The Problem with American Horror Films

I am a huge (and huge is an understatement) lover of all thing horror. I eat breath and sleep horror. I turn the TV on and the first thing I go to is to browse what’s “On Demand” in the horror section. My love borders on obsession. Needless to say, I’ve seen thousands of horror movies from across the globe. I search endlessly for a great horror movie and those are so few and far in-between. There are few very good American horror films that are even worth watching.

If someone asks me for horror movie recommendations I always steer them towards Asian or even Spanish horror films. I do know they aren’t everyone’s cup of tea though because they don’t follow the “American formula” for makes a horror movie good.

This point was really driven home to me while watching the SyFy series “Faceoff”. On a recent episode they had to create a horror movie villain in which they designed the concept, came up with a title and a tag line. The guest start that week was from Friday the 13th… and he spoke to me exactly what was wrong with American Horror. Horror villains, he said, need to be iconic. They need to have a great weapon and they need to be scary. Scary, is so subjective… and when you try to put a face on scary you fail. The worst part was “you have to have a scary” weapon. Why does scary need a “weapon”? Iconic horror movies from the 80s were great for this but we’re a long way off from the 80s.

Some of the best horror movies never show the face of the villain or what it is that’s haunting/stalking/scaring them. The hints, the glimpses, the sounds in the dark are so much scarier than the in your face CGI that we’ve come to associate with horror movies. So many American horror movies are really just slashers that turn to the grotesque to imitate that gut reaction that makes us turn our heads or moan. We may turn away but it’s not because we’re scared, it’s because we’re grossed out; I hardly need to tell you that these are not the same thing. A great in your face character, when done right is scary not simply for his looks but for what he can do or what he is capable of. One of my all time scary movies is Hellraiser. The original…none of the shitty remakes. That was pretty in your face but you turned it off and you wondered what your own personal hell would be and it scares the shit out of you. To this day I won’t watch any Hellraiser movies, not even the original for fear of tripping my own hell open by puzzling my way through movies.

One of the biggest problems with American horror is that we have to have justice and we have to have an explanation. Many people don’t like Asian horror because no one ever really makes it out alive and there’s usually not an explanation. We want our heroes to win, good to triumph over evil and we want it all packaged up with a neat little bow at the end with all the I’s dotted and all our t’s crossed.

The truth is, life is not nearly as black and white. The scary part of life is not knowing…not having an explanation and knowing that evil does indeed often win over good. That is scary. Remember when we were kids and what scared us was what we “thought” was under the bed or that maybe mom and dad couldn’t save us after all. American horror writers have seem to forgotten what it is that scares us. It’s so much easier to hire someone to do CGI or to do special effects makeup then it is to really play to our fears as humans.

Speaking of being human, I think some of the scariest things made have to deal with us as human beings and what we’re truly capable off. Think of “The Walking Dead”… sure, the zombies are scary but if you’ve read the comic then you know they are nowhere near as scary as we are. The scariest part of the comic is delving into what we, as humans are capable of, when the machines stop turning and you can’t call 911 for help.

Over the next month or so, stay tuned for some looks at specific horror movies and my thoughts. If you have something you’d like to see me talk about, let me know!