70s Horror Movies vs Today's Horror Movies
Let's look at the movies from the 70's. One of the greatest horror movies of all time was The Exorcist. I can't watch it today by myself and have a hard time watching it with someone else. Last House on the Left, Let's Scare Jessica to Death, Rosemary's Baby, all great 70's horror. So good that some are being remade like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, and even Last House on the Left, which I'm really looking forward to. All of these movies had a subtle scariness and that shock quality that some are jaded towards now. Yet, how is it that these movies still scare us? Are special effects ruining today's horror? I love special effects but in horror, I want quality not necessarily brilliant special effects. I don't think that's the main problem really.
One of the problems in recent years is the crop of PG-13 horror movies that made their way into theaters. Do I really want my movie "watered down" for my viewing pleasure? And let's not forget that American moviegoers get that with foreign releases. Movies like The Descent and High Tension (Haute Tension) had entire endings changed, and in my opinion, not for the better. Changing The Descent's ending for American viewers ruined the entire message of the movie. Do movie producers think we're too stupid to watch a movie and "get" the message the writer was trying to portray?
Thank goodness for recent directors of movies such as the Saw series, Hostel, etc… These are movies that keep the shock value and earn their R rating. They also have that subtle scariness I talked about earlier because some of them strike home as being more real. "This" could really happen to me, one thinks.
Now, let's not forget that the 80's had icons such as Jason, Michael Meyers, and Freddy and the 90's had Scream, etc… And while these were decent movies for their time, they don't hold that classic scariness that the 70's movies had. Nor do they have the shock value of the current movies. Don't get me wrong, I love a good Nightmare on Elm Street but does it scare me? Does it shock me? No, on both accounts. And I might add that I own these and love them. It's just that in my opinion, they are lacking something the 70's had.
I think that the latest yield of horror movies have made it fun again to watch a scary movie. I want that blood and guts that was left out of the 80's and 90's. I want to see things that make me uncomfortable. Take Wolf Creek for example, I was totally depressed at the ending but isn't that what makes horror fun? Having that feeling of desperation and despair? And to be honest, would the subtlety of 70's movies make it in today's horror world? Perhaps the reason the 70's movies have that "something" that make them different is the fact that they are made in the 70's.
Published by K
A criminology student in Florida. Some of the content you'll see was written by me prior to changing my mind on certain political views. In that content, I'll put a note saying so. :) View profile
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7 Comments
Post a Comment... again with movies like: The Blair witch project, Darkness fall, and the most shocking movie i´ve seen: The Ring.
Miguel Siegert
Caracas, Venezuela
PD: if someone wants to share opinions about horror movies: miguelsie@hotmail.com
I agree with most of the opinions about 70´s horror movies. I think the secret for a good horror movie is play with people´s emotions, for example, letting us know the personality of the victim, specially when he (she) is like one of us. Other element is when you cannot see the agressor directly, you can only see the effects on his victims (for example in Blair witch project, where you never see the witch). Finally, the surprise element is always important.
Some people can say that 70´s movies had more effect because people were more impressive than today, but i think is wrong. When i was 15 (in 1990) i watched many horror movies, from 70´s 80´s and early 90´s, and in that time (and now) i preferred 70´s. I think the problem with some 80´s movies and most of the 90´s is that visual effects replaced emotions management, so they caused impact and revulsion, no fear.
Fortunately in this decade i´ve felt the fear sensation again with
Rosemary's Baby is 60s. I prefer TCM's remake. Every decade has its own greatness and badness. 70s is good for a few hits but tont and tons of crap too like "The Devil's Rain", "Race with the Devil", "The Two-Headed Man". 80s, don't forget Hellraiser, Pumpkinhead, Day of the Dead, Evil Dead among others which are great! I think the 90s is one of the worst decades for horror but even it has its merits. Puppetmaster, Radu, Warlock (or is that 80s?), In the Mouth of Madness. Please, John Holmes is ugly!
Great article and I agree. I'm not into scary films that much but I like the older ones. Excellent insight.
I agree with you totally and I loved what was said about Hitchcock and that the human imagination produces the best horrors. I am a psychological horror lover, like Hide and seek and the Others and the Other too and rosemary's baby and of course the exorcist is the scariest.
Ditto! You know, I held out for years that the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" movie was the goriest I'd ever seen--then someone pointed out that there is NO splatter in the movie! None! Alfred Hitchcock said it best: "The horrors a filmmaker can produce onscreen can't hold a candle to the horrors produced by the human imagination." He(and Tobe Hooper)wisely left the imagery up to US. That's maybe one of the few good things about film censorship in the 70s-we got to think for ourselves.
I agree with you 100% - The movies in the 1970's really did scare ones pants off. Has there ever been a movie to match the Exorcist, maybe only the original Psycho but the 80s and 90s were all visual effects, remakes and muppet monsters. Some decent movies have come out lately because people are demanding it. They will get even better if they start using some of the great writers that are around today. Great observation!