Hollywood's Scary Movies Recipe

Hollywood has been releasing scary films one after the other since its adaptation of the Japanese hit, 'The Ring'. Unfortunately, many of those releases are the same as the first one: adaptations. There's a whole line up of them: 'The Ring 2', 'The Grudge', 'The Grudge 2', 'The Eye' and whatever other the-movies there are out there. Aside from practically murdering these films from their original context and leaving them almost comical compared against their original, Asian counterparts, Hollywood film makers DID learn a lesson or two.

What do Asian horror films have in common? This is the same ingredient that Hollywood finally figured out to incorporate in its scary films and make them a little more interesting and effective: Turning the household-common into something that bites.

The Ring's selling point wasn't Sadako's (Samara in Hollywood) long, tangled mane that almost completely covered her deteriorating, ash-white face except for one eye that seems to literally see your fears. It was not Sadako but the television from which she crawled out from. Everybody who watched 'The Ring' couldn't stand the site of a television turned off. Anybody who watched 'Ju-on' ('The Grudge' in Hollywood) couldn't get rid of the eerie feeling that there's somebody on the corner of the unlit bathroom. Anybody who watched the Hong Kong-Thai-Singaporean hit 'The Eye' avoided lonely trips in the elevators for a couple of weeks until the fear wore off.

It's the television, it's the bathroom, it's the elevator... it's something that isn't out of the ordinary, just something that we have and use everyday. And having to keep on seeing it every moment after those movies is unnerving. The movie experience stretches out far beyond the theater or the DVD. The movie-goer keeps on thinking about that specific scene and dwells in it for days and weeks. When the excitement wears off, then it's off to see another flick. And unless the next movie can stick as much as the previous, then you-ain't-get-no-satisfaction.

Recently, Hollywood has been trying to incorporate this make-a-household-thing-scary into their movies. The first successful attempt was '1408', directed by Mikael Hafstrom. It's an ordinary room that just turned out to be where you'll die. And what really made it stick? "We've only just begun... to live..." You'll never hear Karen Carpenter in the same light ever again.

The upcoming movie 'Strangers' promises the same, at least that's what the trailers say about it.

A lot of us likes cute ring tones in our cellphones. Some have voice records of their kids to alert them of new messages or calls. That's what we're going to be expecting to feel eerie afterwards. Let's see how many of us change their ringtones after watching 'The Strangers'.

What's worse is a clip in the trailer:

"Why are you doing this to us?!"

"Because you're home."

How about that to make you think twice about watching the movie? The movie promises to scare you off your own homes. And we're all hoping it delivers.