FUNTIME Productions: Is the HORROR genre...WASTED?

HOOORRRROOOORRR...

How's it going, folks.

It's pretty odd to say that, since I created this blog a couple of minutes ago...

Anyway, let's get this straight.

Horror.

Have you ever seen an old horror film? A classic maybe? How about "Evil Dead"? Or "The Exorcist"?

I have. And my friends have. Since we are all teenagers (I'm 16, by the way) we didn't see those films at theaters. We saw them at one of my pal's place...comfortable...

Do you know what we asked ourselves right after we saw them?

"WHAT THE #$"!&$&&#$%!#$?"

Oh, please, don't worry. I know how to appreciate a good old classic, and the genre doesn't matter...AT ALL! But my friends, and I'm sure many other teenagers nowadays, may ask themselves:

"Was this considered "scary" back in the day?!"

Okay now, let's be honest. If we saw any of those old horror films that scared the hell out of people in the 70's and 80's ("Evil Dead", "The Exorcist", "Child's Play", "Jaws" etc...) we'd probably laugh out loud.

And why's that?

Because that's just not scary NOWADAYS.

Back in the day, yeah, those were some of the scariest movies ever (in fact, some people I know are still scared of "The Exorcist"). But now, it's very rare to catch up a good horror movie.

For example, in the 70's, an atheist went into the theater to watch "The Exorcist". Three hours later he was already a believer.

Possession, exorcism, the devil, killer dolls, sharks...

Are these scary? Today...not at all.

What's the problem? Why has this changed?

In my opinion...the horror genre has wasted.

All those "jump moments" in which something "scary" appears on the screen and everyone in the theater jumps "scared"...that's not horror.

All those bad horror flicks that make horror movies look like comedies...that's not horror.

All those gory and violent scenes that consider themselves as "scary"...that's not horror.

These are the pencils pretending to be pens.

They think gore and jumps are scary, but they're not.

Do they have an effect on us?

Yes, of course they do.

Is it horror?

No, it's not.

A horror films's purpose is to SCARE people, and this has come one of the most difficult tasks in filmmaking nowadays.

Is there any hope for horror movies?

I do believe there is.

Can we rely on someone?

I do believe we can.

Who.......?

James Wan.

Let me explain something, alright.

He has directed "Saw" and "Insidious".

This kinda contradicts myself, right?

I mean, Insidious is filled with "jump moments" and "Saw" is basically what I just said before: Gore pretending to be Horror...Pencil pretending to be Pen.

Trust me, it's not that way.

First of all, I love "Insidious" because Mr. Wan relies on visuals to scare people. Whenever I see it I realize what he's doing. He doesn't rely a lot on the jump scenes to make a film scary. He pretty much relies on his characters, the story itself and, of course, the amazing visuals.

A lot of my friends say "Insidious" is one of the scariest stuff they've ever seen in their lives! "Why?", I ask them... Because...

Yeah. This scene scares the crap out of so many people. And even though it's a jump scene, I do still think the most "scary" thing here is the Red Faced Devil behind the man.

By the way, that's 0% CGI. There's no special effects. In fact it's only make up. Trust me, I've seen the Behind the Scenes footage and yeah, it is pretty awesome to see that Red Faced Devil hang out with the director and actors on the set.

Now, let's get to "Saw".

Wan directed "Saw", not "Saw II", nor "Saw III", nor "Saw IV", nor "Saw LXXXII" (82...). Yeah, he contributed with the making of some other Saw movies, but what he wanted to do, in fact, was a film about two guys trapped in a room.

To be honest, I loved "Saw", and I hated the sequels. Mainly because "Saw" doesn't have a lot of gory stuff, while his sequels do.

Another thing I love from Wan? Have you seen the budget with which he made "Saw" and "Insidious"? Less than 2 million dollars. He made two horror contemporary masterpieces (to my eyes) with a low budget, and those films made a hell of a lot of money!

Looking forward to "The Conjuring" and "Insidious: Chapter Two". I BELIEVE IN WAN!

Thanks for checking this entry. Leave a comment, let me know what would you like me to talk about on my next entry.