The rising number of horror movies in the US?

I really don't think there's any conspiracy behind horror movies in the U.S. I am a film maker and I want to tell you that there's a deticated following in our community and world of people who love and want to make horror films. It's the fact that horror movies speak to a certain group of people and are really cool to them so they want to emulate that and put their own spin on the genre. I personally am not a fan of horror films even though I recently just finished producing one. But the fact is in the entertainment world that horror films are a huge niche and a big money maker considering how far you can run with one and how much exposure you can get with no money or resources. The market for films has been expanded so much with the internet and dvd rentals that now instead of seeing cycles in the film industry, you're seeing niche markets that are constantly being fed new material. So in the horror genre, new films keep coming out and coming out because it makes money and gets exposure for new film makers. I don't think there's a conspiracy here, just a lot of crappy movies

[edit on 6-2-2007 by CuriousSkeptic]

Originally posted by andy1033
have you looked at imdb.com and there 100 worst rated films ever, an awful lot of the worst came in 2006, cannot remember how many came near the bottom.

hollywood just throws out so much trash these days. i try never to watch films with to much special effects, i.e made after 2000. they just do not entertain me.

horrors are a good example of the rubbish they bring out, people just want to see more and more gore, no ones frightened of anything anymore because of all the deconditioning.

That's because films are getting so much exposure today. With the internet, dvd stores, and programs like netfilx, movies today that are horrible but signed on with a good distrubtion company will be available in thousands of places. I used to work at a video store and we'd always have a good selection of latest schlock in stock because people enjoy making fun of horrid movies. Review Mystery Science Theater 3000

Also you're seeing the horrors of technology. There were hundreds and hundreds of horrible B and C and Z movies that came out in the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, etc. but you don't know about them because they'd faded into obscurity either because the prints of the films weren't taken care of or there's no incentive to re-release anything. Also, today wth digital technology, just about anyone can make a film and get it into a festival and get exposure and maybe a deal. Where back in the old days only a select group of highly trained people could make films do to the extensive process of film making. You had various independent charatcers like Ed Wood for example, but for the most part the process was so extensive that it was mainly left to the studios.

[edit on 6-2-2007 by CuriousSkeptic]

Oh, what's wrong with horror movies. They keep the "screen talkers" out of the good films.
El-oh-el, gimmie those ribs, you

Originally posted by Sunsetspawn
Oh, what's wrong with horror movies. They keep the "screen talkers" out of the good films.
El-oh-el, gimmie those ribs, you

I just found them suspicious & dumb(not the old ones though).
BTW is "The Shining" a good movie?

i think the horror flicks have been having much deserved success.
seemingly stemming from the eerie way that "the ring" was filmed,
(quirky quick and erratic movements) there have been a new look to horror film recently and it's refreshing.

the industry has stepped up and gotten into a better "recipe" than they used to rely on, and it shows. i'm stoked for it all.
creepy is good.

i even liked the fact that xmas day this year a spooky movie was released which looks like it will have continuum with a part 2 and 3, etc.

go horror industry!

As someone who works in the field and about half of my friends work in the FX business I can tell you that you are not techniclly incorrect but I think your assumptions are incorrect.

For starts here is a list of horror movies made: en.wikipedia.org...

There are increases in horror movies but what that list doesn’t show is that there are increases in every type of movie – comedy, drama, etc.

One big reason for making horror movies is the profit is better because they cost considerably less to make. You can make horror movies for a relatively small amount of money and have better returns on each dollar spent. Living in the digital computer age has really opened to the door to amateur special effects. These movies can be shot on digital cameras and edited on your basic home computer system. You can see a big increase in horror movies over the past 5 years because of computer effects. Thanks to the computer, independent studios can now pump out horror movies for very low budgets. Look at the list of wikipedia horror films for the past couple of years. You will only be able to find a tiny few good quality horror movies, the rest are basically B horror films that have been filmed on small budgets using off the street actors.

Trust me when I say there is no conspiracy. There are just a lot of horror fans out there that want to break into movies and if Hollywood won't let you in then get some friends and a digital camera and make your own.



[edit on 6-2-2007 by zerotime]

IMO there's not enough SCIFI. I do think there's one coming to a theater near me about the guy building a rocket in his backyard that looks to be promising.

I do know what you are saying though. Too many slice and dice. The upcoming one about Hanable looks like a cheap knock off of a well made silence of the lambs. Although that could have been considered horror I thought it was a good suspense movie.

It really does seem like they are churning them out doesn't it...?

Originally posted by Spawwwn
ohh seriously stop this over paranoid christian anti violence crap. fact is tons of people like horror movies. i hate how people are like "oh what the companies doing to the kids" when the fact is that PARENTS AND NOBODY ELSE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR CHILDS WELL BEING.

nobody wants to watch punk @$$ disney flicks all day. everyone needs to grow some backbone. that's why we're raising a generation of fat punk kids who don't know how to fight, and have to run to a teacher or parent every time someone picks on them, or they have a problem.

kids need to learn to be tougher, you can't walk through life being a wimp.
whos foolish idea was it to stop smacking our kids around a bit anyway?
i'm not saying go child abuse on them, but these parents that are like "oh i never hit my kids" are idiots..cause those kids are the ones who grow up to be the ignorant paris hiltons of the world.

i'm tired of people whining and saying our society is to violent and our kids are learning trash. nobody is responsible for your kid. i do not care about your kid. i do not care about anybodys kid. if your little punk sees someone get shot, it's not my problem. i could care less if he's learning right from wrong, as long as he stays the he|| away from me.

i love horror movies and i'm happy there's a new group of people who are making them. if you are seriously so warped as to think that horror movies are somehow crippling the moral fabric of our society then you might need to do some research on the word, paranoid.

i think this is a great example of what negative media does to a human being. generates more negative. and it grows. you can see it in his post. spawn thanks for the example. one thing he got right was that it is a parents responsibility to not let their children watch this trash. i would never let my son watch the junk that hollywood puts out especially the violent slaughter of the human as entertainment. i cant keep him from everything but i damn sure can filter it out as much as i can. a little common sense will tell you this isnt what we are suppose to be entertained by.

Originally posted by tormentor
Also IMO the horror movies of today aren't as scary as the older movies,and yet Hollywood is still producing them.
Do the horror movies of today seem THAT scary?Or do they seem quite dumb?

The horror movies being put out today seem generally dumbed down... Granted, the Hitchcock movies depended on the audience's imaginations, and now the rule seems to be 'If you don't see it, it's not so'... (like, where did so-and-so find an ax when we never saw them find it??) I still maintain that there are some gems... depending on your personal tastes...

The last batch of 'scary' movies that I saw completely relied on deformed hillbillies... some of which were actually shiver-worthy (The Hills have Eyes), and some were never really seen...

The flux of (bad) horror movies coming out makes it hard to find the diamonds. Of course, I'm also a big fan of 'guts and gore', and this quick-editting flash-image you think you almost saw a tendon, or a deformed face, might-maybe be something gross (I'd never know)... It becomes truly horrifying how these friggin' movies got produced in the first place!!! ((Are these movies being tested on audiences before being released? ...if so, where do I sign up to tell these people to go back to school??))

I refuse to buy movies for 2 seconds of a good scene (Wolf Creek has a few that I can recall), when the movie is sooooo irreparably bad. (I won't even touch the fact that the characters are, for the most part, retarded -- most of the time I'm rooting for them to be killed!!! ...provides serious inspiration to write a *good* horror movie, in which the villian and the heroes actually use their brains... )

[edit on 6-2-2007 by Diseria]

Horror today could be more accurately described as gore and more gore. Same stuff that we're getting on the TV. Look at all the shows that feature close-ups of rotting corpses, like 'CSI', etc. Its really about desensitizing the masses, getting us ready for the mass slaughter to come.

make a horror movie for 15 million and it makes 30 then you use the 15 million profit to sign a A list star to a big movie that stinks but people will pay money to see A list star of their choice. then the studio can say movie such and such took in such and such amount of cash-money.


besides horror moview can make money and can really stink. get some good look young adults who hook up and get hacked up(the more nudity the worse the special effects can be)

Blah blah blah, horror movie desensitization, more blah blather blah...

Thats all I'm picking up here from the anti-crowd, and to honest its founded on nothing but freaking hot air. You can claim all you want that 'they' are trying to get us used to death and destruction but until you've been one-on-one up close with a real honest to gods cold corpse those movies don't come anywhere near reality. All those screams they belt out at finding a loved one dead...utter lies; most of the time you can't get the scream out because your brain is going faster than ever before, like a car with the accelerator stuck to the floor.

As for us not being entertained by the mayhem portrayed by Hollywood thats also not quite accurate, otherwise how can you explain the popularity of football, boxing, MMA-events, hell the Colosseum even stands as a testament to our love of violence.

Those who pointed out the financial motivations of the movie industry are right on the head otherwise; its all about the money and in today's networked world its also a lot cheaper to get the message out about movies via online ads, myspace sites, paid bloggers, etc. But hey, keep on thinking the movie industry gives two wrinkled rats about anything other than money!

I am a big fan of horror movies.

I always have been and I always will be.

I just love horror movies, but we don't get many good horrors in the UK. I have not seen Saw III in the cinema because I want to buy the DVD once released and then watch it at home. I can then watch all the good bits over again or in slow motion. I also can't stand going to the cinema and listen to other people, I prefer being scared on my own ( not that it will be scary).

i cant imagine that horror films are a conspiracy to scare kids etc. They're are crap nowadays. They've just realised they can remake asian horror films (cut out a load of the film creating process), repackage them with a white blond in the middle of it all, make it much less scary & the public will lap it up. Looks pretty similar to the trend in music of people doing covers or heavily using samples to make a song.

Originally posted by tormentor
BTW is "The Shining" a good movie?

The Shining, at least the original, is a classic...I would say that it traverses all genres. It has to be in the top 100 movies of all time.

The best recent horror movie that I have seen was Saw III...I thought the Hills Have Eyes and Silent Hill were worthless as far as entertainment is concerned. Hostel is fairly decent.

Aren't alot of the new horror moves remakes?

I like the older ones better. But the Saw movies were good too.

grrr @ zombies that run they've ruined that whole concept now with the films like '28 days later' and the new 'dawn of the dead'.

i just hope they don't start making running zombies in video games like resident evil, it will lose all its appeal.

Originally posted by SpeakerofTruth
The best recent horror movie that I have seen was Saw III...I thought the Hills Have Eyes and Silent Hill were worthless as far as entertainment is concerned. Hostel is fairly decent.

Is Saw III seriously good? The second one was okay.. I was almost disappointed, but the storyline behind the guy who started the games and the gore saved it from falling into the abyss of crap. The first one was *awesome*...

I'm not too sure what I'm hoping for with the third one... something better than the second at least.

I didn't think very highly of Hostel... too corny. Hills have Eyes was corny, however there was at least 1 scene that made me squirm and shudder... but overall, I agree with you. My boyfriend *loved* Hills have Eyes because the in-breds were actually creepy, rather than completely retarded.