There are two truths about Horror films that cannot be disputed. They can be really good and they can be really bad. When done right a horror film can be a fun, exciting and rewarding experiences for its viewer. A film that combines the best elements of drama, action and suspense wrapped up into an intriguing thriller. Horror can be mesmerizing and captivating. It at times can even be the best cinema has to offer.
It can also be the worst cinema has to offer. When done wrong, horror films can be as bad as it gets. They can be an awful, miserable and even painful experience. Horror at times can SUCK.
If you give horror a fair shake, you'll most likely come across films that you love and ones that you hate, with a bunch of ones in between. As an avid fan of horror and furthermore a passionate, staunch defender of horror it isn't easy for me to admit this. The bad horror films far outnumber the good ones. It's easier to find ten horrible horror films than it is to find one good one. If you get on Netflix and search for one, you'll sift through dozens upon dozens of garbage before you run across a good one. It wasn't any different during the days of rentals either. If there were fifty movies to choose from in the horror section, chances are the bad ones outnumbered the good ones.
Why is this? Why are the really good horror movies hard to find? Why are the shitty ones a dime a dozen?
Why do so many horror movies fail?
I've given this a lot of thought. I realize that not everyone has the same views as I do but I also see a lot of similarities in the horror films that are popular and beloved verses the ones that people seem to loathe. I do believe that the horror films that fit nice and neat into the "suck" category usually have at least one of the, if not a combination of the, if not all of the problems listed below.
Uninteresting Protagonist(s)
One of the reasons so many horror films fail is because writers, directors and producers fail to realize that audiences need interesting protagonist as much as they do interesting antagonist. They make the fatal mistake of thinking that as long as the killer is interesting, then nothing else is needed.
Have you ever came across a dead animal in the road? How do you feel when you see a raccoon or a snake? How do you feel when you see a dog or a cat? Now you may be the exception, but most people are going to feel differently seeing a dead dog in the road than they are a dead raccoon. The reason why is because we as human beings have a connection with dogs. We see them as our pets. Our friends. For many of us, dogs are our family, beloved more than our human relatives. It hurts to see a dog the road because we make the connotation that someone somewhere loved that dog and someone somewhere is going to be heartbroken and depressed to learn about his/her passing. While the loss of life of the raccoon may also be sad to us, we don't care anywhere near as much about it as we do the dog, because we don't have an emotional investment in the raccoon.
Protagonist in horror films are no different. What makes scenes in a horror film frightening to us? What makes them thrilling? Why do we care about what happens? Or why do we not care?
Why when watching John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN for the first time were you on the edge of your seat when Michael Myers was after Laurie Strode? Why did the sense of urgency have you glued to the screen in anticipation of what would happen next? Yet when watching HALLOWEEN RESURRECTION with Michael Myers killing a bunch of random teenagers, you found yourself bored and apathetic to the fates they faced. Why is that?
The answer is simple. Laurie Strode is a well written, compelling and interesting character. As was Dr. Sam Loomis. Those two characters, the protagonists of the film had every bit as much to do with why John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN was a success as did the antagonist Michael Myers.
You'll find this to be true with a lot of horror films. Chucky had Andy Barclay in CHILD'S PLAY. Freddy Kruger had Nancy in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. If we invest in and care about these characters, then we have an emotional response to the danger they are in. We empathize with the situation and fear the consequences that could result.
Moustapha Akkad, producer of the original eight HALLOWEEN films, was once asked why he felt HALLOWEEN V: THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS was one of the most hated of the franchise. He said he felt it was because the character Rachel had been killed off early in the film. He's right. She was an interesting character, the heroine who helped Dr. Loomis to stop Michael Myers in the previous film. Killing her off and replacing her with Tina, who wasn't at all interesting, took the steam out of the story. Audiences were disappointed and frustrated.
Horror needs good protagonist(s) as much as it needs good antagonist(s). Jesus needs his Satan. Satan needs his Jesus. It's what makes the whole thing engaging.
SACRIFICING STORY FOR TWIST
A twist in a horror film can make it or break it. THE SIXTH SENSE had such a clever twist, that helped the film to be immensely successful that here we are nearly twenty years later and movies are still trying to capitalize on the idea by throwing twists into their films left and right. Only making a twist work is a very difficult task. Even M. Night Shyamalan, who wrote and directed THE SIXTH SENSE has failed in trying to duplicate the success of his 1999 smash hit.
Twists generally have one of two problems.
A - They are way too revealing and easy to figure out. You didn't even have to be looking for a clue in Shyamaln's THE VILLAGE to figure out the ending five minutes into the film. While it took a little longer, you'd have had to have been sleeping through THE HAPPENING to not know how it was going to end. Both film's might have been better and saved from criticism if they had concentrated on making their story stronger, than to have worried so much about trying to shock their audience with a twist.
B - The twist is nonsensical and doesn't make any sense. This seems like it should be common sense but unfortunately it isn't always. The twist in a film needs to add up and be plausible. Furthermore there should be hints along the course of the story, to where when the truth is revealed at the story's conclusion, audience members slap themselves in the head for not realizing it all along. There is nothing clever or neat or shocking about an ending that makes no sense. HIGH TENSION for example has a twist that fails in a multitude of ways. If you go back and watch the film, the revelation makes no sense. There is no way, given the evidence that the film provides that anyone could have logically came to that conclusion. A film's twist cannot contradict the story. If it does, even if the rest of the film works, the nonsensical ending will ruin the experience.
And there are other reasons horror movies fail. More so on the technical and budgetary end of things. Horror films are usually cheap in comparison to other films to produce. Therefore the directing, the writing and the acting may suffer. The cliched saying, "You get what you pay for" does sometimes ring true in the world of cinema.
Yet I've found, even with B films, films with an extremely low budget if they avoid the two cardinal mistakes I've defined above, they are in the very least watchable, if not at least on some level good.
Horror films both good and bad will continue to be made. I've sat through enough shit in the past couple of years with modern day horror films that I could stand to see some more good ones. Maybe one day I'll meet one of my dreams face to face and with me as the screenplay writer and Jason Janes at the director, we'll get to make our own horror film.
