There are many horror fans that believe the genre has seen better days and perhaps they’re right, but the real beauty of horror is simply how versatile and innovative it can often be, especially when things get tough. It’s a genre that can reinvent itself again and again for every generation, and whilst there are those critics out there that often dismiss familiar horror tropes and themes, it’s usually because there has been a game-changing movie from the past that quite literally changed everything.
And so, equalling or bettering such a classic horror can be challenging but now with modern filmmaking the way it is does this have an impact on how we now produce horror?
Back in the 1920’s right through to the 50’s audiences were treated to an endless stream of classic Hollywood horror. Universal was at the forefront of the genre pushing several classic Hollywood monsters into theatres to shock and terrify unsuspecting audiences around the world. But whilst the likes of Frankenstein and Dracula were putting the frighteners up everyone brave enough to witness the black and white terror on the big screen, it’s no surprise to find that such efforts these days don’t exactly command a great deal of respect when it comes to marking up the fear factor.
The main drawback that horror has is how it can keep surprising audiences. It’s certainly a genre of film that has created and replicated huge numbers of specific clichés and tropes over the years, and breaking away from this has become quite a difficult task for many filmmakers to achieve successfully.
That’s not to say that there is a lack of originality in the market because there are many modern horrors that have rewritten the rule book such as ‘The Blair Witch Project’, which is arguably the first real mainstream found footage project that helped kick off a whole new sub-genre of horror. Whilst movies like Wes Craven’s ‘Scream’ even found a tongue-in-cheek way of tearing down these classic formulas whilst still surprising the viewer.
Creating new and fresh ways in which to shock or scare an audience is by far the biggest challenge. This, coupled with the fact that horror itself is often the go-to genre for low-budget independent productions, means that the market is quite literally swamped with horror titles. The vast majority pop up on demand or head straight to DVD, so falling comfortably back into tried and tested scare tactics more often than not seems to be the way to go.
It’s a difficult task and modern audiences are less inclined to be sympathetic to the cause. Many online tributes, such as Europalace’s Top Horror Movies List, tend to feature classic titles that many have grown up with including ‘Jaws’, slasher movies like ‘Halloween’ and terrifying supernatural efforts like Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’.
All of these movies are standout horrors and even to this day sit aloft any list in their own field. Subsequent sequels, remakes and efforts paying homage to these types of horror classics fall extremely short because they are trying too hard to repeat and replicate that previous success.
