Horror movies seem to be considered second hand movies, but that is not really true. Sometimes,
movies in this category are disregarded or simply rejected. Of course, there are many execrable horror movies, but
just like in the case of any other type or cinematography, these things happen. Not all movies are successful,
because of various reasons, such as the director’s lack of inspiration and imagination, of experience,
professionalism or knowledge in the field of cinematography.
The idea of a scary movie is to always keep its audience out of breath and wondering “what if…”.
A whole range of unknown elements, situations and outcomes, different types of manifesting fear – darkness,
shadows, open or closed doors, odd looking objects or characters, blood, pain -, spooky soundtracks and sounds, all
these, introduced professionally, lead to a horror movie not very easy to forget in the end after watching it, always seeming so real,
as it reflects things from everyone’s reality. We all have our phobias, our dark secrets, our limitations. We
each live our little dramas in uncomfortable situations.
This is what horror movies are about Drama. Drama and relationships, may they be between human
beings, between natural and supernatural things, between the known and the unknown or the possible and the
impossible. Themes are very important with horror movies, each type of fear being unique and unbearable. Of course,
themes can also refer to the situations implied in the movie. Up to the present, one of the most successful and
effective horror movie themes has been that of Halloween, Halloween movies being quite a blast.
When it comes to horror movies, most of their amateurs are teenagers and women. There are
different ways to appreciate a horror movie, but the best ones are for sure not those which are made in the idea of
simply showing shocking things. Such films end up having no sense of limitation, overreacted and fake and sometimes
even predictable, which annuls the concept of a horror movie in fact. In a better or worse way, many horror movies
combine dramatic and comic elements, but that does not make them any better.
Horror Movies and Halloween
It is quite difficult to make a horror movie to enter the history of the best of the best in
cinematography like some have succeeded in making. In fact, horror movies each have their own history, may it be at
the level of the success they have had or at plot level. Halloween movies, twisted Valentine’s movies, cave movies,
each have their particularities and have dominated this branch of cinematography over the years. Even if you are
not exactly a fan of scary movies, you must have heard about “The Exorcist”, which was considered the best horror
movie ever made and was based on a real case of exorcism which took place in Washington. This film won two Oscars
and was nominated for the Best Picture award. Also, “Psycho” is a title well-fixed among horror amateurs.
This film gave the most memorable scary shower scene in the history of cinema and was awarded
Best Thriller in 2001, by the American Film Institute. Talking about horror movie themes, such as Halloween, this
holiday inspired in fact one of the most prestigious horror movies of them all and definitely the best Halloween
movie ever made. John Carpenter’s movie, with Michael Myers’s story killing his sister, being put in a mental
hospital, being experimented on, escaping from there and killing babysitters afterwards, was a real blast at the
box office, with almost fifty million dollars earned.
Of course, giving so impressive characters, horror movies are one of the most influential
sources of inspiration when it comes to celebrating Halloween, on the 31st of October. Frankesteins, Phantoms of
the Opera, Freddie Kruegers, Leatherfaces, Dr. Evils or different Michaels Myers costumes go marching in on you
trick-or-treating, threatening to kill you or at least hurt you if they do not get any candy.
Also, very popular Halloween costumes are those of mad scientists, mad doctors, zombie doctors,
scary and very ugly monsters, mutants of all kinds, black or shaved cats, mummies, ghosts, demons, devils or
vampires. Also, watching horror movies around and on the night of Halloween has become quite a tradition, being the
equivalent of telling scary stories stimulating the evil and the spirits. So, whenever children do not have any
ideas of a Halloween costume for the Halloween party, they have skimming through the history of horror movies as an
option and they can never miss if they open this door.
Types of Horror Movies
Over the years, horror movies have been divided in different categories and not even today is
there a precise classification of this type of movies.One classification finds them as supernatural, scientific and
naturalistic movies. Supernatural movies are those dealing with monsters coming from the supernatural such as
zombies, vampires, ghosts, little demons or werewolves, creatures coming from an endless psychic reaction to the
mysteries and unexplained features of the earth. Scientific movies, on the other side, are those starring mad
scientists who create mutants, monsters destroying the world or ending up saving it.
Last but not least, naturalist horror movies are those which do not have supernatural creatures
or phenomena, just simple unexpected elements and situations which induce fear; movies which could theoretically
come true in each of our lives, in extremely undesirable and unfortunate conditions and situations.
Horror movie genres are also given by their themes, so there can be vampire horror movies,
madmen, demons, ghost stories, cannibals, monsters or mad scientists, zombies, Frankenstein, spirits, Satanist
horror movies, slasher horror movies or haunted house horror movies and many others, according to the characters or
stereotyped elements you can encounter throughout their story. Additionally, you can find rape and revenge horror
films.
Also, according to the theme or nature of the film, the way it is perceived and composed, there
are comedy horror films, science fiction horror films, animated ones, psychological ones or religious horror
films.
Upcoming Horror Movies
As some horror films have had tremendous success over the years, their directors
have chosen releasing sequels as well, a phenomenon which occurred in the case of plenty of the
horror movies we know. One upcoming such sequel is “Saw VI”, directed by Kevin Greutert and
starring Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Tanedra Howrd or Shawnee Smith, the story being based on
agent Strahm’s death and detective Hoffman’s pursuit of the Jigsaw legacy and ending with the
discovery of Jigsaw’s scheme.
Another promising upcoming horror movie would be “Antichrist”, a supernatural
film starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg about a couple which goes to their isolated
cabin, “Eden”, trying to fix their marriage, but end up having only bad surprises, their marriage
being the last thing they can think about in those moments. The film is directed by Lars von Trier
and is to be released in October 2009.
Last but not least from our three upcoming horror movie selection is “Blood: The
Last Vampire”, a film with samurais, swordplay and vampires, describing the story of vampire Saya,
a governmental agent who hunts demons in Japan, after he Second World War. The horror is directed
by Chris Nahon and starring Gianna Jun, Allison Miller and Liam Cunningham.
Horror movies