Slow Paced Horror?

[🪦 GraveOctober ●]

Hey guys,I am sure, by far, that I am not the only one incredibly sick of these fast pace, "gory", horror tit-flicks! What ever happened to suspense in the horror genre? They over-complicate things now, simplicity would be bliss for me in the genre now. The film that had me thinking a lot about this was The Strangers. It features 2 people being terrorized over the period of a night. The realism, lack of score (yet playful very experimental score) made that movie really something worth checking out.My question is, why does more = scarier? I say if there was a zombie movie that tracked 2-3 people through the course of a day and their encounters with maybe 3-4 zombies the entire film would be fantastically amusing. With long drawn out shots, paranoia inflicting footage. I say REALISM will always win in a horror film for me. Even with situations such as the original Hellraiser, I'd still say it came off very realistic, at least until the cenobites got involved, but that's not the point.When NOTHING is done for shock value. When the score doesn't produce a string hit when the killer appears. My favorite example from the Strangers would be the first time you see the sack-face killer. Also, things like the record player skipping, things that would really terrorize you in reality.Opinions welcome, negative or positive.-Jon

[🪦 IbDaToNeGuY ●]

it died out years ago . just like every other good thing . will it come back , maybe but highly doubt it as the garbage these days is what makes money and hollywood wouldn't waste a dollar on a good suspence movie because it would bore todays degeneration

[🪦 Megatron ●]

yeah i guess its true that originality dosent exist anymore in horror movies....i do find it repetitive that most horror films still rely on "the quiet scene with the girl walking through a dark corridor and opening a door only to find nothing and when she turns around, the "loud boom" music plays and you see the killer standing behind her".....i guess everything's been done already and theres not much originality in horror films these days........like the Halloween remake which abandoned the original's slow pace with a faster story and more blood, gore to make up for the terror.......on the other hand films like Paranormal Activity was excellent on slow pace because nothing really happens on screen and it makes the film more scary because the viewer may not know what would happen next....i guess we're stuck in a era with mostly horror remakes that rely on a faster story with more blood, gore, and advanced cgi that makes up for the outdated originals........................RIP slow paced horror

[🪦 predator ●]

I agree less is usually more. Thats why sequels almost always suck, and its not just horror. We always have to outdo the original, or the norm. Lets amp up everything for the sequel. Wrong! I expect it may be at a bigger risk to fail if they don't. Maybe thats why, its just riskier to do a movie that is different from today's norm.`

[🪦 mpetrie ●]

Paranormal Activity was a pretty slow-paced horror flick and IMO, was one of the best horror films I've ever seen. It's not often that my heart pounds harder in my chest during that silence.

[🪦 englundisgod ●]

What do you expect, their not marketing them to the horror fans. Their being marketed to the 13-20 A.D.D. generation. I might fall under the category because im "young" (20yrs)But im not, Ive been a horror fan since 6 yrs old. I grew up and cut my teeth on the movies we all talk about here. Real movies with real atmosphere. Now-a-days horror is just a cash cow to market to young kids/teens Alot of whom arent horror fans. Nothing but jump scares and pointless gore.I love gore, but at the same time i like a story, something that isnt just jump scares and gross out. I remember watching movies when I was younger where ther's a great/creepy killer etc But the atmosphere was way more effective. just the way the set was painted/lit. Look at john Carpenters Halloween People said that was a terrifying film. There was barely any blood in that movie. Incredible atmosphere, they managed to create that with blue lighting and john carpenters score. - Aaron

[🪦 JasonV123 ●]

"Slow paced", story driven, character developing, suspense horror has obviously not done a good job at surviving the era of instant gratification. Movies like the SAW series and RZ's Halloween have lost touch with what makes a horror movies scary. We're in this rut of show all, gross out, gore fests that's not hard to watch because it's scary, it's hard to watch because it's stupid. DON'T GET ME WRONG I do like gorey Zombie movies and the occasional kill scene of some slasher flick but directors don't have any class when it comes to gore anymore. Recently almost every kill is seen on camera and choreographed to lord know what end, and all of this work goes into "how this character is going to die". Then I watch the movie and they don't develop the character... I could really care less what happens to that character. Gore is just seen so overused now I'm completely desensitized to it. More recent movies I've seen that I feel are the exception to this rule... Let the Right One In, Pontypool, 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later. Nothing else really springs to mind and I know "28 days" is already 8 years old but I honestly don't think there are that many movies like this. Just Cliffs Notes version remake/imagining movies that just twice the pace and half the story. Hitting on the famous scenes and leaving you with nothing but empty pockets and a feeling of "Why do I even go to the movies anymore".

[🪦 knewby ●]

Great topic! Kids today, sadly 2/3 of this board, can't sit still long enough for a plot to slow simmer and boil, and to let characters develop. Just read any top 10 list and the older classics aren't held in high regard anymore. Movies like ALIEN, Exorcist that don't rapid fire images every 2 seconds are LOST in this generation of instant gratification.........Larry

[evilsmellyclown]

i love the gore and the titties, but i agree when all is said and done that movies like halloween 1 & 2, the exorcist, alien, TCM and friday the 13th are the greatest. when i saw the topic about how many people on the boards thought FT13th sucked, my heart sank and to be honest it made me sad. how, how does the movie that started everything we hold near and dear to our hearts suck? i guess we are just the old crusty guys in the hobby. i know that there are some young guys that "get it" but it seems they are few and far between. however, it really makes us special in a way, these are OUR generations movies. know one really "gets it" like we do, and that makes the movies and us unique.i personally cant wait for the popularity of horror to die in hollywood so that we can get back to the businesss of seeing some really good horor movies made. i have scraped the idea of watching any more of these so called pg-13 horror movies. The Ring came out and that was really cool, then the avalanche of crap started to flow and has not stopped since. holywood is a fickle parasite and they will suck this dry and move on to the next host soon. move on and dont look back blood sucker, we die hards will be here until the day we are rotting in the ground like a festering corpse, then we will wake up, dig ourselves out, eat some brains and watch some TCM (original ). LOL.

[🪦 Slasher Asher ●]

This is my kinda thread. Good horror movies are rare these days. And when they do come around it is usually not from Hollywood. Like 28 days & weeks later, Let the right one in and Shaun of the Dead.Reading old Fangoria magazines and listening to the commentaries of my favourite movies makes me suspect that the reason might be that back in the 80's most horror filmmakers were more creative and put their heart and soul in to their projects. While nowadays people do horror just to earn loads of cash and don't care if the movie is bad as long as it is financially successful.Visiting forums like this one and reading all the hype and positive response for dull crap like unimaginative Platinum Dunes remakes and torture porn really saddens me and makes me lose hope in todays generation of horror fans.