I found a very interesting piece in today's Slate. And I must say, I find myself agreeing more than disagreeing.
In the golden era, films went for the throat and then worked their way down. Part of the strategy was to tap into potent fears about random urban crime, war, the Manson killings, and the other topical concerns. We have our own phobias today, and if anything they're even more deeply felt in an era when criminals and terrorists are only as far away as the nearest cable news channel, but the horror genre hasn't caught up with the times. Why hasn't a movie made us as petrified of the Internet as Jaws did of the ocean? Where is the great horror movie about Sept. 11? Is that in bad taste? Perhaps. But audiences don't see horror movies for moral improvement. They go to be scared out of their wits.
Thoughts? Opinions? I would like to know.
2 comments:
I believe the great horror movie about the Middle Passage and the transatlantic African slave trade is yet to be written.
Not so strange, though, that attempts have been made both on TV and film to capture the peripheral horror of the Holocaust, so that's not as off-limits as we'd think. (viz. THE KEEP, TWILIGHT ZONE, etc.)
If 24 had the courage of its convictions, it could have been a horror classic, merely by lingering on the aftermaths of the nuclear bombs it set off, or the deeper consequences of a security state.
But, you're right -- horror films are lagging at least 20 years behind the times (de-Sovieted European droogies torturing slumming tourists? Yawn.... but Hollywood's dependence on EE for cheap locations is worthy of several horror classics itself.)
Dead Set (BBC Mini-series) if you can find it is a perfect blend of today's reality TV and zombie craze... think Big Brother meets NOTLD. lots of gore, a splash of humor, plenty of tension.
Why can't american television be so damned good?
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