TheInnocents Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Cinematical Seven: Horror Movies Based on Books or Stories
Filed under: Horror », Cinematical Seven », Lists »
Just about anyone who follows horror has bemoaned the sorry state of the genre these days. Nearly everything is a remake, either of some 1970s or 1980s classic or of some recent Asian hit. The rare films that aren't remakes are simply lazy copies of whatever worked a year earlier, the current "torture porn" subgenre, for example. And hardly anything screens for the press, which means that even the studios now understand how low things have sunk.
The new film The Ruins likewise isn't screening for the press, but it is based -- of all things -- on an actual book! With pages! It's by Scott B. Smith, who many years ago wrote both the book and screenplay for the excellent A Simple Plan. The new movie inspired me to look up other literary-based horror movies (whether inspired by novels or short stories). Sadly, aside from Stephen King and the upcoming Midnight Meat Train (based on Clive Barker's short story), I couldn't find much good recent work, but there is plenty to choose from ...
Cinematical Seven: Horror Movie Gimmicks That Always Work
Filed under: Horror », Independent », Cinematical Seven »
Stephen King divided up the realm of horror into three categories in his indispensable book of essays Danse Macabre. There is terror -- the large sense of the universe never being the same again after the events told in the story, of inescapable personal threat as the aim of the story: nameless dread finally has a name. There is horror: a more removed sense of sympathy and pity for some victim of supernatural violence. And, as King concluded, if you can't get either one, there's always the good old reliable gross-out. Well, the gross-out is king in current horror. It's a lever is pumped 'till the handle breaks, and no one ever tires of it. The jack in the box pop-up followed by the explosion in the strawberry jam factory ... not that I'm complaining, mind you, but a more rarefied sense of terror is what floats my boat. Using some examples from America's first horror master Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-64) I'd like to try to describe easy ways to get it ...
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