Have Hollywood Horror Movies Gone Too Far?

Have Hollywood horror movies gone too far? With todays release of the Hostel sequel, this could quite possibly be the understatement of the year. When horror movies begun, there was no need for extreme violence and gore to make them scary. In fact, some of the scariest horror movies of all time were made more than a decade ago... okay, perhaps a bit more because lets face it, the 80's was not a scary time for movies. Just everything else.

Going back to the horror films of the 70s, they were scary in a classic way that was eerie, suspenseful, but did not leave you feeling ill or violated by the extreme displays of violence on screen. The horror back then was more about what you did not see, or what you think you may have seen, with your own imagination making these films scary. You could think what you wanted, so they could be as scary as you could make them, without leaving you disturbed.

This subjective version of horror was far more entertaining than the horror films of today. These days you often wonder if you are in a horror movie at all, with so many excuses to exploit sexuality and naked women. How is that scary? It does not add to the horror experience at all. It is simply attempting to find new ways to push the barriers, and to titillate its viewers in ways that are not at all necessary or helpful to the plot.

Of course it is difficult to come up with a new plot these days, with most things already being done to death (excuse the pun). So instead of finding new, unique concepts to scare viewers with, they simply up the gore level to the point where it is almost like taking a day trip to the meat works.

And have you noticed that most remakes do not compare to the originals. They try to make them scarier by adding more violence and blood, but they instead appear corny and lose their originality. Examples of this are The Amytiville Horror, The Omen 666, and even The Exorcist: The Beginning. Each of these films lost their suspense, and became more of a Hollywood flop, than a major blockbuster.

Horror films would be far more enjoyable if they went back to their roots, combining todays technological advancements, but using them for the suspenseful horror of the past, where certain things were left to the imagination, and you got more of a fright from the sudden flashing of a psycho on the screen, rather than the over-done mutilation of the victim. And no... nudity does not make the film scarier! Enough with the breast implants in horror films!