Going To Pieces: The Rise And Fall Of The Slasher film

Dude, you should have written that book!

Haven't seen the book, but whenever the mood arises to discuss THE BURNING, THE PROWLER, MADMAN, MANIAC etc etc, I'm there ...

I wasn't very fond of this book, I'm afraid. (I wrote a review of it for the site, but I can't find it).

It was a fairly interesting read, but more of a missed opportunity than anything.

Have not read the book, but will def get a discussion going...

I really think that we are in the middle of a new beginning of the horror genre. (How is THAT for a confusing phrase?)

Just like Scream did in the 90s - it started a whole new era of horror films -Albeit it was total self awared humor mixed in with the horror(thanx Williamson) it attempted to bring horror back to life.

But much like a mad doctors defibulator-Sometimes it take a few blasts of the old juice to get the creature to come back to life.

Scream and it copycats did a good job for what they wanted and that was to get some "teens in peril" back on the screen, with an aknowleging knod to the old school. Coolness. I will always support that. But with a few exceptions, none were REAL horror like we had in the late seventies and early eighties in my opinion. Movies that made you stand up and take notice of them. Whether you liked them or not. You have to at least respect what movies like Last House on the Left, the Exorcist, Halloween, Friday the 13th, Dawn of the Dead, Evil Dead and the Hills Have Eyes have done for our beloved genre.
They brought a new intensity to the screen that was unthought of before them. Taking nothing away from Psycho, and Night of the Living Dead...This new generation of films had In your face, on screen violence and a new level of suspense that assaulted audiences on a weekly basis. Back then, when I was in high school, I can not remember a Friday ngiht we did not go to the movies to see the latest horror flick.

And like all good things- they must come to an end. Whether it was that the plots became old, and repetitive, the killers were considered generic(or even worse became humorous(ie=Freddy), audiences became desensitized to them- BEGGING for Hollywood to "Up the Ante" on the gore and horror we craved to watch....

But Hollywood being the corporate WHORE that it is. Caved to the changing times of political correctness, vamily values, and pressures of DC politics, it began cutting the gore and horror out of our films therefore frustrating the true die hards of the genre into "not even wanting to bother" to go and see a "CUT" horror movie in the theatre(Cause real fans were reading Fango back then and always KNEW how much gore was intended to be in the movie and then when you would go and see it - you would only see 25% of it on screen). And since Hollywood already lost the "casual" horror viewer and NOW pissed off the die hards- nobody was going to see horror in the theatre and this made horror films a financial cancer for years where nobody wanted to touch it.

So combine all of those elements and we can pretty much have the abbreviated reason that horror died in the 90s...

But like the good old "Final jump scare" in the movies...we have to ask ourselves like we do in the theatre..."Is it really Dead?"...

Well thank God the answer can finally be NO!

The Horror is back from the dead for it's sequel and is more pissed off than ever and it seems to have a score to settle.

The last 2-3 years we have seen quick sightings of the old school horror out there in the darkness stalking us(Jeepers Creepers, Blair Witch). But only in the last year has it taken off its mask and shown itself for the evil that it really is.
Very gruesome horror (Cabin Fever) with mean spirited, evil killers(House of 1000 Corpses), unforgiving abominations(Wrong Turn), and monsters that are unrelenting(Dog Soldiers).

Dvds have taken off big time and studios are finally now seeing that the demand is for deleted scenes and uncut versions of films. So we are finally getting to watch what we only saw pictures of in all the old Fangos.
As well as with the introduction of the Region Free dvd player becomes more available to the masses. We are opened up to a whole new world of films we would never have seen otherwise. And pretty much the only people who are really investing in region free players are people who enjoy either Martial Arts films or horror. (And they are usually the same person anyways.) And Hollywood has seen the rise in HK horror so much that it has been gobbling up the rights to any HK horror it can get its hands on.

And Old school horror fans (Lucky McKee, Eli Roth, Rob Zombie)are now old enough to be getting into positions in film making that they are bringing their love of gore, violence and Un-PC-ness back to the silver screen and like a good ole friend you have not seen in years. We are greeting it with a warm embrace.

Kind of lost my point- But hopefully I made a little sense in there somewhere. Just got lost in my thoughts and the hopefulness of looking forward to the coming year that looks to be a massive one for Horror.

Later
Tony D