Back to the Basics: Doing Horror RIGHT

Nov 2

Nov 2 Back to the Basics: Doing Horror RIGHT

I would not be offended if you told me I was entirely unqualified to be writing about this. I am NOT a cinema and media studies major, so please go easy on me. I am also RIDICULOUSLY squeamish, and I hate blood and gore. My kind of movie tends to be the kind that makes you cry at the end and laugh in the middle (About Time is my personal favorite). That being said, I am a recently converted fan of classic horror movies. I’m talking Halloween (1978), The Shining (1980), Scream (1996)... films like these comprise what I consider to be the golden age of scary movies. They are colorful, they are nostalgic, they are smart, they are multi-dimensional, and they are self-aware.

Horror from the last few decades of the twentieth century is unlike any other genre I have ever seen, contemporary or otherwise. They have the vibrant color palettes characteristic to film and fashion of the time period (the y2k that is ohhh so trendy now), paired with what one might find to be incompatible themes of death and evilllll. I feel like most horror movies these days tend to go for the ominous color palette we see in films like The Conjuring franchise. The only thing I’ve seen recently to parallel this classic color scheme is a24’s X, which actively emulates a vintage aesthetic and does so extremely successfully, I would say.

I love the kind of horror movies that don’t take themselves too seriously. Scream is exemplary of what I mean. It constantly makes fun of the genre it belongs to. It is corny but still manages to be scary.

I don’t know if this is controversial, but I find The Shining to be SO funny. With Halloween, I guess what makes me laugh the most is the lore surrounding it. This article does a great deep dive into “horror’s quirkiest, most erratic horror franchise.”

The thing I love most about these movies is that when you take away their horror elements, you still have a phenomenally interesting and entertaining film. They are character-driven, involve creative cinematography, and don’t rely on shock value for the sake of shock value. I have really only dipped my toes into the horror genre, but I have a feeling I’ll stick to the classics - they’re oldies but goodies!