shade Chronicler Companion of the Mind's Eye member is offline
You really think you're in control?
Joined: Jul 2006 Gender: Male Posts: 1,098 Location: Saskatoon, SK
Horror themes « Thread Started on Sept 19, 2007, 11:12pm »
What makes a horror book/movie good for you? What do you think people do too much nowadays?
The best horror films I have seen are the Mothman Prophecies and the first Alien flick. MP was full of mystery and twist until the very end while Alien was tenseful, and had the best jump scene ever in a film.
Nowadays most of the horror films need lots of death and guersome kills, not to mention naked people to make a horror film. No one really does anything original, just a remake or the same thing with one thing that is different.
Step 3: Hero turns around and gasps in shock, but there's nothing there. They continue looking back, however, until...
Step 4: ... they face the front again and see a gigantic, bug-eyed/tentacled/zombified monster and scream as loud as they can. This is followed by...
Step 5 A: They are instantly killed in the most gruesome way possible.
Step 5 B: They somehow escape, but there's a long sequence in which the monster is chasing them, roaring with rage.
This formula is tried and true. Unfortunately. Give me a good Hitchcock movie any day. It's too bad the only Hitchcock I ever saw was North by Northwest, and I would really love to see one of his scary flicks.
« Last Edit: Sept 19, 2007, 11:23pm by Dickensworth »
Chapter 1 - The Mysterious Happenings on the Corner of Elm and Pickleberry Chapter 2 - In Search of a Recipe Chapter 3 - What the Dickens? - More Chapters pending (Probably about 6 chapters in all)
Alien has an original version of that. Somewhere in an action/horror thing I write I'll have a character enter the room like that, do the same thing, but then shoot backwards, or up and kill whatever wanted to kill him/her.
The two Jason movies I've seen have been a laughing fest for my and my buddies. We have a lot of fun yelling at the doomed people as they walked right into Jason.
There is an anthology TV show called Masters of Horror. There's also a Master of Sci-fi. I watched ads for various epsiodes and it actually looks good.
Books have never scared me. I only get a rush of excitement and suspence from horror books. When people say a book scared them, I can't relate to them. Books have never scared me.
Stephen King is suppose to be a great horror writer, but I can barely read his books. The Dark Tower series ended when the characters started the hi *%$% you %#^$#%^$^ dialogue for no reason in every sentence. I read the Shining and was never scared by it. It was a good read, but only suspenseful.
One of the best books I ever took a chance reading was Quietus. The basic way of explaining it would be an adult version of Final Destination. It was suspenceful and forced you to stop reading every once and a while to process the many different theories she had been making you read.
Then there's HP Lovecraft. He really knows what he's doing, and it isn't chessy like you would think from something that came a really long time ago. As much as you want to see a movie based on his stories, it can't be done because of his ideas of what is actually scary.
Edgar Allan Poe was very good at creating, not necissarily scary, but ver ydisturbing moods in his horror stories. After I read a good Poe poem or short story, I usually find myself giving a little shiver before I'm done.
Movie special effects might be one reason most horror now tends to be splatter films rather than true horror. Poe, Lovecraft and Hitchcock didn't have special effects, and managed to give their audience shivers by letting the audience's own mind supply most of the effects. Sort of like radio plays. The sound effects man makes hoofbeats, the audience sees horses.
I think one of the best horror films of all time is Hitchcock's "The Birds." Not much in the way of special effects but a truly disturbing film.
For books... Last year's "CrowCraft" in Hatchlings gives me a shiver every single time I read it.
i've never really liked horror myself, until i read "vampire hunter D" by hedeyuki kikuchi. most of the books are in english now. it's officially an action/horror book, it has enough hack and slash to be interesting, but more than enough things in there that have given me a scare, such as the time a little girl had to be cut up because she got turned into a vampire, the same little girl D saved hours ago from giant birds. D himself is often terrifying, and he's the hero. the other stuff is not for the faint of heart. haven't had a book scare me until these, and it's a thrill i cant get enough of. aside from that there isn't much i can tell about the books, the ways it's scary are too many to list coherently.
the aspects of it that are horror are very well layed out, and it achieves the effects wonderfully. i use this book as my current definition of what makes good horror, and scary without being overly disgusting.
and btw that "crowcraft" story still gives me the willies when i think about it.
« Last Edit: Sept 23, 2007, 11:46pm by prickles19 »
"kill a thousand men and they will hate you,kill a million men and they will ache to face you. but kill a single man, string him up for all the world to see, and they will see monsters in the darknes, and jump at every shadow, kill a dozen men and they will scream in the night and they shall feel not hatred but fear" - Konrad Curze, the Nighthaunter, Primearch of the Night Lords Legion
skylander Chief Wizard River Lord member is offline
The End of Chapter Two is up and ready to read!
Joined: Jun 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 456 Location: Saskatchewan
Crow craft was pretty creepy, but I was more creeped out by At What Price. Poinsetta was kinda scary too. But At Waht Price kinda takes the cake. Good Job Ashley!
I was finally scared by a story. I decided to read Lovecraft's Whisperer in the Darkness with my window uncovered and by flashlight. Needless to say, the atmosphere I created was perfect for the story and I was getting paranoid by the end.
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