What makes horror scary?
- Thread starter v0laci0us
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In my opinion one of the problems with most horror movies of today, is that they rely too much on physical horror, rather than subject matter horror. Basically they rely too much on jump scores, and gore, and kidnap/trap situations, rather than telling an actual story with horrific subject matter if that makes sense.
So I think that the ideas are what makes a horror movie a true horror, and not physical horror as much as a lot of movies rely on, in my opinion.
So I think that the ideas are what makes a horror movie a true horror, and not physical horror as much as a lot of movies rely on, in my opinion.
Yes, those are both big parts of horror. But I think emotional horror is far more effective. When I think of movies like The Babadook and It Follows, I'm really glad to see that there seems to be a trend in indie filmmaking lately for people to make horror films that have real characters the audience can connect with, who have very human emotional issues that they're dealing with, and those issues take center stage in the main conflict.
For me is the fear to the unknow, as you said. But, the relation between the known and the unknown must be calculated accurately to produce a realy precise balance between this to categories at any particular moment, because the narrative requires its own map of tensions.
You have to calculate more than a monster or a mistery; you have to calculate, step by step, how the spectator will walk to them.
I like The VVitch: A New-England Folktale, more than the physical horror films.
You have to calculate more than a monster or a mistery; you have to calculate, step by step, how the spectator will walk to them.
I like The VVitch: A New-England Folktale, more than the physical horror films.
I personally don't care for a lot of the trends that you see these days in horror. You always seem to have the same types of characters, a ton of no pay off jump scares, and an excessive amount of gore!
With my new film Unseen, I tried very hard to stay away from those cliches! I created very likable characters. A killer that you never fully see or know anything about. Only one kill had any gore. I had only one jump scare in the film and it ties itself to a kill. Finally, I created an atmosphere with a great musical score and used that atmosphere to push the story in a direction where the audience can speculate what the details are. Without giving away the whole story, I put clues that tie the whole story together. I wanted to do this to see what kind of fan theories could form from this. I want to see what the audience thinks the killer's motive is and what may have happened off camera!
I hope this doesn't sound like i am bragging about my film. It is only a short film that I shot with a budget of less than $1000. The ideas are there though. I think people will watch my film and appreciate what it does in the horror genre. It is all subjective though but I will tell you this. Rob Zombie will never get my money ever again!
With my new film Unseen, I tried very hard to stay away from those cliches! I created very likable characters. A killer that you never fully see or know anything about. Only one kill had any gore. I had only one jump scare in the film and it ties itself to a kill. Finally, I created an atmosphere with a great musical score and used that atmosphere to push the story in a direction where the audience can speculate what the details are. Without giving away the whole story, I put clues that tie the whole story together. I wanted to do this to see what kind of fan theories could form from this. I want to see what the audience thinks the killer's motive is and what may have happened off camera!
I hope this doesn't sound like i am bragging about my film. It is only a short film that I shot with a budget of less than $1000. The ideas are there though. I think people will watch my film and appreciate what it does in the horror genre. It is all subjective though but I will tell you this. Rob Zombie will never get my money ever again!
Building tension is the key to most great horror films. And it works whether or not the audience knows what is going to happen. The unknown can be terrifying, but Hitchcock was famous for showing the audience the McGuffin, and they would still be tense knowing what the protagonist does not know.