NationStates Jolt Archive

Fear Itself (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1112285/)

A new series being shown here (US) on NBC featuring 13 seperate 1-hour long horror/suspence movies by some well known directors and writers.

being "prime time" you know the gore will be minimal, but I was rather surprised on how well they used the lighting, sound/music and storytelling to set the tone.

which backs up my theory that you can have a good horror movie without the amounts of gore Wes Craven is famous for.

so my question.

what do you consider important to a good horror movie. and conversely, what is the Least important ingrediant to a good horror movie.

to me, it's the atmosphere. the gore is the least important part. a horror/supense movie can do without the Gore, but it cannot do without the atmosphere.

I tend to find gore more amusing than scary.
But I remember years ago watching an old black-and-white horror film, about a haunted house. There were NO special effects whatsoever, no blood, and not even a screaming girl. But that film had me shivering under my duvet for days after...

Most important is atmosphere as in allowing people to scare themselves by imagining things rather than showing them. From Vampyr to Ringu this is by far the scariest thing.

Least important is gore...and rabbits.

I tend to find the gore does best when it's just kind of there, not "Omigoshhejustcutofftheguysarm" sort of way, but in the sort of Chzo Mythos sort of way.

to me, it's the atmosphere. the gore is the least important part. a horror/supense movie can do without the Gore, but it cannot do without the atmosphere.

I agree. I actually don't like scary movies with a lot of gore, as the gore provokes disgust rather than fear, and that distances me from the story.

Not that icky bits can't be part of the atmosphere: the first half of Seven scared the crap out of me. The difference is that if the movie had been structured so we saw the killings taking place, it would have just been gross and boring, not creepy.

a horror/supense movie can do without the Gore, but it cannot do without the atmosphere.

A horror/suspense movie cannot do without Gore, for without him there is no ManBearPig, who is the true definition of utter terror.

That's quite true... Personally, It by Stephen King was what really scared the shit out of me as a kid (and still does today, though I don't necessarily fear clowns for it). I don't know why, but there was something just even more terrifying about something that could become anything....

to be honest I hate horror movies, mainly because I really, really do not like to be scared.

However there are a few I've enjoyed that didn't have excess amounts of gore in them. Gore isn't necessary to scare people, all you need is suspense really, and enough weird/scary crap happening.

I absolutely hate most horror movies. Bits of blood, pools of blood, I can deal with. Limbs getting cut off, blood spurting everywhere, I'm GTFO.

You NEED gore for a good comedy... who can't laugh at funny Al's claims to have invented the internet :D

He'd do well in a horror movie as well, decapitated, defenistrated, debollocked, disembowled and disarmed :)

I absolutely hate most horror movies. Bits of blood, pools of blood, I can deal with. Limbs getting cut off, blood spurting everywhere, I'm GTFO.
one of the reasons why I like Asian Horror. even if they do put in the limbs flying off with spurts of blood, it's done... artistically.

You NEED gore for a good comedy... who can't laugh at funny Al's claims to have invented the internet :D true, but after a while, it does get tedious because there;s no new material. :p