Due to my malleability, I gave into peer pressure last night. It's been a long time coming, but eventually, you knew it had to happen. I finally watched Saw II.
A little backstory: I hate horror movies. I have never seen any movie in the Halloween franchise, any of the Friday the 13ths, and I think I've seen three of the Nightmare on Elm Street films. Not necessarily by choice, more like I was shamed into them.
A few months ago, I gave into my podcasting friend Chuck's demands and watched the original Saw movie. And you know, for as afraid of it as I was going in, it was more of a thriller than a traditional movie. Chuck (repeatedly) compared it to the movie Seven, which I enjoyed, and I agree. The original Saw is not a horror movie. It is a thriller with horror elements.
I was told that the second movie was the most "traditional horror movie." And honestly, I don't know if it was. There were certainly a lot of tense moments in the movie, and some gore, but there were also some INCREDIBLY tense moments in the movie "No Country for Old Men," which is not considered a horror movie. Granted, no one ended up in a pit of syringes in No Country for Old Men either, but there were a lot of parallels between the two movies (people died).
Have I been wrong in writing off horror as a genre of movies? Is this like people who foolishly say "I listen to all types of music, except for country," thereby limiting themselves from experiencing the feelings that go with a certain song/movie? If so, am I really comparing Michael Myers to Martina McBride?
Yes. Yes I am.
3 comments:
I am forbidden to watch thrillers and horror movies as I have nightmares and wake up screaming attacking my sleeping husband. He does not appreciate this. So he imposed a total ban. He even turns off the TV if a preview comes on for a scary movie, and I'm in the room.
Apparently, I'm sensitive.
The "peer pressure" last night to get you to watch the movie - was it me saying "Hey we're going to watch Saw II"? If so, sorry about cornering you like that.
"Saw II" is the closest to a "traditional horror movie" out of the Saw series - you will see that when you see Saw III, IV and V soon - I really liken those three, oddly enough, closest to the X-Men series in terms of new/past episodes in terms of the overall world they create.
I think that writing off horror movies is something a lot of people do. Especially smart people.
I don't know why that is, but it's definitely true. For a long time I shied away from horror movies as well. For some reason in my teen years I watched the "Scream" series, and some of the older/sillier horror movies (Leprechaun, The Granny, Silent Night Deadly Night, Sleepaway Camp) and eventually I just grew to enjoy the genre. It's at least a little fun to be a little frightened (for the most part) and experiencing that with some friends can just be fun in itself, even with a "meh" plot.
If you can take that style, and actually surprise people with a good story and a real unique journey (like in "Saw") then I think you really have something.
I agree that horror as a genre is judged a little harshly, but like we've talked about, it's because so much of it isn't good. I think people just have to realize that that doesn't mean it's NEVER good.
That being said - I'm glad you're making the turn to looking at it as an enjoyable genre.
Next stop: The new Halloween series. Crap!
I think the original Halloween would make a great next stop for Brad. Also, perhaps some of the unintentional humor of Child's Play (stop well before bride of chucky), or even John Carpenter's The Thing (a little sci-fi) would be nice next steps. It's a little sad that Saw, Rob Zombies work and a few others are the only recent examples of quality horror. though Brad should hold off on Rob Zombie until a larger tolerance of horror can be built up.
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