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Cardboard Box Realtor
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Hobb's End
Posts: 7,648
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American mainstream horror certainly hasn't hit too many home runs in the last 10-years or so. Many of the movies in the early half were pretty crap, Thirteen Ghosts, The Haunting, Fear Dot Com, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween: Resurrection, Jason X, etc. Jeepers Creepers does deserve an honorable mention though because it was at least a pretty original concept, and the incest undercurrent made it pretty creepy, or Eli Roth's debut, Cabin Fever.
A few movies did manage to at least gain some notoriety and decent press, the 2003 Americanizing of The Ring did at least prove that a decent horror movie could still be made with a PG-13 rating, same with 2004's The Grudge, which really opened the mainstream audience up to the Japanese horror scene. Saw also really did make the October releases relevant again, if only to be crippled after the 4th one and it went off into the realm of ridiculousness. Rob Zombie should also at least be commended for giving us The Devil's Rejects and House of 1000 Corpses, which weren't great, but at least they were ambitious attempts by a novice filmmaker, even if he did later shoot himself in the foot after attempting to do a worthy remake of Halloween.
The indie and international scene has really where it's been for the last decade or so. 2002 saw the release of Session 9 by director Brad Anderson, which was a pretty good psychological thriller/ horror film. I also thought Paranormal Activity was a decent enough "found footage" film, which benefited largely from the use of a fucking tripod. It had a pretty decent cast, was made on a modest budget, and most importantly knocked Saw 6 on its ass in the box office. Cloverfield should also get a nod for at least having a pretty interesting and engaging marketing campaign, and got a lot of people into theaters at a time when most people don't go to the movies.
The international market though has really owned the scene though, for at least scary horror movies that don't rely too much on the formula you described. The French should get a special nod for Them (2006) and Martyrs (2008), the latter of which is like if you took all the Saw and Hostel movies, mashed them together, and up the brutality a few notches. It is quite possibly the only movie I will insist on being super stoned if I was to watch it again. We also have Guillermo del Toro to thank for 2001's classic ghost story, The Devil's Backbone, which really had a lot of imagery and things to say on the Spanish Civil War in the 1930's. Hell even The Human Centipede deserves a mention for at least making the mainstream aware of the European horror scene, and just how twisted those movies can get.
Of course, the medium in which horror has become the most formulaic is in the video games industry. The horror game changed forever in 2005 with the release of Resident Evil 4. The over-the-shoulder, action shooter gameplay became the normalcy for games that would once have been considered a survival horror. The Resident Evil series probably isn't ever going to go back, and it's hard to tell with Silent Hill's upcoming game Downpour, then again I haven't played any of the games since 2008's Homecoming, and that was pretty combat-y. Then of course the horror games of late have been games like The Dead Space series, Alan Wake, etc. which have fully embraced and perfected what Resident Evil 4 brought forth almost 7-years ago. I mean hell, this game has been released at least 4 times now, first on the Gamecube in 2005, then on the PS2 in either late '05 or early '06, then it wound up on the Wii and PC in 2007, and then an HD release this year, with plans for an iOS port. I mean this has been the quintessential horror game of the last decade, it completely changed the face of horror in video games. The only two games that I can think of has been the Condemned series which was also released in 2005, but focused on a relentless atmosphere and first-person melee combat, while really trying to show off the 7th generation consoles' graphical capabilities. The other game was 2010's Amnesia: The Dark Descent which brought horror back to it's puzzle and survival roots. I know Frictional games' other series Penumbra should be mentioned for bringing this back to horror gaming in 2007, but the games really weren't all that great, at least not when compared to Amnesia, which doesn't have that obnoxious combat system.
So yeah... totally didn't mean for that post to go on as much as I did, but I guess I just have a lot to say on the subject.
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