Friday the 13th

What I’m talking about today is the modern dance of horror in the mass arts. There has been a lot of criticisms to the genre along with its cousins, sci-fi, suspense, and the others. Horror has been talked down a lot through out the years as being uncivilized, basic, shock for shocks sake, bastardizing, sexist, chauvinistic, and the list could go on and does go on. And most of these things are true, but they are also forms of challenge to the every day way of thought. They are dreamscapes where rules are set and balanced, and life isn’t affected by the normalness of the world around us. We are trapped in a spacious surreal nightmare with horror. I should correct that last sentence to say that we were, in the past tense sense, because the modern horror has lost all of the touch that the old has had, in the mainstream quality.

First, I want to talk about why horror is good, and why people like horror, and why horror, as an working form, is something above other forms. So, why is horror good? Because of all the blood. The first thing that happens in a horror movie to set itself apart from the universe we live in is that somebody is murdered. Its, in a literary sense, is the departure of the hero away from home. This can be switched in and out with the car breaking down, the finding or a relic, an awakening in an unknown environment, but the strongest is for us, the audience to see the blood. I’m not saying that there should be a lot of blood, but some is what separates it from a cop drama or a fantasy romp. Horror plays with human fascination with death and letting us see it, lets us escape from our dreary mindset and play out in the boonies of the surreal for a while. We don’t see these types of thing everyday and sometimes the sight distances us from ourselves. Its all therapeutic. Another, is that Horror plays with the dastardliness of death and makes it somehow bearable and sometimes funny. To see someone’s organs rendered from them with garden shears eliminates the unbearable nature of it. Thirdly, Horror plays with the audience on so many levels, but I’ll speak about this on my last point towards it.

Now, why do people like horror? Because of a few reasons that I have come to understand. I could be wrong on some of these, so don’t be afraid to call me out. A lot of people are attracted to the power of the villain. Something in the back of your head wants you to be the bad guy, you want to have the power to bend and break someone, to tear them apart(When time is given to actually think about the moment, what you want to do is what a horror movie presents to you. You wish to have that singular, satisfying, almost completely Tom and Jerry style murder moment where you sock someone in the jaw with a sledgehammer and walk away.) These people rule a world that is all their own. A lot of people become fascinated with Jason and Freddie and even Michael Meyers, because each of them rules a domain. You don’t fuck with Freddie Kreuger because you will never sleep again. You don’t fuck with Jason because you can’t stop him. And Michael, Michael will never stop coming. There is a power to that. But what does each of those domains have inside of it? That brings me to another point—Teenagers. If you are or were a fun of horror, when did it happen, probably when you became a teen. This is for a few reasons, the general shock and difference is something that those try to claim an identity enjoy, reveling in the different aspects of the genre in comparison to the seen plainness around them. Plus its just so damn gory, and you don’t see that in Harvard, Il. Teens are the main characters of most films because often horror movies have undertones (at least a lot of the good ones do) of sexuality, dominance, leadership, race, power, or something of the like. Every horror film is still suspenseful and creepy but weaved through out there is the thought tied to it. In Night of the living Dead, and in most zombie films, it can be race, or the thought of consumerism. In recent TV syndications like American Horror Story, it’s the thought of sexuality being powerful or unrelenting, same goes with Jason and Friday the 13^th, punishing teens for something they feel they should be doing. In a sense the villains are the censors, or the masterminds behind the wrong feelings of the teens, but this applies to slashers. As stated above a much broader message can be sent out. Take for example Godzilla, which is a message against government radiation testing, or The Host, which was about the distance between an unkempt, slow(ish) father and his attempts to love his child, but it coming through when this giant monster attacks. Final thing it can be is that people can like horror for the opposite of the first point, they like being scared. Some people like being in a world that is out of control for a moment, to be in a story. Its why haunted houses still happen, everyone wants to be a part of the adventure in some way, to not live their own life. Any major scare in a horror film can shock a person, can make them afraid, but that action immediately creates the reaction of safety—“I’m watching a film, this is an intense story, I’m enjoying it” and then you’re back in again. Its moments like these that you forget that you are watching and simply take in the moment being displayed. I’m not sure if that’s some sort of primal mindset or something, but people like being scared.

Third point – 1.Horror brings a blend of genres. 2.it reaches all audiences. 3 It composes metaphors that are impossible in other fields.

1 – Dark City – a crime, noir-ish, history retold, sci-fi, horror story where an alien race tries to uncover why humans are surviving and their race is dying out by creating a controlled environment where they can observe the humans. (This may lean heavy on the sci-fi, but there are so many different things working in the film that it works on a lot of levels)

For other examples: The Host, The Dead, Suspiria, When the Wind Blows, even The Road in a sense.

2. Everyone can be enticed by being scared. Weird sentence right? But horror is a drawing for most audiences, knowing that the shock factor is there works. Its why people still see Vince Vaughn or Those National Lampoon movies, because they know there will be a sex joke in there somewhere and people will get drunk. Those people want to live vicariously through Van Wilder, I usually want to be Snake Pliskin.

3. As stated above you can cram a horror film full of messages and nobody will get it until they see it again, or until you let them see it. Like sci-fi, the fantasy realms can be a mask to put on so that those willing can uncover the message underneath the interesting, thought pulling story.

So, why, you may ask, is modern horror so bad? There is still the audience expander of blood, there is still (at times) a powerful figure that leaves you asking questions-What is missing? And I want to scream at you, “The soul, you fool, the soul that strengthens it all.” You see, what made the early horror great and rebellious, on many levels, was the current societies abhorrence with the state of what was being shown. Surf Zombies, and other trash like it, meant a lot to a time that with rife with normality, the commonplace, and the threat of annihilation being an undertone. We now live in a society that is just about okay with everything. Movies like Shark Night, cater to those who want to see hot girls getting eaten by sharks. Now, I’m not saying that the thought isn’t funny, but that’s just it, I understand it as humorous, other people see it as basic entertainment. I feel like directors are pushing for that more and more now, not to tell a message or to make an audience feel something(not even fear!). Modern horror seems to be about CGI and how much return they can make, not about liking the form at all.

That’s what face Off made me see, that the suits made the difference. Making props and having, living, working things, physically in front of you is more sinister and more real than the waving tentacle creatures in The Thing prequel. That’s all I’m thinking anyway.