Horror movies and their fans are something that has confused me for a while, mainly because of their passion for the genre that very rarely produces any quality cinematic pieces. Naturally this is not always the case as with any genre there are always the good with the bad, but my feeling is that the majority of the movies that fall within this genre suck! Obviously, a lot of the issues within cinema and reviewing it is that everyone has their own opinion, and somebody could have a polar opposite opinion without either of those people being wrong, but in my opinion horror movies are generally awful.
Admittedly I have not watched a lot of horror movies in my time, but I am instantly turned off to them and find myself not wanting to watch them for a few reasons. The main reason being is how poor the movies are themselves, the acting is typically poor and laughable, some of the worst performances that I have ever seen in cinema have come as a result of a horror flick. If some evil demon is following you and terrorising you, I would expect the main protagonist to at least seem worried about it. But most horror films fall short of the mark by a clear distant. An example of what I mean by this is Nicolas Cage in the Wicker man. Personally, I am normally a fan of Nicolas Cage but this film and his performance in it were both absolutely dreadful. Obviously, I am aware that not all performances in Horror movies are poor, there are also good ones, but they are rare, especially compared to the amount of bad performances.
Secondly the actual stories that come with horror movies are normally shocking, once again this is not always the case but typically horror movies are just simply awful story-wise. Obviously most films are over dramatized in order to create entertainment, but horror movies take that issue to a whole new level, whether it be the stupidity from the characters involved in the movie, or whether it’s just the total randomness of the events that occur in the movie itself. A lot of horror films seem so aimless as if they are just making up the story as they go along. In the Tall Grass is a good example, it is often hard to follow as you never know where they are taking the film, it is also hard to concentrate on any kind of story and content when they’re constantly trying to shove jump scares down your throat, often horror movies seem to be focused on trying to scare the watcher rather than entertain with cinema, but I guess that is a subjective opinion and that is the great bit about cinema as it is all subjective. My point being is that it is hard to try and take viewers through a story or narrative whilst you are trying to scare them, especially when mostly these jump scares aren’t natural they are purely fabricated at random times during a movie just to try and catch you off guard even if it does not make sense to have a jump scare in the movie at that time.
Obviously, certain horror movies are considered classics and they aren’t something that I am trying to hack down. But the genre is easily the most hit and miss in the world of cinema, horror movies tend to have a 5% chance of being great and when the director, producers, writers and actors get it right then they can make a really edgy, intense and interesting movie, but often horror movies do fall short of that mark and often feel misguided. This is why most horror movies are considered poor movies amongst reviewers. According to Statista.com Horror falls 6th in the list of genres for box office earnings so even the number of people that go and see these movies shows the standard of movie, obviously these stats cant just be taken at face value as typically people under the age of 18 cannot go and view the movie and this accounts for a massive amount of tickets, but none the less it is clear these movies fall short.
Anyways, thanks for reading my nonsense, as always, I expect people to disagree and that’s cool too.
Adios
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