Why is it that modern horror films are less scary?

[Kelthaz]

Funny, I just watched this vid on the youtube:

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz6KOsePEHs[/yt]

I'm on the same side as this guy, but he could do to drop the elitist attitude that he has. He (and I) enjoy psychological thrillers. Other people enjoy cheesy horror movies with jump scares every minute. And many people enjoy both. Getting disgusted that audiences prefer the latter over the former rubs me the wrong way. It sucks when the type of entertainment that you prefer fails financially, but that's just the way it goes sometimes.

With that out of the way, I enjoyed the rest of the video and I may have to check out Babadok. And he's right about Oculus. That movie was great.

 

[Tulin]

... the first Insidious ...

The first 2 acts of Insidious were masterful. Perfect amount of creepy atmosphere and tension and the only real jump scare was so freshly done that I couldn't fault them for it.

Then it turned into something entirely different and the ending was terrible.

THANK YOU THANK YOU!

I've heard SO MANY 20 somethings I know at work or who are relations who claim this to be the scariest movie of all time.

I remember getting to that 2/3 mark and thinking, "Okay, so now we're seeing people in period costume in black light.....I've been in The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland and that's not scary. WTF am I watching here?!?!"

If I hear one more 22 year old douchebag say "Insidious" is the scariest film ever, I MAY have to hurt them.

And I agree with that other poster - I saw the original "The Haunting" years ago and it genuinely creeped me out and unnerved me.

LOATHE those Insidious things.

 

[Richard Baker]

One of the creepiest moments I know was in the original 'Halloween' by John Carpenter. It was an old dirty Ford LTD station wagon parked on the street with kids playing around in yards nearby. It was such a common sight but the way he filmed it I felt such a feeling of dread nearing panic.

It is easy to throw body parts around the screen, but to take something 'normal' and give it horror is a skill few have.

 

[RoJoHen]

I liked The Woman in Black and I may be the only one but I found the first 3/4 of Signs really scary, when they show the homemade video of some birthday party in Brazil and the Alien just walks by, I nearly fell out of my chair.

About 10 years ago, a bunch of my theater friends in college did a production of The Woman in Black and did a freaking amazing job. I always wanted to see the movie to compare.

As to horror movies in general, I never really found the old ones to be much scarier than the new ones. I do, however, think they're more memorable. That might simply be because there weren't as many of them around at the time. The market has become flooded; it seems like every Halloween there's a new "The Exorcism of [insert name]" coming out. The genre must do well enough in the box office, but I never know anybody who actually goes and sees these movies.

The last horror movie I saw was "Scream 4," and that's only because I was a fan of the originals. I'd love to see Jennifer Love Hewitt come back for another "I Know What You Did Last Summer" sequel, for nostalgia if nothing else.

 

[Awesome Possum]

Some of the best horror recently has been low budget independent films. It Follows was outstanding and extremely tense in a few scenes. It's a throwback to 70s and 80s horror films. I heard that the Babadook was also great.

 

[eyeresist]

I agree with most of what people are saying here, including the problems with Insidious. HOWEVER, I think The Haunting is really overrated. The emotional problems of the heroine were interesting, but the rest was a fairly conventional haunted house movie.
I also was unimpressed by The Exorcist; I thought it was just silly.

I do think Interview with the Vampire has been underrated as a serious horror film, probably because of the actors associated with it. My mother was in the room one time I watched it, and the infamous coffin scene reduced her to tears.

 

[BigJake]

Anyone have any thoughts?

Because for sheer psychological, existential terror, it's hard to compete these days with Congress*.

Hey-oh! Here all week, try the veal, etc.

I'm actually quite fond of latter-day psych horror on the Paranormal Activity model, which is way scarier on average for my money than most of the slasher flicks of the Eighties. And intriguingly, some of the American translations of Japanese horror films strike me as creepier than the original article (esp. The Grudge). There are a few throwbacks to the older style which are quite welcome too, like The Conjuring.

Not much into the torture porn stuff like the Saw series, though. (Horrifying, yes, but mostly in terms of the tastes being assumed on behalf of the audience.) The truly terrifying, balls-to-the-wall stuff is all still from the Seventies, though, I think -- stuff like Cannibal Holocaust or the Texas Chainsaw Massacre in particular. Raw and risky and without the over-production that's too common since.

(* Or in Canada, the Harper Government.)

 

[Beagleman]

The last horror movie I saw was "Scream 4," and that's only because I was a fan of the originals. I'd love to see Jennifer Love Hewitt come back for another "I Know What You Did Last Summer" sequel, for nostalgia if nothing else.

Oh yes, please! I get 90's nostalgia just thinking about the possibility.

 

[RoJoHen]

The last horror movie I saw was "Scream 4," and that's only because I was a fan of the originals. I'd love to see Jennifer Love Hewitt come back for another "I Know What You Did Last Summer" sequel, for nostalgia if nothing else.

Oh yes, please! I get 90's nostalgia just thinking about the possibility.

"I Know What You Did Last Decade."

 

[Servo]

I watched the first Insidious and The Conjuring recently. I thought The Conjuring was by far the better film. It had much more atmosphere to it, and I loved the 70's setting.

I did like the design of the demon in Insidious though, and the scene when it just appeared behing that guy while psychic woman was talking to him about his childhood was genuinely creepy.

 

[Relayer1]

I'm not really a fan of horror movies. I find the gory ones pathetic, and don't like the 'jumpy' ones. I remember being dragged to see Hellraiser at the cinema and was bored out of my mind. Hammer films are beyond drivel and slasher movies don't appeal.

Probably the only horror film I rate is :

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Haunting_(1963_film)

Hey if you're going to pick one horror film why not pick the best (IMO) Proof that curious noises, odd shadows and a breathing door can be scarier than any monster! Plus Julie Harris' performance of a woman on the edge of a breakdown is first rate.

I've been thinking about this and couldn't resist.

I've just picked up a copy on Bluray...

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Scariness of movies also depend on the settings you watch them in.
A movie theater with 300 people, popcorn on your lap and a coke in your hand... Yeah, you won't get me be truly frightenrd.

Watching The Grudge alone in a pitch black room in a silent house at 2 am? That borders on not fun anymore.

 

[BigJake]

Watching The Grudge alone in a pitch black room in a silent house at 2 am? That borders on not fun anymore.

And yet... soooo fun.

Personal background probably plays a big part in it, too. The Exorcist movies, especially the original, seem to be way scarier to people who had a solidly religious upbringing. (My dad admitted the original film messed him up for weeks, and he's not exactly the type to cop to something like that easily by any means.)

 

[Starkers]

Scariness of movies also depend on the settings you watch them in.
A movie theater with 300 people, popcorn on your lap and a coke in your hand... Yeah, you won't get me be truly frightenrd.

Watching The Grudge alone in a pitch black room in a silent house at 2 am? That borders on not fun anymore.

Yeah, I've come to the conclusion that watching horror films in the cinema is often the worst place to do so (unless you can be sure of a quiet showing). I saw The Woman in Black when it came out and the cinema was full of teenagers (The Potter effect) that it still managed to be creepy ensured I did want to see it again and next time I saw it was at home alone and it was properly scary!)

 

[Gov Kodos]

Scariness of movies also depend on the settings you watch them in.
A movie theater with 300 people, popcorn on your lap and a coke in your hand... Yeah, you won't get me be truly frightenrd.

Watching The Grudge alone in a pitch black room in a silent house at 2 am? That borders on not fun anymore.

Especially creepy if someone has, unbeknownst to you, been living in your house with you. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/may/31/japan

 

[Starkers]

Yikes!

I still think the scariest thing must be if someone calls you up just after you finish watching Ringu...

 

[Phantom]

Watching The Grudge alone in a pitch black room in a silent house at 2 am? That borders on not fun anymore.

And yet... soooo fun.

Personal background probably plays a big part in it, too. The Exorcist movies, especially the original, seem to be way scarier to people who had a solidly religious upbringing. (My dad admitted the original film messed him up for weeks, and he's not exactly the type to cop to something like that easily by any means.)

And age, age, age. I saw a film called Trilogy of Terror when I was pretty young on TV. To this day, I cannot rewatch it because of the Zuni Devil Fetish Doll segment. I wouldn't sleep for at least a week after that.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

You mean this?

 

[martok2112]

Speaking strictly for myself, it took me 17 years to conquer "The Exorcist". To me, that is/was/will be the scariest movie of all time. That came out in '73. I was five years old when I saw it for the first time (having begged my parents to let me see it, and I honestly had no idea what it was about....it just caught my attention. When we arrived at the drive in, the first showing was already part way through, and it was the scene where Regan was on that moving scan machine...that was scary enough. During the next showing, I only saw part of the movie. The first time Regan made her demonic growl... I dove under the dash, covering my ears. Never to return until a little later, when suddenly I saw the cut up/scarfaced Regan hurl all over Father Karras. Then I went back under the dash, and did NOT emerge until the exorcism was over.

For seventeen years after, I could not watch that movie because of Regan's face. Funny thing was though, I could have nightmares with that face in it, and never lose control. I couldn't understand why, but I took it.

I remember we went to the drive-in a few years later to see another movie, and when I peered out the back window to see what was playing on the opposite screen, there was a preview for Exorcist II: The Heretic. That face popped up on the screen, and I screamed...immediately turning my view back toward the screen I should've been watching in the first place. (I think the movie was "Grizzly" that we were watching...and it was far less scary than The Exorcist, or the preview I saw on the back screen.) My mom and dad laughed. My little brother was asleep. (Hell, my little brother slept through Star Wars.)

During that time, even movies like Carrie and Beyond the Door (cheesy rip off of The Exorcist, as I would come to recognize later) would scare the bejeezus out of me. If I had seen Alien without spoilers from my cousin (but I asked for that, so it's not her fault), I probably would've been scared out of my mind with that one too.

When I finally conquered The Exorcist (aka....being able to watch it by myself with no aversions), I found that no other movie could scare me. Not even Carrie, BTD, Alien etc.

And today's so-called horror/terror movies are a joke. They might have decent stories with a couple of intense moments, but nothing has ever affected me the way The Exorcist did.

Slasher movies are a joke....and in truth, I'm pretty desensitized to them. I get queasier watching "House M.D." on Netflix than I do watching the goriest horror flick. (Although I will admit, the unsuited spacewalk suicide attempt in Event Horizon did leave me a little sick to my stomach).

Oh, wow! I remember (vaguely) that segment from Trilogy of Terror too! That was also some scary stuff that I only saw a brief portion of, and I could not go to sleep either. I was but a wee laddie back then, and after The Exorcist, that guaranteed at least another sleepless night or two.

 

[sidious618]

If you have HBO Go and want to see a recent horror film that's quality then check out Lake Mungo. It's a deeply unsettling film.