The Vanguard: Horror Movies

So this is the debut of The Vanguard. In this column (well, the only column so far) I'll take whatever piece of culture that is ridiculed and bastardized and try and defend it for it's merits. Think of it as giving the beaten red headed step child the Annie treatment.


I debut the column discussing horror movies. Why such an odd debut? Because I will be attending the Monster-Mania Con in Cherry Hill, New Jersey later today.


That doesn't sound like good grounds for me writing an entire piece about horror films does it? Well considering the looks I get from people when I tell them I'm attending this convention, I'm more than sure this deserves some time.






We all love a good scare. Something that will make you jump, scream, look both ways when you open your door, and give you nightmares for weeks. Lord knows I do, and considering that the Saw franchise alone has grossed around the 350 million dollars in the United States, I'm sure you do too.

So why is it that the devout horror fans are ridiculed for their love of films everyone watches? We look down on them for whatever reason. They're gore-hounds, violence-fanatics, something clearly is wrong with these people.

Why are the rest of us are in the horror closet? Too ashamed to admit we crave the violence, the gore, the dismemberment, decapitations, eviscerations, cannibalizations, and complete terror these films give us that we treat them (and their fans) like giant jokes, only to secretly help that god awful Friday the 13th remake take in 19 million dollars on its opening day.



The dichotomy lies in society really. The reason we watch horror movies is because of the fear it brings us. The fear that we feel raises our adrenaline levels providing us with that same rush you get when you ride a roller coaster or vandalize someone's car. We're attracted to these films so easily because it gives us that rush without endangering us. A theater playing oh, say, A Nightmare on Elm Street, is the ultimate safe haven for someone still craving that rush.

Ok, so that's why we all love horror movies.



So why do some of us not show our love openly?

It's our society. A society that admonishes the very violence that makes up our lives. In the minds of the populous violence is the barbaric trait that separates man from beast. It is our duty as civilized individuals to repress any notion of violence we may have, no matter how instinctive it may be. It's people who believe violence is a virus rather than an instinct, who feel the need to repress it instead of find a creative (and safe) outlet for it. It keeps people who view and enjoy these movies from expressing themselves lest they become social pariahs.

Sorry, I got a little Reverend Lovejoy there.


It's because of the violence that horror movies are consistently regarded in having no class. Rodger Ebert has been quoted calling slasher films "Dead teenager movies" is a prime testament to this. As we all search to climb the ladder of social hierarchy, the last thing we want is to be bogged down liking Halloween H20, so instead we hide it.


What I've always found interesting about horror films is how the majority of people fail to see the social commentary that they can provide. After all, we look at the films of the past to analyze them for their social content, so why not horror movies? I'm not saying that EVERY slasher flick in creation has some deeper meaning hidden in it, but there are a few cases where there's some extra meat on the proverbial thinking bone. Scary movies are a true reflection of what society currently fears. What you see in the theaters and on your couches is a glimpse into what our collected conscious is afraid of. Art imitates life after all.

Take the Godzilla and B-monster movies (Try Them!) of the 1950's. Typically, they're stories about ordinary creatures ingesting some sort of vile nuclear ooze and becoming 120 feet tall and causing destruction. When released in the 1950's, these films capitalized on the public's fear of science in the fallout from the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended World War II. The fear of the nuclear unknown and of science in general is what these drive-in classic symbolizes.


Not a real stretch right?

Consider the "Dead teenager" slasher movies that filled up cinemas all throughout the 1980's. Images of masked strangers stalking, hunting, and preying upon young adults and then killing them in the most gruesome ways. The big slasher movie boom occurred during a period when child abductions and kidnappings were at an all time national high. We were a culture of fear in the 80's, our greatest enemies were our next door neighbors, the boogieman, the fear that what you saw wasn't exactly true. American cinema reflected this by giving us Michael Myers, a demented killer who stalks suburbia, the one place families move to because they're deemed safer than the city. This theme is immersed in most slasher pieces of the era (Friday the 13th, My Bloody Valentine, Maniac, The Prowler, etc...). Wes Craven being the genius he is, wasn't happy with just those underlying themes. In his now classic entry to the genre, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Craven treated the film as an allegory for enlightenment, dealing with struggling through the last level of consciousness to achieve enlightenment.

For Craven, Freddy Krueger became the enemy that stops us on the path to nirvana. He was the final challenge one must face to either break through to enlightenment, or fall all the way back to step one (or in this case, get sucked through a bed). Craven has stated in interviews that he viewed the journey of Nancy in the first film as himself battling through his struggle to reach inner peace with the eastern religions he studied in the 80's.



Wes Craven is also to be credited for re-sparking the horror genre in the 1990's, which had grown dull, predictable, and boring, with Scream, Craven's attempt to satire the entire slasher wave of the 80's. His infusion of irony and parody mixed with classic genre elements are a fantastic example of meatier horror films of the last few years. Way better than Leprechaun in the Hood.





I know a lot of my defense here has been centered around the work of Wes Craven, but I'm giving premier examples of the genre to examine. I'm well aware that there are more than a fair share of horror movies that are crap-tacular.

My point is this; There are a lot of action movies that are shit too. Not every action movie is Die Hard, hell, just look at the filmography for Jean-Claude Van Damme. Comedy movies are the same way, you don't compare Animal House and You Don't Mess With the Zohan in the same sentence do you? No, you don't judge the genre as a whole, rather on a film by film basis, and horror should be no exception. I'm not going to try and find a way to rationalize Children of the Corn for you. I mean, I could, I'm very good at bullshitting symbolism and meanings of things, it's what's gotten me this far hasn't it? Some movies have no redeemable value other than to look at them and judge by what the film is discussing the overall status of the culture at that period when the film was made, I get that so there's no need to critique every movie. I'm aiming at the gold standards here.



I have nothing to say post-Scream honestly. This is where the genre has let me down and given holes in the defense I've so neatly assembled in the above paragraphs. The horror movies that aren't soulless remakes of past films do nothing but glorify gratuitous violence, which is all fine and dandy, but doesn't really give you much food for thought. I loved the first Saw movie. I thought it tapped in 21st century voyeurism and morals. The idea of the victim elaborately killing themselves instead of some mega killer slicing their throat's was intriguing the first time, just not the second, third, fourth, or fifth time, and the sixth time around won't be any different. Saw has become the consumer mass marker horror film like the ChildsFreddyWeenRaiser13th films did twenty years ago. A new one every year to add the same formula to the mix. The Saw franchise to me was always like the story they portray, they are slowly killing themselves for all of us to see. As I said above, unless it's a remake of an older film, new horror movies try not to deviate much from the Saw formula. The "torture porn" sub-genre of the splatter film is growing rather thin, therefore I don't have much to say about it. I know Eli Roth likes to think he's transgressive with Hostel, but he's not. He's just a sadist who can't make a good movie. Suck on it Roth.





This all comes from someone who isn't a horror movie buff. I just find the glares and stereotyping their fans receive irritating, so I opened The Vanguard to it.





And honestly, if your going to judge anyone for attending Monster-Mania Con, you better have some words for the thousand in attendance at this.