7. 28 Days Later (2002)
Romero is the godfather of the zombie film, but Danny Boyle deserves
credit for fanning the undead flames. The director’s thriller took
zombies seriously, and introduced a new wrinkle to the genre. These
zombie could run.
The British film gave the sleeping zombie movement a wake-up call,
paving the way for everything from a solid “Dawn of the Dead” remake (2004) to Max Brooks’ influential book “World War Z” (2006) and one of the horror comedy’s best mashups – 2004’s “Shaun of the Dead.”
The zombie craze really hasn’t stopped since Boyle’s vision reached the states.
Even the worst horror films have a defining moment which reminds us why
we choose to hunker down in the dark to scare ourselves silly. Other
horror movies do something else. They fundamentally change the movie >landscape, and sometimes even pop culture in the process.
The following 9 films did just that. They didn’t simply leave us
breathless. They redefined the entire genre of horror.
1. Psycho (1960)
Alfred Hitchcock defied conventional wisdom with 1960’s “Psycho” in
more ways than one. Respected auteurs weren’t prone to the horror
genre, and that’s being generous. Plus, the unwritten production codes
of the era prohibited filmmakers from dabbling in blood, gore and other >horror movie essentials.
Hitchcock clung to the era’s limitations and still left us clutching
our arm rests.
The iconic shower scene alone stunned audiences, and for all the right >reasons. A signature score that’s synonymous with horror. Implied
violence, but nothing grotesque. Black and white blood circling the
drain, more chilling that gallons of red liquid oozing from any “Friday
the 13th” victim. And a comely heroine checking out long before the end >credits. That decision alone makes “Psycho” a one-of-a-kind thriller.
Director Gus Van Zant attempted a shot-by-shot remake in 1998, a
cinematic stunt with little payoff or urgency. The original remains an >essential Halloween treat, leaving a trail of artists to parody or
pilfer from its shock value, but never equal it.
2. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
George A. Romero kickstarted his career on Pittsburgh’s iconic kiddie
show “Mister Rogers Neighborhood.” Yes, really. Years later, Romero
created the template for the modern zombie movie. Talk about range.
His 1968 feature film debut, originally dubbed “Night of the Flesh
Eaters,” cemented his status as a go-to shock auteur. Only “Dead”
didn’t immediately launch our current zombie craze. It took time, two
“Dead” sequels from Romero himself and a culture obsessed with
dystopian stories to make that happen. Romero simply lit the flame on
that slow-burning fuse. Directors, and a certain AMC series, have been >tracing his template ever since.
“Night of the Living Dead” holds up beautifully despite its microscopic >budget and archaic FX. The zombie elements are all there, from the
staggering hordes to the heroes trapped in a house that’s no match for
the zombie invasion.
Lather, rinse, repeat. It almost never fails, and it’s all thanks to
Romero’s horrifying “Night.”
3. Halloween (1978)
It’s the movie that mainstreamed the “slasher” sub-genre, for better
and certainly worse.
Director John Carpenter, who also created the film’s unforgettable
score, told the tale of a young man who does his dirty work on All
Hallows Eve.
Everything clicked for Carpenter, from a game “final girl” (Jamie Lee
Curtis) to choreographed scares that endure after multiple viewings.
It’s a master class in suspense, tension and pacing.
That signature mask – crafted from William Shatner’s inimitable mug –
did the rest.
“Halloween” made Carpenter a Hollywood legend, even if his subsequent
films ranged from inspired (“The Thing”) to insipid (“Ghosts of Mars”).
What the director indirectly did, though, is unleash a stream of
inferior slasher movies on an unsuspecting public. Sadly, about 8 in 10
are either awful or a fraction as good as “Halloween.”
Carpenter set the bar too darn high, but his imitators keep on trying.
4. Alien (1979)
In space, no one can hear you scream. It’s the perfect tag line for a
perfect sci-fi/horror mashup.
Director Ridley Scott’s masterpiece launched a massive movie franchise
and one of the best film sequels of all time (1986’s “Aliens”). The
original film remains a pristine shocker, deftly blending character
beats, claustrophobic sets and a heroine as good as any in the modern
era – Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley.
The film also left us with arguably the greatest movie monster of all
time. And, year after year, horror films copy that xenomorph critter
with poor to middling results. Films as recent as this year’s “Sputnik” >attempted to upgrade the “Alien” model.
Nice try. Nothing compares to Scott’s vision, and nothing likely ever
will.
5. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Why does Jonathan Demme’s film matter? Let’s start with Oscar. The film
swept the major Academy Award categories for the year, including Best >Picture, Best Actress (Jodie Foster) and Best Actor (Anthony Hopkins, >although his modest screen time suggests a Best Supporting Actor was
more appropriate).
All that Oscar love came for a gruesome movie that doesn’t check any of
the standard awards season boxes. It was too good, too unsettling, to
ignore and, in the process, it gave horror a well-deserved credibility
boost. A year later Coppola returned to the genre with “Dracula,”
attracting an A-list cast in the process.
“Silence’s” success gave actors an excuse to tackle genre material,
something they may have avoided in a pre-“Silence” world.
Demme’s enduring legacy, aided and abetted by Hopkins, is Hannibal
Lecter. The cannibal killer quickly joined pop culture’s rogues gallery
of monsters, a place he cemented with two follow-up films, a
dispiriting prequel and the brilliant NBC series, “Hannibal.”
“The Silence of the Lambs” also goosed our interest in criminal
profiling, a passion that sparked Netflix’s successful “Mindhunter”
series, among related projects.
6. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Hate found footage movies? Abhor films that create faux online
campaigns meant to boost their credibility? Blame this absurdly
profitable shocker, one of the biggest Hollywood curveballs ever
thrown, for both brief trends.
Three young, clueless filmmakers head to the woods to learn the truth
behind an urban legend, and they get a crash course in the old saw, “be >careful what you wish for…”
The low budget film used the main characters’ cameras to chart the
action, meaning the filmmakers leaned on cheap, grainy footage without
a hint of FX treats to keep us off guard.
The film’s production budget? An absurdly low $60,000. Its global box
office tally? $248 million. For that we got a giddy sense of the
unknown, and the growing horror felt by the filmmakers.
That “found footage” gimmick caught everyone by surprise at the time,
and it allowed indie filmmakers to join the mainstream with their own >micro-budgeted projects. The gimmick faded after a while, but not
before sparking “Blair Witch’s” spiritual cousin, the “Paranormal
Activity” franchise.
Part of “Blair Witch’s” success came from a fraudulent online campaign >suggesting the film wasn’t fiction at all. Nonsense, of course, but it
let Hollywood marketers tap into the emerging Internet culture.
We’re much savvier about online hoaxes today, but at the time plenty of >people feared this “Project” was the real deal.
7. 28 Days Later (2002)
Romero is the godfather of the zombie film, but Danny Boyle deserves
credit for fanning the undead flames. The director’s thriller took
zombies seriously, and introduced a new wrinkle to the genre. These
zombie could run.
The British film gave the sleeping zombie movement a wake-up call,
paving the way for everything from a solid “Dawn of the Dead” remake
(2004) to Max Brooks’ influential book “World War Z” (2006) and one of
the horror comedy’s best mashups – 2004’s “Shaun of the Dead.”
The zombie craze really hasn’t stopped since Boyle’s vision reached the >states.
8. Saw (2004)
Director James Wan’s feature film debut sparked one of the genre’s
shortest trends to date, and thank goodness for that. Enter the Torture
Porn era.
The genre leaned heavily on practical FX and our lust for blood, gore
and more. While some horror films practiced restraint with the
killings, these films zoomed in on that mayhem. You couldn’t look away.
The 2004 film “Saw” hit it big at the box office, sparking a never-
ending franchise which returns in a new form next year with Chris
Rock’s “Spiral.”
Eli Roth’s “Hostel” hit theater a year after “Saw,” solidifying the
garish trend. His sequel, “Hostel II” trotted out similar tactics two
years later but nabbed less than twice the box office receipts. The >blood-soaked trend lacked legs.
The third “Hostel,” a straight to DVD affair, capped the trilogy and >suggested the Torture Porn mainstream death.
The movement did deliver one of the most upsetting, and underrated,
horror films of the 21st century. Yes “The Human Centipede’s” sequels
were horrible in all the wrong ways, but the original film is a classic
for those with cast-iron stomachs.
9. Get Out (2017)
What is a sketch comic like Jordan Peele doing in the horror genre?
Reminding us that socially conscious horror movies can still make us
scream. Peele’s film boasts a left-of-center thesis – woke liberals are >capably of horribly racist acts. The film doesn’t coast on its
progressive laurels, though. “Get Out” grabs us from the opening scene,
and smartly deployed reveals keep our attention to the very end.
The film makes progressive horror hip again, and we’ll see how far the
trend stretches. The recent “Antebellum” shows the “Get Out” formula
isn’t easy to follow, and that’s being kind.
Peele isn’t the first horror director to add liberal messages to his
movies. Romero’s work comments on racism (“Night of the Living Dead”), >consumerism (“Dawn of the Dead”) and media overload (“Diary of the
Dead”).
Great horror can send a message, but the best shockers make sure the
scares come first.
On Tue, 13 Oct 2020 18:20:30 -0400, Ubiquitous <weberm@polaris.net>
wrote:
Even the worst horror films have a defining moment which reminds us why
we choose to hunker down in the dark to scare ourselves silly. Other
horror movies do something else. They fundamentally change the movie
landscape, and sometimes even pop culture in the process.
The following 9 films did just that. They didn’t simply leave us
breathless. They redefined the entire genre of horror.
1. Psycho (1960)
Alfred Hitchcock defied conventional wisdom with 1960’s “Psycho” in
more ways than one. Respected auteurs weren’t prone to the horror
genre, and that’s being generous. Plus, the unwritten production codes
of the era prohibited filmmakers from dabbling in blood, gore and other
horror movie essentials.
Hitchcock clung to the era’s limitations and still left us clutching
our arm rests.
The iconic shower scene alone stunned audiences, and for all the right
reasons. A signature score that’s synonymous with horror. Implied
violence, but nothing grotesque. Black and white blood circling the
drain, more chilling that gallons of red liquid oozing from any “Friday
the 13th” victim. And a comely heroine checking out long before the end
credits. That decision alone makes “Psycho” a one-of-a-kind thriller.
Director Gus Van Zant attempted a shot-by-shot remake in 1998, a
cinematic stunt with little payoff or urgency. The original remains an
essential Halloween treat, leaving a trail of artists to parody or
pilfer from its shock value, but never equal it.
2. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
George A. Romero kickstarted his career on Pittsburgh’s iconic kiddie
show “Mister Rogers Neighborhood.” Yes, really. Years later, Romero
created the template for the modern zombie movie. Talk about range.
His 1968 feature film debut, originally dubbed “Night of the Flesh
Eaters,” cemented his status as a go-to shock auteur. Only “Dead”
didn’t immediately launch our current zombie craze. It took time, two
“Dead” sequels from Romero himself and a culture obsessed with
dystopian stories to make that happen. Romero simply lit the flame on
that slow-burning fuse. Directors, and a certain AMC series, have been
tracing his template ever since.
“Night of the Living Dead” holds up beautifully despite its microscopic >> budget and archaic FX. The zombie elements are all there, from the
staggering hordes to the heroes trapped in a house that’s no match for
the zombie invasion.
Lather, rinse, repeat. It almost never fails, and it’s all thanks to
Romero’s horrifying “Night.”
3. Halloween (1978)
It’s the movie that mainstreamed the “slasher” sub-genre, for better >> and certainly worse.
Director John Carpenter, who also created the film’s unforgettable
score, told the tale of a young man who does his dirty work on All
Hallows Eve.
Everything clicked for Carpenter, from a game “final girl” (Jamie Lee
Curtis) to choreographed scares that endure after multiple viewings.
It’s a master class in suspense, tension and pacing.
That signature mask – crafted from William Shatner’s inimitable mug – >> did the rest.
“Halloween” made Carpenter a Hollywood legend, even if his subsequent
films ranged from inspired (“The Thing”) to insipid (“Ghosts of Mars”).
What the director indirectly did, though, is unleash a stream of
inferior slasher movies on an unsuspecting public. Sadly, about 8 in 10
are either awful or a fraction as good as “Halloween.”
Carpenter set the bar too darn high, but his imitators keep on trying.
4. Alien (1979)
In space, no one can hear you scream. It’s the perfect tag line for a
perfect sci-fi/horror mashup.
Director Ridley Scott’s masterpiece launched a massive movie franchise
and one of the best film sequels of all time (1986’s “Aliens”). The
original film remains a pristine shocker, deftly blending character
beats, claustrophobic sets and a heroine as good as any in the modern
era – Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley.
The film also left us with arguably the greatest movie monster of all
time. And, year after year, horror films copy that xenomorph critter
with poor to middling results. Films as recent as this year’s “Sputnik”
attempted to upgrade the “Alien” model.
Nice try. Nothing compares to Scott’s vision, and nothing likely ever
will.
5. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Why does Jonathan Demme’s film matter? Let’s start with Oscar. The film >> swept the major Academy Award categories for the year, including Best
Picture, Best Actress (Jodie Foster) and Best Actor (Anthony Hopkins,
although his modest screen time suggests a Best Supporting Actor was
more appropriate).
All that Oscar love came for a gruesome movie that doesn’t check any of
the standard awards season boxes. It was too good, too unsettling, to
ignore and, in the process, it gave horror a well-deserved credibility
boost. A year later Coppola returned to the genre with “Dracula,”
attracting an A-list cast in the process.
“Silence’s” success gave actors an excuse to tackle genre material,
something they may have avoided in a pre-“Silence” world.
Demme’s enduring legacy, aided and abetted by Hopkins, is Hannibal
Lecter. The cannibal killer quickly joined pop culture’s rogues gallery
of monsters, a place he cemented with two follow-up films, a
dispiriting prequel and the brilliant NBC series, “Hannibal.”
“The Silence of the Lambs” also goosed our interest in criminal
profiling, a passion that sparked Netflix’s successful “Mindhunter”
series, among related projects.
6. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Hate found footage movies? Abhor films that create faux online
campaigns meant to boost their credibility? Blame this absurdly
profitable shocker, one of the biggest Hollywood curveballs ever
thrown, for both brief trends.
Three young, clueless filmmakers head to the woods to learn the truth
behind an urban legend, and they get a crash course in the old saw, “be
careful what you wish for…”
The low budget film used the main characters’ cameras to chart the
action, meaning the filmmakers leaned on cheap, grainy footage without
a hint of FX treats to keep us off guard.
The film’s production budget? An absurdly low $60,000. Its global box
office tally? $248 million. For that we got a giddy sense of the
unknown, and the growing horror felt by the filmmakers.
That “found footage” gimmick caught everyone by surprise at the time,
and it allowed indie filmmakers to join the mainstream with their own
micro-budgeted projects. The gimmick faded after a while, but not
before sparking “Blair Witch’s” spiritual cousin, the “Paranormal
Activity” franchise.
Part of “Blair Witch’s” success came from a fraudulent online campaign >> suggesting the film wasn’t fiction at all. Nonsense, of course, but it
let Hollywood marketers tap into the emerging Internet culture.
We’re much savvier about online hoaxes today, but at the time plenty of
people feared this “Project” was the real deal.
7. 28 Days Later (2002)
Romero is the godfather of the zombie film, but Danny Boyle deserves
credit for fanning the undead flames. The director’s thriller took
zombies seriously, and introduced a new wrinkle to the genre. These
zombie could run.
The British film gave the sleeping zombie movement a wake-up call,
paving the way for everything from a solid “Dawn of the Dead” remake
(2004) to Max Brooks’ influential book “World War Z” (2006) and one of >> the horror comedy’s best mashups – 2004’s “Shaun of the Dead.”
The zombie craze really hasn’t stopped since Boyle’s vision reached the >> states.
8. Saw (2004)
Director James Wan’s feature film debut sparked one of the genre’s
shortest trends to date, and thank goodness for that. Enter the Torture
Porn era.
The genre leaned heavily on practical FX and our lust for blood, gore
and more. While some horror films practiced restraint with the
killings, these films zoomed in on that mayhem. You couldn’t look away.
The 2004 film “Saw” hit it big at the box office, sparking a never-
ending franchise which returns in a new form next year with Chris
Rock’s “Spiral.”
Eli Roth’s “Hostel” hit theater a year after “Saw,” solidifying the
garish trend. His sequel, “Hostel II” trotted out similar tactics two
years later but nabbed less than twice the box office receipts. The
blood-soaked trend lacked legs.
The third “Hostel,” a straight to DVD affair, capped the trilogy and
suggested the Torture Porn mainstream death.
The movement did deliver one of the most upsetting, and underrated,
horror films of the 21st century. Yes “The Human Centipede’s” sequels >> were horrible in all the wrong ways, but the original film is a classic
for those with cast-iron stomachs.
9. Get Out (2017)
What is a sketch comic like Jordan Peele doing in the horror genre?
Reminding us that socially conscious horror movies can still make us
scream. Peele’s film boasts a left-of-center thesis – woke liberals are >> capably of horribly racist acts. The film doesn’t coast on its
progressive laurels, though. “Get Out” grabs us from the opening scene, >> and smartly deployed reveals keep our attention to the very end.
The film makes progressive horror hip again, and we’ll see how far the
trend stretches. The recent “Antebellum” shows the “Get Out” formula >> isn’t easy to follow, and that’s being kind.
Peele isn’t the first horror director to add liberal messages to his
movies. Romero’s work comments on racism (“Night of the Living Dead”), >> consumerism (“Dawn of the Dead”) and media overload (“Diary of the
Dead”).
Great horror can send a message, but the best shockers make sure the
scares come first.
1. Dracula (1931.
Dracula was a commercial and critical success upon release, and led to several sequels and spin-offs. It has had a notable influence on
popular culture, and Lugosi's portrayal of Dracula established the
character as a cultural icon, as well as the archetypal vampire in
later works of fiction.
John Oliver of the British Film Institute credited the film with
establishing the "popular on-screen image of the vampire" and wrote
that "the cinematic horror genre was born with the release of
Dracula."
Even the worst horror films have a defining moment which reminds us why
we choose to hunker down in the dark to scare ourselves silly. Other
horror movies do something else. They fundamentally change the movie landscape, and sometimes even pop culture in the process.
On 10/14/2020 11:18 AM, Mack A. Damia wrote:
On Tue, 13 Oct 2020 18:20:30 -0400, Ubiquitous <weberm@polaris.net>
wrote:
Even the worst horror films have a defining moment which reminds us why
we choose to hunker down in the dark to scare ourselves silly. Other
horror movies do something else. They fundamentally change the movie
landscape, and sometimes even pop culture in the process.
The following 9 films did just that. They didn’t simply leave us
breathless. They redefined the entire genre of horror.
1. Psycho (1960)
Alfred Hitchcock defied conventional wisdom with 1960’s “Psycho” in
more ways than one. Respected auteurs weren’t prone to the horror
genre, and that’s being generous. Plus, the unwritten production codes
of the era prohibited filmmakers from dabbling in blood, gore and other
horror movie essentials.
Hitchcock clung to the era’s limitations and still left us clutching
our arm rests.
The iconic shower scene alone stunned audiences, and for all the right
reasons. A signature score that’s synonymous with horror. Implied
violence, but nothing grotesque. Black and white blood circling the
drain, more chilling that gallons of red liquid oozing from any “Friday
the 13th” victim. And a comely heroine checking out long before the end
credits. That decision alone makes “Psycho” a one-of-a-kind thriller.
Director Gus Van Zant attempted a shot-by-shot remake in 1998, a
cinematic stunt with little payoff or urgency. The original remains an
essential Halloween treat, leaving a trail of artists to parody or
pilfer from its shock value, but never equal it.
2. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
George A. Romero kickstarted his career on Pittsburgh’s iconic kiddie
show “Mister Rogers Neighborhood.” Yes, really. Years later, Romero
created the template for the modern zombie movie. Talk about range.
His 1968 feature film debut, originally dubbed “Night of the Flesh
Eaters,” cemented his status as a go-to shock auteur. Only “Dead”
didn’t immediately launch our current zombie craze. It took time, two
“Dead” sequels from Romero himself and a culture obsessed with
dystopian stories to make that happen. Romero simply lit the flame on
that slow-burning fuse. Directors, and a certain AMC series, have been
tracing his template ever since.
“Night of the Living Dead” holds up beautifully despite its microscopic
budget and archaic FX. The zombie elements are all there, from the
staggering hordes to the heroes trapped in a house that’s no match for
the zombie invasion.
Lather, rinse, repeat. It almost never fails, and it’s all thanks to
Romero’s horrifying “Night.”
3. Halloween (1978)
It’s the movie that mainstreamed the “slasher” sub-genre, for better
and certainly worse.
Director John Carpenter, who also created the film’s unforgettable
score, told the tale of a young man who does his dirty work on All
Hallows Eve.
Everything clicked for Carpenter, from a game “final girl” (Jamie Lee
Curtis) to choreographed scares that endure after multiple viewings.
It’s a master class in suspense, tension and pacing.
That signature mask – crafted from William Shatner’s inimitable mug –
did the rest.
“Halloween” made Carpenter a Hollywood legend, even if his subsequent
films ranged from inspired (“The Thing”) to insipid (“Ghosts of Mars”).
What the director indirectly did, though, is unleash a stream of
inferior slasher movies on an unsuspecting public. Sadly, about 8 in 10
are either awful or a fraction as good as “Halloween.”
Carpenter set the bar too darn high, but his imitators keep on trying.
4. Alien (1979)
In space, no one can hear you scream. It’s the perfect tag line for a
perfect sci-fi/horror mashup.
Director Ridley Scott’s masterpiece launched a massive movie franchise
and one of the best film sequels of all time (1986’s “Aliens”). The
original film remains a pristine shocker, deftly blending character
beats, claustrophobic sets and a heroine as good as any in the modern
era – Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley.
The film also left us with arguably the greatest movie monster of all
time. And, year after year, horror films copy that xenomorph critter
with poor to middling results. Films as recent as this year’s “Sputnik”
attempted to upgrade the “Alien” model.
Nice try. Nothing compares to Scott’s vision, and nothing likely ever
will.
5. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Why does Jonathan Demme’s film matter? Let’s start with Oscar. The film
swept the major Academy Award categories for the year, including Best
Picture, Best Actress (Jodie Foster) and Best Actor (Anthony Hopkins,
although his modest screen time suggests a Best Supporting Actor was
more appropriate).
All that Oscar love came for a gruesome movie that doesn’t check any of
the standard awards season boxes. It was too good, too unsettling, to
ignore and, in the process, it gave horror a well-deserved credibility
boost. A year later Coppola returned to the genre with “Dracula,”
attracting an A-list cast in the process.
“Silence’s” success gave actors an excuse to tackle genre material,
something they may have avoided in a pre-“Silence” world.
Demme’s enduring legacy, aided and abetted by Hopkins, is Hannibal
Lecter. The cannibal killer quickly joined pop culture’s rogues gallery
of monsters, a place he cemented with two follow-up films, a
dispiriting prequel and the brilliant NBC series, “Hannibal.”
“The Silence of the Lambs” also goosed our interest in criminal
profiling, a passion that sparked Netflix’s successful “Mindhunter”
series, among related projects.
6. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Hate found footage movies? Abhor films that create faux online
campaigns meant to boost their credibility? Blame this absurdly
profitable shocker, one of the biggest Hollywood curveballs ever
thrown, for both brief trends.
Three young, clueless filmmakers head to the woods to learn the truth
behind an urban legend, and they get a crash course in the old saw, “be
careful what you wish for…”
The low budget film used the main characters’ cameras to chart the
action, meaning the filmmakers leaned on cheap, grainy footage without
a hint of FX treats to keep us off guard.
The film’s production budget? An absurdly low $60,000. Its global box
office tally? $248 million. For that we got a giddy sense of the
unknown, and the growing horror felt by the filmmakers.
That “found footage” gimmick caught everyone by surprise at the time,
and it allowed indie filmmakers to join the mainstream with their own
micro-budgeted projects. The gimmick faded after a while, but not
before sparking “Blair Witch’s” spiritual cousin, the “Paranormal
Activity” franchise.
Part of “Blair Witch’s” success came from a fraudulent online campaign
suggesting the film wasn’t fiction at all. Nonsense, of course, but it
let Hollywood marketers tap into the emerging Internet culture.
We’re much savvier about online hoaxes today, but at the time plenty of
people feared this “Project” was the real deal.
7. 28 Days Later (2002)
Romero is the godfather of the zombie film, but Danny Boyle deserves
credit for fanning the undead flames. The director’s thriller took
zombies seriously, and introduced a new wrinkle to the genre. These
zombie could run.
The British film gave the sleeping zombie movement a wake-up call,
paving the way for everything from a solid “Dawn of the Dead” remake
(2004) to Max Brooks’ influential book “World War Z” (2006) and one of
the horror comedy’s best mashups – 2004’s “Shaun of the Dead.”
The zombie craze really hasn’t stopped since Boyle’s vision reached the
states.
8. Saw (2004)
Director James Wan’s feature film debut sparked one of the genre’s
shortest trends to date, and thank goodness for that. Enter the Torture
Porn era.
The genre leaned heavily on practical FX and our lust for blood, gore
and more. While some horror films practiced restraint with the
killings, these films zoomed in on that mayhem. You couldn’t look away.
The 2004 film “Saw” hit it big at the box office, sparking a never-
ending franchise which returns in a new form next year with Chris
Rock’s “Spiral.”
Eli Roth’s “Hostel” hit theater a year after “Saw,” solidifying the
garish trend. His sequel, “Hostel II” trotted out similar tactics two
years later but nabbed less than twice the box office receipts. The
blood-soaked trend lacked legs.
The third “Hostel,” a straight to DVD affair, capped the trilogy and
suggested the Torture Porn mainstream death.
The movement did deliver one of the most upsetting, and underrated,
horror films of the 21st century. Yes “The Human Centipede’s” sequels
were horrible in all the wrong ways, but the original film is a classic
for those with cast-iron stomachs.
9. Get Out (2017)
What is a sketch comic like Jordan Peele doing in the horror genre?
Reminding us that socially conscious horror movies can still make us
scream. Peele’s film boasts a left-of-center thesis – woke liberals are
capably of horribly racist acts. The film doesn’t coast on its
progressive laurels, though. “Get Out” grabs us from the opening scene,
and smartly deployed reveals keep our attention to the very end.
The film makes progressive horror hip again, and we’ll see how far the
trend stretches. The recent “Antebellum” shows the “Get Out” formula
isn’t easy to follow, and that’s being kind.
Peele isn’t the first horror director to add liberal messages to his
movies. Romero’s work comments on racism (“Night of the Living Dead”),
consumerism (“Dawn of the Dead”) and media overload (“Diary of the
Dead”).
Great horror can send a message, but the best shockers make sure the
scares come first.
1. Dracula (1931.
Dracula was a commercial and critical success upon release, and led to
several sequels and spin-offs. It has had a notable influence on
popular culture, and Lugosi's portrayal of Dracula established the
character as a cultural icon, as well as the archetypal vampire in
later works of fiction.
John Oliver of the British Film Institute credited the film with
establishing the "popular on-screen image of the vampire" and wrote
that "the cinematic horror genre was born with the release of
Dracula."
Trouble is, you could make similar sorts of arguments for FRANKENSTEIN >(1932), whose movie imagery is (I'd guess) far more indelible than
DRACULA's, and its star even more of a household name. The only nod I'd >allow (though maybe it's the important one) is that DRACULA came first
and maybe "greenlighted" FRANKENSTEIN with its success.
If any moviegoers of that era happen to be lurking, it'd be interesting
to know which of those flicks (if either) made the lasting impression...
Silence of the Lambs seems more a cop movie than a horror flick.
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