Too Much Garlic
Master Member
Thanks for all the replies guys. Really appreciate your input and suggestions for great horror flicks.
I understand very well that horror movies are really cheap and easy to make, which is why I don't understand why they show off the monster so quickly and so clearly most of the time. The smaller budget should make it so they should just hint at it and keep it in shadows or out of sight. Jaws works today because the mechanical shark didn't work, so Spielberg had to shoot around it, but trying to constantly have it feel like its around. That's resourceful and effective and you would think a production that doesn't have that much money to throw at the creature effects would take a hint from that and try to shoot around the creature as well - what you don't see, as someone mentioned above - is sometimes more effective. Just not the way Shyamalan did it in Signs where he just pulled the camera away from the action, which just draws attention to the camera work and makes it obvious that it's a gimmick - and using Spielberg as an example is lazy because Spielberg never pulled the camera away from the action.
That's also why Alien worked so well, because the creature was kept out of focus for so long and they constantly changed things up on the costume and the actor, Bolaji Badejo moved in weird ways that you were never really sure of what it actually looked like, until the end, when it's just a small guy in a costume because they didn't have the actor they used for the rest of the movie do the last stunt... and THAT's the final image Ridley leaves us with. He should have shot around it or found a way to get the Bolaji in that scene due to his tall slender shape.
But what I hate most about horror movies is the excuse given out that you cannot have a horror movie without stupid people running around like headless chickens. It's utterly untrue and is just lazy writing. Just like jump scares. Lazy. And showing the monster or mystery too soon. Lazy. Create some goddamned build-up and if that means you have to think a little harder of getting the monster to kill the people in the movie, then do so... not only do intelligent characters make the viewer care... it also heightens the intelligence of the monster, because it has to find ways around obstacles to get to its prey.
I don't mind slock. I find several piss poor and cheap horror flicks to be worth watching. It's not that. But using that lame excuse about intelligent characters not being possible to make a horror movie is just BS. Stop using that excuse. I saw a youtube video recently that talked about horror movies and why there are stupid characters in them and again postulated that run-down tiresome excuse that having the characters do the right thing, stay together, arm themselves and stay in a lit room, wasn't scary and couldn't possibly be made scary. Wish I could find it again, so I could comment that all it takes is the writer just thinking a little and not just go for the hashed out lazy cliches. I would actually postulate that movies that does that can end up being more scary if done right, because it makes the viewer care and not roll their eyes and groan and just want those stupid ass characters to die.
I understand very well that horror movies are really cheap and easy to make, which is why I don't understand why they show off the monster so quickly and so clearly most of the time. The smaller budget should make it so they should just hint at it and keep it in shadows or out of sight. Jaws works today because the mechanical shark didn't work, so Spielberg had to shoot around it, but trying to constantly have it feel like its around. That's resourceful and effective and you would think a production that doesn't have that much money to throw at the creature effects would take a hint from that and try to shoot around the creature as well - what you don't see, as someone mentioned above - is sometimes more effective. Just not the way Shyamalan did it in Signs where he just pulled the camera away from the action, which just draws attention to the camera work and makes it obvious that it's a gimmick - and using Spielberg as an example is lazy because Spielberg never pulled the camera away from the action.
That's also why Alien worked so well, because the creature was kept out of focus for so long and they constantly changed things up on the costume and the actor, Bolaji Badejo moved in weird ways that you were never really sure of what it actually looked like, until the end, when it's just a small guy in a costume because they didn't have the actor they used for the rest of the movie do the last stunt... and THAT's the final image Ridley leaves us with. He should have shot around it or found a way to get the Bolaji in that scene due to his tall slender shape.
But what I hate most about horror movies is the excuse given out that you cannot have a horror movie without stupid people running around like headless chickens. It's utterly untrue and is just lazy writing. Just like jump scares. Lazy. And showing the monster or mystery too soon. Lazy. Create some goddamned build-up and if that means you have to think a little harder of getting the monster to kill the people in the movie, then do so... not only do intelligent characters make the viewer care... it also heightens the intelligence of the monster, because it has to find ways around obstacles to get to its prey.
I don't mind slock. I find several piss poor and cheap horror flicks to be worth watching. It's not that. But using that lame excuse about intelligent characters not being possible to make a horror movie is just BS. Stop using that excuse. I saw a youtube video recently that talked about horror movies and why there are stupid characters in them and again postulated that run-down tiresome excuse that having the characters do the right thing, stay together, arm themselves and stay in a lit room, wasn't scary and couldn't possibly be made scary. Wish I could find it again, so I could comment that all it takes is the writer just thinking a little and not just go for the hashed out lazy cliches. I would actually postulate that movies that does that can end up being more scary if done right, because it makes the viewer care and not roll their eyes and groan and just want those stupid ass characters to die.
