In the movie Night of the Demon, the demon itself was not scary, which much ruined the movie for me. Due to the technology of the time in which the movie was created, I’m sure this was just the best they could do. It looks very fake though. The demon also looks bulky and clumsy in a sense and if I ran into this demon I would think it was a bad Halloween costume. Honestly, when I first saw it, it reminded me of a dragon off of the children’s TV show “Dragon Tales” that was a little upset. Also I believe you could see the zipper on the demon at one point.
Today, however, technology has advanced and film makers are able to create a more terrifying monster. The following pictures are from the “Exorcist”, “Halloween”, “Nightmare on Elm Street”, “The Devil’s Backbone”, and the “Fourth Kind”. In these images, however, I do see the monsters as horrifying. I certainly would not want to run into any of these creatures at any point in time. They are more believable because they look real. In conclusion, being realistic and believable are an important aspect to horror films in that if the monster is not, the horror aspect is gone, even if it possesses all other characteristics of a horror film. If i have never had access to better technology, however, the image of the devil in "Night of the Demon" may have scared me. Modern technology, however, has therefore ruined previously scary films for today's generation.
2 comments:
I am right there with you. The demon in Night of the Demon absolutely ruined the entire film! It took away everything that was supposed to be scary and replaced it with something silly and laughable. I know it was the 50s, but I think they should have stuck with Tourneur's original idea and just not showed him at all!
I thought the demon in NOTD was still unsettling, at a distance anyway...
Many times, makeup and technological progressions can take away from the effectiveness of the monster as well (see any Sci Fi Channel movie).
This is a dilemma in horror on film: you cannot simply NOT show the monster (Alien and Frankenstein would be complete wastes of time), but you also cannot delve into the hilarity of creature features by featuring a guy in a rubber suit stomping around (Godzilla, Gamera, etc)
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