faceh
11m ago
It indeed taps into the root of horror: powerlessness.
Hah, while I don't disagree I never really found that to be the core of horror for me.
For me its always 'uncertainty' and fear of the unknown/poorly understood.' I think that's why The Ring did resonate for me. Its all this shit happening to you for reasons you simply do not understand and its clearly building to something but having little time to figure it out, and the further along you get the 'less' sense everything makes.
And by the end... it turns out you DO have the power to escape your fate... but only by condemning others/playing into the evil's plan.
I also like films that play with the cold, uncaring nature of fate/the universe where you can do everything 'right', make all kinds of necessary preparations, and still lose when random circumstance plays out just so.
Hell, I love Aliens because the characters are armed to the fuckin' teeth, and the horror comes when they realize the actual magnitude of the threat. All the power they have and it might barely be enough to win... or not.
Now, if you throw in the element where some other person you care about is powerless and you are tasked with trying to help/save them in the face of massive uncertainty, that's what gets me. Like when Ripley arms up with the exosuit to fight the queen and save newt... Get away from her you BITCH, indeed.
The Bourne movies have one of the best sequences to this effect. Bourne frantically trying to save Nikki Parsons from an implacable assassin sprinting across rooftops while she's trying to evade the guy (and, consequently, Bourne has difficulty tracking her). Hell, even earlier in the movie, when he's trying to help the reporter escape capture.
Being a powerful guy and still being uncertain if it'll be enough to survive, or save the day? THAT starts to scare me.
My personal benchmark on Horror films is The Ring which was innovative as it was a monster movie but the monster doesn't appear until the end, after the fakeout that things were 'fixed,' and most of the horror is the sense of dread that permeates the film.
And that movie only 'works' because of that brief period where CRT TVs, VHS tapes, and landline phones were the most common tech of the day. I don't think you could remake it effectively now!
And as I understand it the recent crop of horror films avoid this issue by making the horror come from psychological conditions that may or may not have a literal personification onscreen, sort of a 'the monster is inside you the whole time' concept, or more abstract "racism/sexism/right wing politics/relationship drama" as the looming allegorical danger.
I think what I mean wrt horror films is that they inherently play with the same tropes over and over again. Body Horror, Jumpscares, indestructible/implacable entity that wants YOU, specifically, dead, straight up gore (hello, Terrifier 3), psychological uncertainty (am I crazy or not?), various metaphors for sexual assault, and the occasional thick layer of existentialism.
I haven't heard of one that really breaks the mold of audience expectations in a while. Cabin in the Woods was innovative for satirizing how formulaic they tended to be.
I watched Weapons last year, and it was a satisfyingly entertaining movie, and the ending was great. But after the initial mystery of "Where the fuck did those kids go" resolves, I felt pretty disconnected. The film wisely switches over to 'action' mode whenever the pace starts to lull. And the concept of being 'locked in' and conscious whilst your body is compelled to commit violence against people you care about is indeed horrifying.
I just feel no need to watch the film again!
Perhaps the most 'innovative' recent horror movie I saw was 2014's The Guest. And it was innovative in the sense that the 'horror' element was hiding in plain sight, then escalates to the point where its basically a straight-up slasher movie... but also with competent action. Oh, also Bone Tomahawk (same year) for hiding behind a Western facade for 90 minutes and whipping out the horror only after you've gotten comfortable that the movie plays by the standard Western rules. I feel a need to watch the film again... but not sure if I can stomach it.
I guess I just like Horror movies that masquerade as something else so you don't KNOW what they're trying to do until it is too late. Straight horror movies generally have me anticipating most of the scary bits well before they happen. Also it always annoys me when the core danger in the film could be handily solved with a gun.
But I do have to retreat from my argument about horror not doing much innovative for decades. I've also heard good things about Nosferatu and Midsommar.
The vulgar teen coming of age sex comedy era was basically 1999 (American Pie) to Superbad (2007),
Have to disagree, since my dad had VHS copies of Revenge of the Nerds, Porky's, and Earth Girls are Easy. I was not allowed to watch.
By 2001 the genre was played out enough that they produced Not Another Teen Movie as a full on parody of the entire thing. Which introduced me to Cerina Vincent('s breasts). I think it's just been a mainstay of Hollywood since the 80's until circa 2012 (Project X), and now is just gone. Might just be the fact that kids watch actual internet porn now, so titillating tease movies don't have the appeal they used to.
and the real gen Z trend is that they don't care about comedy movies at all, and their comedy world is memes and streaming and nonsense like "6-7."
Streamers and Youtubers.
The fact that Markiplier made a pretty bad (by most accounts) indie horror movie that nonetheless made $50 million is a sign of something.
Also, Horror as a Genre is still plugging along extremely well, which mildly surprises me, since imo the genre hasn't had much originality to offer for decades.
The more serious problem is just that it's slow-paced and all of the fights are very much curbstomps one direction or the other.
I rather liked that feature, since it is pretty true-to-life if there's a significant skill/strength differential, which in a world of cyborg bodies... THERE WILL BE. The art is in portraying that gap in a pleasing way.
Also GitS: Stand Alone Complex is maybe the first anime series I seriously engaged with.
And Kung Fu Hustle is a MUST-SEE.
That all makes sense.
But still, Superbad did $121 million domestically. Relatively unknown cast and director, a non-sequel, just carried on the strength of writing and acting.
And somehow, near as I can tell, the 'vulgar teen/coming of age sex comedy' is literally dead as a genre, and I partially blame MeToo, since borderline rapey interactions are a source of some of their humor.
Gen Z Came of age without any equivalent cultural touchstone.
comedies are almost dead entirely.
This is what baffles me a bit about the current landscape. Growing up comedies were usually some of the biggest movies in a given year. Superbad, Tropic Thunder, Zombieland, whatever Will Ferrel movie came out that year, and Seth Rogan's Oeuvre.
Inevitably those would be the films people would be quoting at each other forever thereafter.
And they're really a footnote these days. My guess is its just been subsumed by television series.
Or, as you point out, subsumed by Superhero movies. Deadpool still does big numbers while being more pure comedy.
Dredd, as mentioned.
The Raid: Redemption and its sequel. Absolutely insane Indonesian martial arts flick, but the director is Welsh. Launched several of its actors to greater fame. It will probably ruin any other modern martials arts movies for you. I don't know how they filmed that without anyone dying.
Mad Max: Fury Road. Watch the rest of the series too, but this one set a new standard for cinematic balls-to-the-wall action.
The Bourne Trilogy. Okay, there are more movies... and they're not terrible. BUT the story and character arc of the original three are perfectly executed. Great action (especially the 3rd) but a lot of people really dislike Greengrass' shaky-cam style in the second and third. Bail out if you're getting motion sickness, it doesn't get better.
Hot Fuzz. Probably in the running for the best action-comedy of ALL TIME and the jokes and interlocked plot elements are so dense you'll need to watch like 3 times to catch most of 'em.
Upgrade. Very 80's-coded... but they put effort into using modern techniques and it should surprise you a few times with how clever it is.
Shoot 'Em Up. Parody of a particular brand of late-90's early-2000s action schlock that is self aware but not offensively so. I love the soundtrack, personally.
The Expendables 1 and 2 (skip 3 and 4). Equal parts funny but inelegant satire of 80's action movies and a loving tribute/sendoff to some of the top stars of the era. Tried and very much failed to pass the torch to a new generation of action stars. I blame superhero movies.
Taken. This movie doomed Liam Neeson to doing action roles for 20 years. Everyone really only knows THAT scene, but the whole thing is quite the entertaining ride.
300. My God. Its like the purest distillation of "12 year old boys playing with action figures" movie I've ever seen, but Zack Snyder was BORN to make this film. It has a distinct look and feel that has simply never been replicated since.
Hardcore Henry. Also not a movie for those sensitive to motion sickness, but extremely impressive achievement that falls just a tad short of greatness, but is also full of "how the hell did they film that" moments.
Some Honorable Mentions:
The Accountant
Crank (and the sequels)
Equilibrium
Kingsman: The Secret Service. This movie justifies its existence on THAT church scene alone.
The Edge of Tomorrow.
Saw Raid II in theaters and was BLOWN AWAY. High expectations from the first one and they topped it in every conceivable way.
Even the goofy bits (girl with hammers and batboy) worked really well in-context.
That giant brawl in the mud pit at the prison is one of my favorite scenes because all the 'skill' sort of goes out the window as everyone is slipping around barely able to stand, but the brutality of the moves are still fully there. Another of those "how are those guys not dead?" movies.
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