Is horror dead?

[Zipp Dementia]

New article by me in resolution magazine:

http://www.resolution-magazine.co.uk/issue4/feature_gameoverforsurvivalhorror.htm

Discuss?

Just throwing out a link & asking people to discuss it does not a good thread make (plus, there's a thread already about w/e random links you can share & talk about).

~V_Translanka

[chrono eric]

Q: "Is Horror dead?"

A: "No, but it is pretty fucking close".

Has there been a single good horror flick in recent years? I can't think of a single one. They all depend on shock value thrills that have no substance whatsover to them. The second time you watch it it isn't scary because the suspense is gone. And now there is that new trailer for some horror movie about a haunted house. "OH noes there's ghosts in our house!" "I hope they don't try to scare us in super cliche ways!". Laame.

[FaustWolf]

Resident Evil 4 did a great job IMO, at least with those spiky, weird-breathing black humanoid things. I was effing scared of those because I knew I had a good chance of dying whenever one popped up. The element of interaction in videogames makes them more capable of invoking fear than movies; only as a player affected by what's in the game do you reel personally threatened by what could possibly be around the next corner.

I don't know about anyone else, but I find videogame scenarios in which the player is being chased by dogs absolutely terrifying (in an exhilerating way). I got freaking chills up my spine in Castlevania 64 and it still got me in Resident Evil 4, years later.

Jeez, if they'd just make a 3rd person DOOM game already, with a strong storyline and lots of suspense. And great music. Maybe some demon-possessed dogs thrown into the dark corridors of the Martian settlement...I'd totally dig it.

[Lord J Esq]

Horror shouldn't have opened the closet door.

[KebreI]

I siding with eric on this one, is horror dead? close. I can name some games and movies that are good examples of the genre but they are few and far between.

The Scariest Games and Movies of all time are:

Games

• Alone in the Dark(original)
• Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth.
• Silent Hill 2
Shows:

• Tideland
• Aliens
• Paranoia Agent


I like to make a special comment of Paranoia Agent, because out of all those it was the only one to actually scare me, not a small jump. It was blood pumping and worrying about "what if..." that was a hellishly good show. I think it being an series gave it a great advantage.

[Prince Janus]

 Is horror dead?

Let me answer that by telling you something about myself:

I regard horror movies as a subcategory of comedy.

[Shee]

Is horror dead?

Let me answer that by telling you something about myself:

I regard horror movies as a subcategory of comedy.

Yeah, I have to agree.  I have a HARD time getting into horror movies or thrillers or what have you.  To quote the great comedian Pablo Francisco, "Those kids just love to die."  The original Omen with Gregory Peck was scary to me.

[ONSLAUGHT]

Awake seemed kinda scary to me from the trailers.

Course I never saw it and I think it was only because (perfect timing, damn fate f*cking a)right around the same time those trailers started playing, I had to go into a very similar situation. I had calmed myself by telling myself repeatedly "You're gonna be asleep it's okay" then this goddamn trailer pops up, I research it cause I don't want to believe. "SUNNUVABITCH!"

I can't think of too much else that i find scary. I tend to avoid what is the "scary" stuff nowadays since they don't actually scare you anymore. They have it be dead silent, jump up and be extremely loud. I don't even jump anymore from it. I stand up and start cursing profusely (even in theaters) about how that's a cheap attempt at a scare and that all that's gonna do is make me mad.

More recently? Nothing comes to mind except Dead Space(played it around midnight by myself, not a good idea) and what KebreI brought up. That and one old thing I remember seeing on Adult Swim. Bunch of kids in some area being chased down and they were talking like it was just a game but they were all getting killed. Messed up version of Hide and Seek. I can't remember what it was though. And even then it was only kinda scary. I think it was a little more recent, I could be wrong. Still wonder what it was.

[V_Translanka]

It creates emphasis by having asymmetrical themes...I think in order to get fear, horror has to be (or try to be) real and real is just fundamentally funny, so...

[ONSLAUGHT]

Looked it up, found it.
Kakurenbo: Hide and Seek. Aired around Halloween 2005 so yeah, it's more recent and counts. That was scary Not a lot but still, horror isn't 100% dead yet. I'd say more like 78-79%.
I believe though that horror still has some kick to it.

One thing i know would work is if they'd do what they said they'd do. Remake Stephen King's IT.

There was going to be a remake for 2008 but as we can see they either postponed or cancelled it.
What's scarier than the thing that can become whatever you fear the most?

[V_Translanka]

How about a far too accurate adaptation of IT with the child-on-child madness in the end that made me rethink Stephen King every time he wrote a kid into one of his books (which, if you keep track ends up being almost as many of his characters as writers!).

[Jutty]

Q: "Is Horror dead?"

A: "No, but it is pretty fucking close".

Has there been a single good horror flick in recent years? I can't think of a single one. They all depend on shock value thrills that have no substance whatsover to them. The second time you watch it it isn't scary because the suspense is gone. And now there is that new trailer for some horror movie about a haunted house. "OH noes there's ghosts in our house!" "I hope they don't try to scare us in super cliche ways!". Laame.

Cabin Fever was good.

New article by me in resolution magazine:

http://www.resolution-magazine.co.uk/issue4/feature_gameoverforsurvivalhorror.htm

Discuss?

Just throwing out a link & asking people to discuss it does not a good thread make (plus, there's a thread already about w/e random links you can share & talk about).

~V_Translanka

Dead Space was pretty fucking scary, so is the Fatal Frame series. Left 4 Dead will have a survival mode in the update.

[Zephira]

Most people I know hated Cabin Fever, but I liked it. Then again, Starship Troopers is one of my favourite movies. I don't think my opinion really holds much water here.

Horror isn't dead, the public masses have just been desensitized to it.

[V_Translanka]

Was Cabin Fever the one where the dead guy falls into their water source & then hijinks ensue? If so then lameness.

I think Starship Troopers got a pass from me because Denise Richards was hot...and didn't Neil Patrick Harris do something awesome for one of the Starship Trooper movies? Anyways, I hear the books are pretty good...>_>

[KebreI]

The Starship Troopers movies are all utter crap. The Book(singular) is one of the books that I think should be read in all English schools.