdity for humour either out of a need for non-conformity, misplaced bravado or to prove they don't watch that old shit. They're probably the same kind of people I meet who are LOTR fans who irrationally refuse to watch the original Star Wars movies; BUT THAT'S A WHOLE OTHER ARGUMENT I guess.

The Exorcist was absurd and over the top, but what's scary about it to me is what's not shown. There's a creepy implication that the devil or whatever it is is just lurking around in the air, watching everything. It's almost a disease, which is just WEIRD.

[Guitar Woman]

I seem to remember The Shining having a few elements you guys are complaining about and it still being a good movie in the traditional sense, but that's probably because of the fucking phenominal cinematography and direction. That's one of three horror movies I enjoyed for reasons other than Ed Wood levels of camp, the other two being Jacob's Ladder (despite the ridiculously cheesy message) and Alien.


Also.

http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/9836/shiningfk1.jpg

[liquidstatik]

you wrote all that jlust to show that picture huh?

[wobzire]

So worth it.

[Guitar Woman]

two sentences is a lot of words liquidstatik

[Fathom Zero]

Normally, numbers are spelled-out unless it is 100 or more.

The first Saw was terrible. But the second one was the one that surprised me. I didn't expect the twist. I wasn't scared, but I was intrigued. The only movies that scare me are the ones that unintentionally preyed on my fears, like Twister and Little Nemo.

Now they're my favorite movies.

[TuxKamen]

For years, the only films that would give me nightmares after seeing them (or, in some cases, just seeing the advertisements for them) were zombie movies... which put me in a tough predicament, since zombie movies were always my mom's favorite. In the case of the previously mentioned Japanese remakes (Grudge, Ring, One Missed Call, etc.), I tend to enjoy the Japanese versions a bit better... there seems to be more plot to them there than the American versions, IMO.

[MetalMilitia]

While I agree that the "creepy evil kid" is becoming a pretty lame cliché I suspect that's more down to lazy, unimaginative film making that an inherent lameness of kids in horror films. The same goes for gore - it's not that it can't still be shocking, it's just that films like SAW have been too stupid to utilise it correctly.

A year ago I don't think I could've justified this opinion but when The Orphange came out it showed that creepy-ghost-kids are indeed still scary and that gore, if used correctly, can still be shocking; case in point, the old lady getting her face ruined by a bus.