Today's Halloween film genre disappoints

By Michael Lee

The horror genre is the convenient punching bag for modern movie critics. And why shouldn't it be? Common complaints about horror movies range from film being too grotesquely gruesome ("Feast") to being embarrassingly and laughably tame ("The Grudge").

That's the problem with scary cinema today, movie executives aren't taking enough risks. They are fully satisfied with the formula of inserting empty-headed, pretty actors in their mid-twenties to play empty-headed, pretty high schoolers in their teens.

The villain of modern horror normally falls into one of three categories: a nasty mastermind that, at the end of the movie, preaches his hate and bitterness for all of sinful mankind ("Saw"); the brain-dead and yet strangely omniscient and omnipotent lunatic with a sharp weapon ("The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"); and the totally original haunted house ("The Grudge"). Mix the two equally contrived elements and throw in an inexpensive director devoid of any talent and you get the grand horror movie of today.

I'll be the one to ask this: What happened?

There was a time when the horror genre wasn't a joke. Rather, it was filled with films just as competent and respected as their dramatic counterparts.

Horror movies of the past occasionally exemplified a tremendous showmanship of plot crafting, suspense and thrilling novelty.

Now, they are solely insta-cash machines, churned out by producers for revenue rather than art. The differences between the two generations of horror lie within the reliance on the production values of the films. It is about how they scared us then in comparison to how they scare us now.

With the recent advent of alarmingly realistic computer generated imagery, one would expect modern horror movies to employ it effectively. This is not so.

The freaky creatures in the cursed house of "The Grudge" elicit far more laughs than scares. In addition, directors seem to think that thrills categorically correlate with blood baths, again, another ill-conceived notion and poorly used technique.

"The Shining," however, is deathly frightening, not because of special affects or gore but because of atmosphere and talent. Jack Nicholson, in one of his most colorful and darkly manic performances, illustrates acting at a level that is totally nonexistent in modern horror movies.

Moreover, the movie kills off characters only in the last 10 minutes, thereby solidifying the importance and effectiveness of minimalism.

Another advocate of minimalism was Alfred Hitchcock. Director of perhaps the greatest and most recognized horror movie of all time, "Psycho," Hitchcock deceives and terrifies his audience with a ridiculous plot twist and a completely off-kilter killer.

And yet, the notorious shower scene never once displays the penetration of a knife. Its terror resonates due to a startlingly score and an explosion of suspense and the unknown.

But perhaps the greatest complaint with modern horror movies is that they lack a brain. Made without a sensible or engaging plot, it is no wonder as to why they are bashed critically.

"The Silence of the Lambs" proves that the horror genre can actually produce intelligent scripts. The film features two of the most multifaceted and intelligently competent characters in movie history.

The villain in this case, played by teeth-grinningly and devilish Anthony Hopkins, is a cannibal, sure, but also a sophisticated, knowledgeable and menacing human being. He's certainly not some 2-D cartoon of a hack and slasher from the deep, dark woods.

Horror-buff buddies and directors Quentin Tarantino ("Pulp Fiction") and Robert Rodriguez ("Sin City") plan on releasing a series of horror films (the first one being "Grind House" coming in 2007) in the vein of vintage cult and exploitation films. While these movies will most definitely lack a fully-fleshed villain and other aspects of horror classics, what they will possess is a genuine exuberance for filmmaking. And just that facet alone is more refreshing than any other horror movie released in the 2000s.

If movie executives really wish to scare us, let them put out a respectable horror movie.

That would be frightening.

Contact Michael Lee at mlee3@scu.edu.