A Brief Essay on Horror History:

TrueAncestor · Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:17 am Post subject: A Brief Essay on Horror History:

This essay started out as a post to another thread about the Ring, but eventually I found myself writing for a while so I decided to just start another thread.

I, as a horror movie buff, know that there were many movies before the Ring that shaped the genre. Psycho, The Cube, and many others revolutionized what strange can be. Old school movies involving dracula, the thing, monsters etc. were only the stepping stones for what would follow. The human imagination is completely depraved, so we came up with ways to make it even more messed up. Also, the psychological horror genre is attributed to the French, as is with most genres. They started the horror revolution. Then in the 70's some truly messed up fellow made the freakish movie "Eraser Head". Truly this is the most horrific mind blowing movie you will ever see. I have yet to see any movie come even close to being as demented and disfigured. During the late 70's the attention to horror moved to the US, where slasher films began to make some big waves for their originality and downright scariness. I for one to not find these movies scary at all though. The final horror movie of note in the US is Then enter the Japanese. They truly show us how to do horror movies with classics like Gozu, Tomie, Wishing Stairs etc. It is the mid 80's or so that the strength of horror is most prominently seen in Japan. They focus not only on the gore aspect of it, but they stay away from the basic stereotypes of horror. You know, stupid scenes where it looks like its dead silence then something pops out, stupid female characters who get killed instantly, sex for no reason and somebody will die during it, needless nudity, static characters, etc. These stereotypes cannot be seen anywhere withing Japanese horror. Instead of having a gore fest like Americans insist on having, they instead focus on the mental states of the characters and even the viewer. Character development is a huge factor with the J-horror. Instead they made their own stereotypes. The "Avenging Spirit" is typical of J-horror, as we see in movies like The Ring, and Ju-On. But these movies were not THE revolutionizing movies that made those characters a mainstay in horror. These just happened to be the ones that made it popular. The Japanese also (thank god) resonated the importance of music in horror or lack thereof, something America has yet to do. Soon many copies followed, and we come to the present day. Yes of course this is not to belittle the importance of Ju-On and the Ring, because I agree that they did introduce and completely new style that I like to call "Creeping Horror", movies that stay with you so that you feel like something is sneaking up to you, and even when it finds you it will be a quiet meeting. I conclusion, I give the French props for starting the horror revolution, but in the end I give the Japanese the credit for keeping the genre alive. As we can tell from box-office sales alone, people are getting tired of watching people get chopped to death.

Please share with me your thoughts on the subject. And if you know any more information about the subject please share it.
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Itachi-kun · Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:37 am Post subject:

As far as the essay goes, it's good. The thing is though, that I'm not really into horror cause I always end up under my comforter with my war hammers and other weapons scared out of my wits.
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TrueAncestor · Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:40 am Post subject:

LOL I forgot that you were a little girl when it came to these things Itachi. Well at least you read it. Thanks. I estimate 5 more reads at the most. If that.
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Itachi-kun · Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:43 am Post subject:

I resent that little girl comment so very much! And the price to pay for being able to watch horror, is a dulled sense of paranoia that I'm not ready to give up on yet. So, I'll stick with my occult flicks.
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Bowser · Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 10:04 am Post subject:

Yeah, I prefer occult flicks too^^
Horror films are just....*shivver*.....yes, Im a girly pants, before you say it...

Well, its a good essay, but you saying that the Japanese dont focus on all the stereotypes is a BIG lie... yes, they make it more psychological, but they also add in as much gore as possible...
Heck, most Japanese horrors are more violant than Hollywood ones...

Heres an ep of a documentary focussing on Japanese pop culture, this ep touches on some thriller types...
part1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl4KVo_8Qa0
part2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgnPw7BoRKQ
part3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdPYX2Bn-tk
part4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwXNK2Fniog

sayoku · Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 5:40 pm Post subject:

bunch of pansies.

yep, its good, i think. though that was a huge paragraph.
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xenocrisis0153 · Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 2:44 am Post subject:

very interesting read, Truey, heehee

you seem to know what you're talking about, especially incorporating the international contributions to the genre. However, your "history" kinda ends at 1990. No mention of that huge bump in teen-slasher flicks of the 1980s and 1990s...

- Nightmare on Elm Street Series
- The Chucky Movies
- The Halloween Movies
- Final Destination Triology
- I Know What You Did Last Summer
- Urban Legends
- Scream Triology
- Jeepers Creepers
- the Toolbox Murders (ahhhhhhhhh!!!)

and the latest batch:
- Saw and Saw II
- House of Wax
....ummm, that's all I can recall for now

anyway, with a little bit of paragraph formatting, fattening out your statements and offering some more explanation to each section, you'll have an attractive and interesting article. And I just happen to be in the market for possibly hiring some more staff writers here, so keep up the good work (that goes for everyone!, heehee)
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TrueAncestor · Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 1:20 pm Post subject:

Cool almost exactly the amount of reads I thought I was going to get lol.

To be honest I didnt intend it to be that long. As I said it was intended to be a simple reply to a Ring thread in this section. For lenghts sake I left out most of the important little details, like the biggest French horror movie and some later American stuff, but since it was last minute and not really meant to for professional use, its still good enough I suppose.

I didnt even get into all the Japanese stereotypes that they are filled with....

Im not a big huge fan of slasher flicks, and yes that is basically when America was at its high point as far as horror movies go. But since I dont find them that scary I didnt even mention them. But personally I thought the only decent slasher movies were...

Nightmare on Elm Street 1 and 3
Halloween 1 and 4
Scream 1
Friday the 13th 2

Chucky movies have always sucked horribly. ITS A FREAKIN DOLL. JUST HOLD IT AT ARMS LENGTH AND PLAY WITH IT. Jesus... Saw was decent, but I wouldnt call it a horror movie. Its more of a thriller movie actually. Saw II was TECHNICALLY a horror movie, but I found it a little boring but it was okay.

Staff writers aye............. Well if I would actually put some effort into something I would say just hire me right now lol.
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xenocrisis0153 · Posted: Thu Sep 21, 2006 4:51 am Post subject: