The "recommend a scary movie" for Halloween thread

[--Pete]

Hi,

I've been thinking about the resurgence of horror movies in the past several years. I remember them as being popular when I was growing up, in the "Jason and Freddie" years, but then they sort of went away for a while. I wonder how much of this has to do with the current political situation. There are enough scary things going on that people want to go and have their fears, and the relief, packaged in neat 2-hour segments. What do you guys think?

While your speculation is possible, I think that a simpler explanation might be more correct. For years, the western was a major staple of the movies. As they became more and more common, they became less well done, or rather, their flaws became more obvious. In addition, people started to get satiated by the large number turned out. They had a brief resurgence thanks to the spaghetti westerns, but for a long time now, the western has been a rarity.

Much the same cycle has been the case for war movies, for detective/cop stories, for spy stories. They each had a heyday, they each 'oversold' the market, and they each have mostly disappeared except for the occasional reappearance. And all of them share the characteristic that in their heyday they became formalistic, repetitive, and that most damning thing for entertainment: boring.

I suspect that the horror film has gone through the same phases, and the "Jason and Freddie" sub-genre was largely to blame.

Obligatory link: Cat's Eye is a pretty good 'scary' movie based on S. King's work.

--Pete