Absolute Horror Film Forum

Stephen, thanks for giving your thoughts on my post, I really enjoyed reading it. This is what we need more of on these forums :).

I'm glad you mentioned Pulse, one which I somehow completely forgot. I loved the original, and have yet to see the remake, mostly because I'm afraid to, but since you say it wasn't all bad, I'll probably bump it up on my Netflix queue, (great thing to have if your a horror movie buff and want to see hard to find flicks). The original film was so darkly terrifying. My take on the overall theme was that, with all of the technology, people are growing further and further apart from each other, spending more time online, texting on cellphones, etc, and in the end, we are pretty much ghosts of our former selves. The thought chilled me, and made me took a look around.

Another thing most American horror films lack these days. The ability to make me think. I must admit, we're getting better, but how I wish we could bring back films the way they were in the 70's and 80's, and I wasn't even alive then! Sure, they were cheaper, sure, a lot of the effects looked odd, especially that bright orangeish blood some 70's flicks have, (Dawn of the Dead), but back then, films were made with heart, they were the directors babies, they had a vision.

Now, filmmakers aren't even given a chance with big budget studio films, generally having to water down scripts to make it PG-13 so they can allow for a larger audience at the theatre. It's all about money these days. Too bad.

I'm glad you brought up the use of CGI compared to make-up effects. I couldn't agree with you more, it's one of the things that bothers me most about the current state of films. I believe that the creation of CGI was a jump forward for films, by far; we can do things now that we never could have done in the past, i.e. Sin City. However, CGI should only be used when it benefits the film, as it did in Sin City, because that gave it a look that made it interesting. But when we have ghosts, which can be created with some of the simplest make-up effects, being acted out by CGI cartoons, this burns the film to a crisp. I'm not scared anymore. I'm sighing at the thought of what the thing could have looked like had it been done realistically.

Someday, I'm hoping to be a horror filmmaker, and one thing I will try to show producers is this; look at Aliens, An American Werewolf in London, The Thing, hell, even Pumpkinhead for Christs sake, look at the things that can be done with make-up effects, things actually look a little real, things that the actors can actually interact with instead of losing some steam by acting at a greenscreen.

The sad thing is, I can't remember when CGI started to ruin our horror films. Generally it's only the low budget stuff now that you can find good old fashioned effects, such as May or The Descent, (and let's not forget that directors Dog Soldiers, a cheap favorite of mine).

I'm probably starting to rant, and I feel like I've expressed my point ;).

It's not all bad though. We're still getting some decent horror films in the theatres, regardless of CGI. The Mist, Cloverfield, etc. As long as we still HAVE horror films, that's what matters in the end, isn't it?

-Matt

-when you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you