Creeeakk. We all know classic Halloween movies. Bone-chilling scenes that keep you on the edge of your seat, with nail-biting anticipation for a jumpscare around every corner. The magic of watching these frightful films with friends and family comes around every October. However, in recent years, these movies have fallen into a downward spiral.
Modern horror films consist of the same reused plots over and over again. Take our first category: the classic slasher movies, such as “Halloween”, “Scream”, “Friday the 13th”, and “ A Nightmare on Elm Street”. Here’s the gist: It’s a small town, and recently, highschool students have been going missing. A person is killed by an unsettling masked entity, usually with a knife. A group of naive teenagers get themselves involved and soon the whole friend group is targeted. Eventually, in a big coincidence, the friend group encounters the killer, reveals their identity, and narrowly escapes death. Finally, everyone lives happily ever after until someone picks up the mask again and ends the movie in a cliffhanger. Not only are these plots recycled but the franchise never ends. The “Scream” franchise was revolutionary at its time and started a theme for many great horror movies, but producers need to recognize when audiences have had enough.
Then there are supernatural horror or physiological horrors, movies such as “The Conjuring”, “The Exorcist”, and “The Babadook”. These plots start off with a large family who move into the world’s creepiest house that is definitely haunted or has a few dead bodies inside without question. Then, the family starts to experience strange occurrences such as nightmares, random wounds, doors or windows moving on their own, dead animals around the home, or hallucinations. Then, instead of just walking out the door and leaving like sensible people, the family calls an exorcist. After entering the house, the demonic spirit or the possessed person reveals themselves. The exorcist battles the spirit until they are “gone”. It ends with the family finally moving out, however, the spirit never truly left them.
Finally, arguably the most visually disturbing category, gore movies. This category is when writers do not focus on the plot, but rather use blood, guts, and generally disturbing scenes to spark fear in viewers. Some examples would be: “In a Violent Nature”, “Evil Dead Rise”, “Terrifier”, and “ChainSaw Massacre”. These movies feature simple or boring plots with a few jumpscares sprinkled in, but mainly consist of exploding body parts and an excessive amount of blood. Basically it is when writers give up on an actual scary movie and say “I feel violent today.”
After years and years of these same plots being reused over and over and over again, people are not scared, and it is hard to feel the magic of it all. The adrenaline that pumps through your veins as you pull up the covers in anticipation.
“I always love being able to feel scared during this time of year but lately it just hasn’t been the same.” Freshman Valire Lee said.
However this year things are looking to make a change for the better. With new and promising movies coming out in the following years, horror movie fanatics have never been more excited for a change. Why all the hype? Well, this Halloween new plots are coming out and multiple franchises are coming to an end. Recently, during September, the movie “Tarot” was released . This movie showed audiences great promise for what is to come this year. With a fresh new plot and perfectly placed jumpscares, along with a surprising ending, the movie was a hit! With the announcements of other interesting movies such as “Don’t Move”, “Companion”, “The Monkey”, and a few others, audiences are excited.
Will horror movie fans finally get what they have been waiting for and enjoy this scary holiday? Or will they be disappointed as another year passes with the same old storylines? Audiences can decide for themselves upon watching these new films. Regardless, remember to stay safe this Halloween and keep the script scary.
