Why I Enjoy Horror Movies

I've had this question brewing in my head for years, and when I tell people that I like horror movies, they look at me like I'm some kind of nutcase........which is probably true.  I bring this up because I think it needs to be addressed.  Horror, particularly in film, has not really gotten the respect it fully deserves.  With all the garbage that's been released in the past 20 years, it's kind of easy to see why.  If you look at it from a fan's perspective, there's more crap out there than good stuff, and it's kind of depressing.  When you look at it from a non-fan's perspective, all you see is "tasteless torture and gorefests."  While that is certainly prevalent in the genre, that's not necessarily what it's about, not from my perspective, anyhow.  Film-making is an art form.  Horror movies definitely still qualify as art, but a lot of people refuse to see it.  I call horror movies art, because it takes a lot of effort to put something together that has an impact.  Art is supposed to have some kind of impact.  It's going to be different from person to person, but the idea remains that these films are supposed to make you feel something.  Saying horror movies aren't art the way romantic comedies are, is like saying Van Gogh's art isn't art like the way Escher's is.  Two vastly different styles, but still art, nonetheless.

I'm drawn to dark stuff.  Dark movies, dark stories, dark novels, and video games.  I'm drawn to darkness.  There is beauty in darkness.  Take H.R Giger's work for example.  His stuff is very dark, erotic, and bio-mechanical in nature.  It's very bizarre stuff.  It was Giger that designed the creature for the film, Alien: A movie that was hailed for being one of the scariest and intense sci-fi/horror films ever made.  The designs of the creature and the sets are unique.  It's definitely artistic.  Violent, but artistic.  I think you can say the same thing for most horror movies....well, the good ones, anyway.  And it's not just the sets or costumes.  You also have to figure in the writing and the effects as well.  The effects in particular can be very artistic in the way that they're designed.  I've had people tell me, "Oh, anybody can make gory, gross-out effects."  And make it look good?  No.  Yeah, anybody can throw ketchup on somebody and call it blood, but it takes an artist to really do something with it to make it stand out.  When horror movies decapitate or dismember people, it's the people behind the scenes that make it work.  Most of the time, anyway.  I've seen some really terrible effects, mostly because they use CGI, and that's the cheap way out.  The best horror flicks are the ones where they use mostly practical effects, i.e. dummies and prosthetics.  CGI has it's place and it can be used to enhance certain scenes in a subtle way.

Now, I mentioned horror movies as art, so I can really delve into why I, as a film goer, enjoy horror movies.  I appreciate art in most of its forms, particularly film.  Horror movies, in particular, is where art really comes into play.  I don't enjoy horror movies just on artistic license.  I enjoy horror movies, because of the thrill of the hunt.  A lot of the slasher movies, like Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th involve the main villain hunting down victims.  It's thrilling.  It's intense.  But I think a lot of people would agree that the hunt may only be as good as it's payoff, i.e, the kill.  If the payoff isn't worth it, then all that tension has been for nothing.  This is why I hate horror movies where the kill is usually off-screen.  You've invested time, money and personal interest in the hunt, only not to see the result?  Rip-off.  Some would say, that less is more, and there's an artistic expression for not showing everything.  In many cases including Alien and Jaws, that is true, but in the Jason and Freddy movies, it doesn't work that way.  People want to see the monster, and they want to see the monster and the kill.  There is creativity in how people dispatched on screen, and if we are not allowed to see it, it doesn't necessarily bode well for the rest of the film.  One kill off-screen?  I can see that.  All the kills off-screen?  PG-13 crap.  Not all horror movies have to be rated R.  Movies like Insidious are PG-13 and they are still pretty damned effective.  But the R-rating allows for not just necessarily more bloodshed, but it also really allows the film to have an edge that it otherwise wouldn't have.  Not only that, but the R-rating also limits the amount of money a studio has to make a movie, which forces the special effects crew to really come up with something unusual and creative.  Take John Carpenter's The Thing for example.  That was a low-budget movie and yet the effects still stand up today after 32 years.  That's because Rob Bottin was given a challenge to create some really gruesome effects for a certain amount of money and he delivered.  You couldn't do that in a PG-13 movie.  Not ever.  Even today, when PG-13 movies are really pushing the boundary of the rating, there is still a limit to what you can show on screen.  The R rating is both limiting and liberating at the same time.

I'm a moviegoer.  I love movies.  I love what film-makers try to bring to the screen.  I just happen to be skewed towards the dark side, as a lot of horror fans are.  We enjoy the hunt and the kill.  We enjoy the intensity of these movies.  But we also appreciate the effort that goes into creating these films.  You really can't knock the effort that special effects crews put into making some of the most grotesque effects you will ever see.  It's a craft: An art form, as I've said before.  Tom Savini, the KNB effects group and others are all artists and masters of their craft.  That's just something I appreciate.  I love how it all comes together on the screen, but I also really enjoy SEEING how it's made.  That's why I love the behind-the-scenes features.  They really show what these people go through to bring you some really gruesome kills.  The horror genre in film has been treated, generally, as the red-headed stepchild of cinema, and it boggles my mind.  Horror is just as legitimate a genre as comedy or drama.  It's just a little bloodier.  Horror fans, in general, are pretty well-adjusted people.....most of the time.  You have a couple of lunatics from time to time.  But there is kind of a psychological part of horror movies that really gets our juices going.  Appreciating a horror movies is almost like appreciating a Van Gogh painting, albeit it's a bit more violent and it moves.

All that being said, I can certainly understand why people don't like horror movies.  They can be frightening at times, gross at others, and generally uncomfortable for most people.  And to tell the truth, I don't watch a lot of new horror movie anymore, because they're shit.  A lot of them are sci-fi channel bad.  Except for Sharknado.  That movie is awesome.  Really bad, but awesome.  The quality of a good horror film lies not just with the visual effects team, but also the writers, the directors and actors.  If a horror movie is really good, then it will be remembered for being good.  It doesn't have to be original, but it does have to be good and have some real effort put into it.  So, those are my thoughts as to why I enjoy horror movies.