The Magic of Horror Movies

I'm a novice when it comes to horror movies. To be truthful I've only ever seen a handful of proper horror film. I didn't really ease myself in either. The only horror films I've ever really seen are Jaws, The Birds and, worst of all, The Exorcist.
It was a bold move when I decided to rent the DVD for The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen. Yup, I even watched the extended edition, featuring the digitally remastered spider-walk scene (seen below). 

 

I didn't want to start slowly and work my way up the pantheon of horror films. I was under the impression that I couldn't be scared easily, therefore I set the bar high for myself.
"Torture porn" as it has been branded has never really appealed to me, or seemed scary, so that eliminated films like Saw and Hostel from my list.
Zombie films have always seemed cliché too, so I crossed Night of the Living Dead off.
That left what were supposedly the scariest films of them all, the atmospheric films. I was left with the likes of The Blair Witch Project, Psycho and Nosferatu.
I chose The Exorcist because of the mystery surrounding it, whilst I knew the basics of Psycho, Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street, I didn't know what to expect from The Exorcist.

In short, I think the word terrifying sums up my experience. I was haunted for weeks after and I'm still apprehensive even now. If you've seen it  you'll understand, it's an elemental gem of cinema, but I don't plan to watch it again. It was too scary to watch again.
However, even since, I've been drawn in my what I call the magic of horror films. To me there's something darkly alluring about them. Ever since, I've been reading about The Evil Dead, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween. I've been absorbed into that strange culture, learning about Freddy Krueger, Leatherface, Jason Vorhees and Michael Myers (all four portrayed neatly in the below image). 

Horror films continue to be popular to this day, as The Conjuring, Saw and The Last Exorcism can prove. This is simply because a lot of people enjoy being scared. Whether it be from a horrific slasher scene, or the nerve-wracking combination of music, lighting and atmosphere. 

It is of course a very saturated genre, ruined with derivative sequels and middling reboots. But they can be some of the most successful films ever if crafted well, for instance, The Exorcist is the highest-grossing R rated film in the world - quite a feat for a horror film.

Much of the mystery which lingers around horror films comes from the unknown, which is exhibited at it's best in Jaws and The Blair Witch Project, where the threats remain offscreen most of the time. Both of these films have changed what it means to step into the sea and woods for a lot of people.

So in general we can conclude that there are about 3 main types of horror film, each with endless sub-genres. There's splatter/slasher/gore films, where blood and guts is what scares us. This is the "torture porn" route and it's popular amongst the public, less so amongst critics. Saw is the main flag-bearer for gory films these days, but Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th have used the technique in the past.

 

The other two have murkier definitions and could be merged, but for the purpose of this blog I'll split them. Some of the best horror films as I mentioned earlier rely on atmosphere for scares (a very effective technique from my limited experience). Hitchcock used the atmosphere to thrill and scare his audience in most of his films, including the likes of The Birds. The Exorcist uses a similar technique, the build-up is the scariest part. All of those scenes pacing the corridors of the Macneil house make your heart beat faster and faster. 

Finally we come to the unknown. Sure it can use the same techniques as atmospheric films, but it's a vital sub-genre. In these films darkness proves to be of vital importance, as does music. What would Jaws be without the famous score from John Williams? And the screeching violins in Psycho heighten the mystery behind the shower scene.

Of course some people might prefer a bloody movie to one that utilises old school scares. Some films, like the recent reboot, Evil Dead, use both, although I haven't seen/heard of a film which has done so with great success (some may argue that The Exorcist does to an extent).
Whilst the genre has great moments and iconic villains - which have been soaked up into popular culture - it is riddled with more sequels and reboots than any other genre. Halloween and Saw has an endless amount of sequels and Leatherface, Freddy Krueger and Jason Vorhees are overused far too much in spinoffs, sequels and re-makes. This destroys the magic and threat which made the original films so successful in the first placem which is why critics generally detest horror sequels (there are some exceptions - e.g. The Evil Dead 2 and the first two Frankenstein sequels)

The lesson to be learnt? On the whole, film studios should leave their great horror creations alone. Sequels make the characters wearisome and tarnish their shock-value. Can you name a successful horror film which doesn't have a sequel/reboot to it's name? Jaws, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Friday 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Saw, The Exorcist, Night of the Living Dead, Dracula, Frankenstein, Psycho. The list goes on and on. Hollywood is becoming more about money-grabbing and less about making quality horror, which saddens even me, a horror film novice.