Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Horror Then , Horror Now

Can we truly argue in who’s to say what is considered scary? Horror is “to shudder” or “stand on end” according to Carroll Lovecraft. Horror films in the 1920’s seemed to have more suspense. What’s about to happen? Its does not seem to be as predictable as horror movies today? In the German 1920 film Nosferatu there was a lot of unpredictable moments in the movie. There were a few of cringing standing on end scenes as well, if and only if you put your mind frame into never seeing the movie in this era. Audiences in this time frame would be affected by this particular monster. Seeing this is one of the first monsters.
Would movies made in the 1920 and through the 1960’s survive in today’s society? I don’t think so, reason being is that I don’t think movies should throw you straight in to the drama right away. The audience want to be led into thinking something is about to happen. I would hate to watch something and here appears this thing or monster and wow, you know what will happen next. The movie is over. So basically, there isn’t a plot to draw people in.
Movies today, I would view as being scarier. There is a longer plot; there is more suspense and more drama. Drama plays a very important part in movies from the music getting slower then faster, then soft and louder and louder; the actor or actress screams, the scenes flash from one side of the room to the next then, appears the “monster”. For me, violence plays an important part as well. A horror film would not be right if there wasn’t any blood and a lot of it. That’s what keeps people watching. We love the disgusting, impure things in horror films. So without those qualities in a horror film, it isn’t a horror film.

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