Classic Horror versus Modern Horror

[MauEvig]

I decided to create a topic based on movies from the past, dating back to the 1940's (perhaps earlier, but I'm not entirely sure when the first horror movies came to be. I'm thinking it was the 40's but I could be wrong), and all the way to the present.
What defines a modern horror movie versus a classic? Is it the amount of time passed between films, or how they actually do the films themselves?
I like to think of the first Nightmare on Elm Street as a classic, and technically the Nightmare before Christmas, while not a horror movie itself, still has horror elements being Halloween themed and that's considered a classic. Some movies make themselves into traditions to watch, such as Trick R Treat.
Newer movies include some different approaches, including CGI.
One thing I will say is that the more Modern Horror movies are facing the problem of becoming too generic, and originality is difficult, though not impossible these days. The Cabin in the Woods I found to be an original take on a horror movie, which also tied into the reason for all the horror movies in the first place which had a chilling atmosphere to it. I'm not sure if you'd consider Trick R Treat a classic, or modern, right now I consider it classic, but it's also modern for the simple fact that it's become a Halloween tradition to watch, but it has some really nice imagery and has a lot of modern elements.
As for the really old movies, I admit I have a hard time watching them, or anything before the 80's really. I respect the old 40's classics because they were the "forerunners" if you will of the Horror genre, but I tend to find them boring and I think it's because there's too much talking and plot development, and the action is way too cheesy. I realize a lot of people might have grown up with these older movies and may see it differently.
So is it that the older movies or newer movies are better, or does it just have to do with what time period we grew up in, and our own personal taste?
I'd also like to share a video from Cinemassacre which explores three different horror styles rolled into one short, and I think you'll all enjoy it: http://cinemassacre.com/2003/12/20/curs ... rave-2003/
I admit it might be a little on the cheese side, but it was one of those back yard films and because of that, I let it slide because of the effort they put into it without a huge budget. I like how they opened with the classic horror black and white type theme with the old-timey kind of music in the background. I feel that's a great way to pay homage to the classics, and then have the action be more modern and gorey. It also had an original back story, and they even pay homage to a classic horror movie within the movie.
I think it's really up to personal taste, and again while I respect the old black and white movies, I prefer modern horror because I feel it's more realistic. Granted, I do enjoy a lot of the horror movies from the 80's, but I find them more funny to watch than scared out of my mind.
What do you think?

[Murfreesboro]

What a great topic! I don't have the time today to give it the thought it deserves. I will say that I like good movies, whether they are older or newer. That goes for all types of movies, not just scary ones.

I much prefer the early '60s film The Haunting (Julie Harris) to the late '90s version (Catherine Zeta-Jones), although my kids prefer the newer one because it was the first one they saw. So to some extent it does depend on what you saw when you were a kid.

Some films become classics even though they weren't super-popular to begin with. I think Hocus Pocus fits into that category. I don't think it did such great box office in its theatrical release, but everyone who likes Halloween loves that movie. Something for everyone. And you can find it for sale in the stores year-round, not just at Halloween.

My favorite vampire will always be Barnabus Collins, in part because I watched Dark Shadows when I was around 12 or 13, a very impressionable age. I also think it is hard for people today to recapture the extraordinary originality of that story line in its day, because it has been copied by every vampire story since (and many of them have had superior production values). I think this is one reason why some of the old '30s horror films don't hit us as hard as they did the original audiences, because we cannot recapture how fresh they were back then. The aspects of them that worked well have been copied over & over.

I love a good scare, but I am seldom frightened by anything anymore (in entertainment, I mean). I have just seen so much. I genuinely prefer the eerie, haunted house type movies to the bloody horror films. I like the supernatural more than the maniacal killer. And I enjoy humorous Halloween movies, like Ghostbusters, Young Frankenstein, Corpse Bride, etc.

[Kolchak]

I agree with Murph. To me it's much better for a movie to leave you thinking, rather than just showing you blood and gore. Your imagination can come up with scenarios more frightening than anything a Hollywood script writer can.

I'm partial to the old Black & White Classics. Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolfman, The Mummy, The Creature from the Black Lagoon are always on my October films to watch list. Night of the Living Dead is a Black & White classic even if was made in the late 60s. The Thing from Another World and Nosferatu are required when October rolls around.

I always watch Halloween 1 and 2, but that's the only two I enjoy. I almost walked out of the Rob Zombie remake.

I'm like Murph when it comes to being scared. I've seen the real deal having spent over 30 years in uniform, so a movie won't really scare me, but I can enjoy it for the escapist fare it is meant to be.

The Original Exorcist came out when I was 12 years old and scared the living ca-ca out of me. I went saw the prequel to the Exorcist, called Dominion back in 2005. I actually fell asleep in the movie. No joke. It was THAT boring. You can experience a lot in life between your 12th and 45th birthday. By the time Dominion came out, I was still hoping to get the scare I got when I was 12. Nope. Just wasn't there. I fell sound asleep and had to get my wife to wake me up because she said I was snoring. LOL!

All this being said, Halloween is big enough to accommodate any all of your favorite movies and shows. Watch what you want to watch and enjoy it. Don't let others dictate what is fun for you.

The whole purpose of Halloween can be said to give us the opportunity to act up a little, and as the late, great Lou Reed said...Take a Walk On the Wild Side!

[Andybev01]

Yes, it's the quality of the film and not really the time it was made.

that being said, I don't like modern horror. if I want to see blood and gore I can visit a butcher shop, and I might even get a good deal on steak.

I enjoy the ones that mess with your mind.

The Innocents, the Uninvited (1947), some Hitchcock movies, I want to feel a sense of something truly evil going on, and no pop-up 'BOO!' tactics.

[The Duchess]

Yes, it's the quality of the film and not really the time it was made.

that being said, I don't like modern horror. if I want to see blood and gore I can visit a butcher shop, and I might even get a good deal on steak.

I enjoy the ones that mess with your mind.

The Innocents, the Uninvited (1947), some Hitchcock movies, I want to feel a sense of something truly evil going on, and no pop-up 'BOO!' tactics.

I agree with this 100%. The Uninvited (1947) is one of the best ghost stories ever.

When I have more time I would like to make further comments on this thread.

[NeverMore]

I enjoy the ones that mess with your mind.

This is why I liked the Jigsaw movies. Yes, it has the gore but it's also like watching a puzzle being put together. First time seeing the reveal I would often find myself backtracking on the movie to see the clues I missed. They were there, you just had to watch closely. Not everything was foreshadowed, the later movies tied nicely into the earlier ones but a lot of that seemed to be afterthought.

[Andybev01]

I agree with this 100%. The Uninvited (1947) is one of the best ghost stories ever.

When I have more time I would like to make further comments on this thread.[/quote]

Although I know it's coming every time I watch that movie, I get goosebumps when Mary Meredith appears at the top of the staircase.

[NeverMore]

Even though I've seen Salem's Lot a million times, when I was watching it the other night the scene where Susan's ex flies out from behind the door still made me jump. Not scary, not gory, just surprising. You're expecting the monster to attack any moment instead some jealous dude pops out to beat up the hero. Bait and switch.

[Murfreesboro]

I don't know if anyone else shares my enthusiasm for it, but I just love The Exorcism of Emily Rose. It is my favorite exorcism-type movie because it is so eerie and ambiguous. I find it far more provocative than The Exorcist or any other movie on that subject. I gather from reading at Rotten Tomatoes and other sites of criticism, etc., that not everyone feels about that movie the way I do. I guess for some people, the courtroom drama sort of waters down the scares or something. Some people complain that it doesn't know what kind of movie it wants to be. But for me, the flashbacks work very well. And I love the relationship that develops between the devout priest and the agnostic lawyer.

I cannot believe that I have never seen The Uninvited, but I haven't. I guess that's one to put on my search list.

[Pumpkin_Man]

Here's what I know so far. The very first attempt at a Frankenstein movie was actualy produced by Thomas Edison in the very early 1900s. "Nosferatu," one of the oldest adaptations of "Dracula," was out in theatres during the silend era. There was also a 1914 version of "Dr. Jeckyl & Mr. Hyde." Bela Lugosi stared in the first actual "Dracula" movie in 1931, and "Frankenstein," starring Boris Karlov came out shortly after. The 40s where the best decade for Frankenstein, Dracula and "The Wolf Man," but I don't know when "The Mummy" became popular.

Of course, there where plenty of vampire, wearwolf and Frankenstein movies made between 1940 to the present, including modern classics like "Bram Stoker's Dracula," and "Mary Shelly's Frankenstein." The most recent version of "The Wolf Man" was also pretty good. It appears that now a days, zombies are the most popular form of monster. During the mid 70s, through the 80s, the "slasher" flicks where very popular, with titles like "Halloween," "Black Christmas" (which actualy was out before the first "Halloween." "Don't Answer the Phone," "Nightmare on Elm Street," "Friday the 13th," "The Fog," and a whold host of other gore fests that made the horror movies of that era very popular. 'End of the world' typs movies, such as "Planet of the Apes," and all the sequels that followed where another main stay during the late 60s and early 70s.

The 50s where primarily known for giant lizzards and bugs, alien invasions and other movies of the Sci Fi ilk.

Mike

[Kolchak]

Well said Mike. We tend to quantify horror picks as 1) silent Era 2) Early talking 3) 40s-50s 4) Early modern 5) Modern 6) Post modern.

The early 1940s were a time of great tragedy. We had World War II going full strength and it was when we saw movies like The Wolfman come out. The Wolfman was a story of morality and heavily ladened with metaphors and symbolism.

NOTHING in the Wolfman was real. The ENTIRE movie was thought up by German Jews who had barely escaped the Holocaust. The whole point behind the Wolfman was that ANYBODY no matter how good or pure he might be, under the RIGHT conditions could turn into a blood thirsty killer and kill without thought or conscience.

This was a clear attempt to show by the magic of movies, that MAN is the scariest and most evil and destructive force on the planet and we must constantly be looking at ourselves and hoping we remain in the light of what is good and not fall into the darkness of evil.

Larry Talbot, played by Lon Chaney Jr. was a decent man. Did the right thing most of the time, but one night he finds himself through no fault of his own drawn into the evil and destructive nature of the werewolf. Nothing matters to the werewolf. All it does is kill and destroy.

That is how many German Jews felt when the Third Reich came to power. One day these Jews had next door neighbors who were friends and colleagues. Then out of the blue, one day, these lifelong friends not only turn their backs on them, but are prepared to kill them and their entire family.

HOW does that happen? In the Wolfman, we see that the evil is lying just beneath the skin and it only takes a full moon to bring about the change.

In Dracula, Bram Stoker showed how people dealt with the sexual repression of the Victorian age. Dracula was the antithesis of all that was proper in the late 19th century.

Mary Shelly showed us what happens when man tries to play God and take up power that he was never meant to possess.

In the Hunchback of Notre Dame we are forced to deal with the evil that comes from being different and the hatred for no other reason than, you are different. You are judged by external qualities and not the important ones that lie within you.

From the early 70s to today there are attempts to relay these same messages to a new and younger audience. I, however; am not convinced on their sincerity or their message. The fact we have sequel after sequel, after sequel, after sequel, and more gratuitous gore and skin until it is just one long R rated festival of naked girls and slasher guys.

For me, these don't hold a candle to what we had back in the days of silent movies and the early black & white talkies.

[Andybev01]

Don't hold back Kolchak, tell us what you really think.

[Kolchak]

Don't hold back Kolchak, tell us what you really think.

Don't worry son, I never do. Life's too short.

[Pumpkin_Man]

Kolchak, that was a very well written post. The holocause, however didn't happen out of the blue. It started out gradualy with a political party that had 8 members, one of them by the name of Adolf Hitler. It was the huge depression of the 30s, and the humiliatin of the loss of World War One that ultimately brought Nazism to power. The laws that lead to the holocaust began originaly as cartoons depicting Jewish people as ape like creature with huge hooked noses. Documenteries where made, comedians made fun of them at night clubs and in movies and on the radio, and very gradualy the Jews where stripped first of their jobs, then their businesses, then of privilages like having a driver's liscense. All that went on long before Krystalnacht happened. Antisemitism in Germany and Europe, was allways there for thousand of years, too. Hitler and the Nazis didn't invent it. He exploited it.

As for today's movies I quite agree. It seems that a lot of the moral message is lost in sensationalism, more nudity, more blood and gore, and less of a story line. Some of the worst movies of all time, IMHO, are movies like "Hostel," and allt he sequels that cam after. "Saw," was only slightly better because it at least told some semblence of a story, but it too was more or less a torture-porn flick. As for all the sequels, I agree that they can be an annoyance, but not quite as an annoyance as the constant parade of ramakes that have been parading across the movie screen over the past 10 years or so. Many of those remakes are nothing more then the exact same scrypt and story, only with newer cars and happened in today's day and age instead of the era it happened in. Tane "The Omen," for instance. The original was an excelent film that depicted a story about how the great antichrist would come about. The sequels where suprisingly good, too. The remake that came out about 2 or 3 years ago was a total dissappointment, and absolutely had nothing to offer but the very same story only updated for the times.

Michael

[Kolchak]

The hatred of European Jewry predates National Socialism and Hitler by centuries. There were pogroms over the centuries directed at destroying Jews, or at the very least attacking them to the point of leaving or converting. The Inquisition may have been one of the more open and obvious, but make no mistake the anti-Semite has been out there for as long as there have been Jews. They might hide behind a new façade, but their end game is no less final.

The point of movies like the Wolfman are simple yet complex at the same time and their message is a scary one. You or me or anyone here can become a monster if the conditions are right.