This question is one that I have been obsessing over for years and I mean obsessing. You see, the reason that I started this blog is because I have an obsessive mind and when an idea gets into my head I can't stop thinking about it to the point where I can't think about anything else. As is obvious this can be a problem. I started this blog as an experiment to get out my obsessions and this far its working. Horror movies and their lack of horror are near constant obsessions for me because I would think fear is an easy concept to grasp. Either I'm wrong or the people making the movies don't understand fear.
First, I think it's important to define horror and fear to establish a base line with which the movies can be measured. I will also establish why the horror genre is important enough for study in the first place. My definitions come from the Oxford English Dictionary (here on out referred to as the OED). The OED definition of horror is sweet and simple: "an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust." This definition provides a solid basis for what the horror genre to offer and it seems that horror movies have covered shock and disgust fairly well, what with jump scares and gore fests. But the genre seems to have missed the mark on the third part of the definition. Fear has a very expansive and quite loaded definition(s): "an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain, or harm/ a feeling of anxiety concerning the outcome of something or the safety of someone"(OED). I can't think of any movies in the genre that fully capture that definition. I've seen movies that try but none of the movies that I have seem have made it.I am not a horror movie buff and the fact that horror movies have little effect on me is the reason. For the next few weeks I will be looking at the concepts of horror, itself, and revisiting some of the horror movies that I have seen that did manage to stir something in me. I won't be giving reviews of these movies in the traditional sense of a review but I will be looking them in terms of what they say about the genre and the elements of fear. I will also try to reach outside my own collection for movies I have not seen before but bear in mind that I'm college student who works part time. Also, there are a few types of horror movies that I don't even give the time of day. Slashers, monsters, torture, gross-out, and pretty much anything with uninspired teenage stereotypes being picked off one by one. I'm looking for fear not irritation and hastily thrown together cash-grabs.
It is my belief that the horror genre is one of the most important genres of film and its also the one that the film industry puts the least amount of thought into. The genre is important because experiencing fear is important. Horror movies can make you feel fear and through experiencing fear we can learn thing about ourselves. Horror movies can also make you face your fears so that you can deal with them and come out on the other side alive and stronger. Horror and fear are fundamental experiences that we need to experience and learn from. Cinema has the potential to provide important learning experiences. Through cinema and other forms of literature we can learn from experiences without having to face them ourselves.I will start my look into the films in the genre this weekend with "Identity." I will be looking at how the movie represents the horror genre. What works. What doesn't work. And how it could have been improved to actually instill fear.
True, modern horror movies focus so much on special effects that in their attempt to provide a realistic fear, it ends up coming of a a plasticine fake. Eve horror movies prior to the 90s, like Freddy Kreuger films, had more horror in them. They did everything by hand (and it was a dream of mine when I was younger to make the monsters, before cgi took over), and even though the things meant to scare you WERE plasticine, they resulted in a great amount of fear, and a large heap of nightmares. I believe that it's because most horror movies of old aimed for a more psychological horror, rather than to see how many teenagers they could kill by the end of the movie. True, there were films that followed that exact formula, like the Friday the 13th Movies, and even the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series, but you can't deny that when you heard the music theme for the monster playing, you got ready to get scared witless. Maybe it's just that the shock value is gone because of constantly similar situations, but there will always be the simple things, like the child turning around in Dario Argento's "Phenomena" that will make you scared shitless.
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