Horror Movies

Suck Today.

No I'm not joking, I have not seen a good horror movie in the last, let's say 10 years. That's more than half of my life!

All right maybe that is over-exaggerating a bit, I mean sure there have been a couple [ok more than a couple] movies that have scared the pants off of me in the past ten years sure, I can not deny that. I mean it wasn’t until my eight grade year of middle school that I even started going to the theatres; after the two main theatres in my town were closed down and the big Centaury Theatres was opened across town where the Cinedome used to be.

Now that was a pimp movie theatre, 15 screens, huge domes, the nicest people, and it was up in the hills behind the huge shopping mall that is over there. It’s gone now. Part of the lot got turned in to a Kohl’s. Well enough about my movie theatre woes. Back to the topic at hand, the recent crapsity of Horror Movies.

Like I said before there are a few horror movies that I will put on my favorite movie list, some that I truly enjoy [some of which are less horror than they are suspense]:

• Saw [2004]
• 28 Days Later [2002]
• Don’t Say a World [2001]
• American Psycho [2000]
• The Sixth Sense [1999]
• Sleepy Hollow [1999]
• Seven [1995]
• The Silence of the Lambs [1991]
• Misery [1990]
• Nightmare on Elm Street [1984]
• The Shining [1980]
• Alien [1979]
• Jaws [1975]
• A Clockwork Orange [1971]
• Rosemary’s Baby [1968]
• Psycho [1960]
• Dracula [1931]

I could continue but I think that will suffice. If you notice, there hasn’t been a truly great horror/mystery/suspense [etc] movie since probably 1995 with Seven. There have been some good zombie movies, George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead, and even yes the Romantic Zombie Comedy Shaun of the Dead. These are merely the ones that I myself enjoy, I’m just not a huge Zombie fan, it’s just not for me.

Now Vampires, good lord sit me in front of Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula or Brad Pitt as Louis de Pointe du Lac, I will be happy for the rest of my life. There is just something so appealing about vampires that makes the beast in people come out. I believe it has to be their realism and the need within all of us to be both all powerful and immortal. But as these movies continuously repeat; Be careful what you wish for.

But, I must confess my type of horror movies consist of, intelligence, visual art, gore and most of all, a serial killer. Give me a serial killer any day over Dracula or the Wolfman; Give me a Jack the Ripper or a Casanova [Kiss the Girls] or even a Hannibal Lector, over an alien probe. The horror’s of the human mind are so much more intriguing and terrifying than a monster that we all know do not exist. But these types of men [and women] do exist, and they plague our towns and cities taking out their prey, weather it is for pleasure or for reason. Serial Killers are real, and that is what is so terrifying and more often than not so intriguing about a well made Serial Killer movie.

I’m planning on going out and renting some of my old favorites and hell maybe a new one too. I’ll tell you all what I got when I get em.

-Jess