Horror films should be scary

Rating: 9/10 (24 September 2007)

Definition of the term horror: "intense and profound fear".
Surely then, a HORROR film should contain intense and profound fear. So why is it then that most horror films are not very scary, and just contain grotesquely disturbing and violent images. Well, its probably because most people who watch modern horror films are mostly underage and get off on graphic violence. It's a shame really, because these films do so well, why would anybody go out of their way to make a genuinely scary horror movie? James Wan's Saw is an exception, but like all other actual good horror films, it has been exploited by making pointless sequels.
Thankfully, we'll always have the legendary John Carpenter. Halloween is by far the scariest film I have seen. Instead of going out of his way to put graphic violence on camera, he instead creates unbelievable suspense by making us wait, setting the film at night, the heavy breathing sound, and adding a supernatural element. Notice there is no blood and gore in that list. Michael Myers has no lines in the whole film. He also has no back story. He is seemingly normal, that is perhaps the scariest thing about him. So many villains have been made so much less scary by giving them a back story - even Hannibal Lector was ruined by his own creator! Ignore the fact there has been a recent remake of Halloween, because it hasn't aged one little bit. It isn't gory at all, but remains terrifying in a way that no other film can. This is a milestone in film horror, and a true classic. Because what Carpenter lacked in budget, and some of the actors lacked in talent, was more than accounted for by superb technique, something that many budding directors should take a look at.