1. What are the writer’s thoughts and feelings about horror films? [10]
2. How does the writer make the reader think that horror films are good? [10]
What Makes A Great Horror Movie?
Today’s movie critics make it difficult to produce a successful horror movie. You put your blood, sweat, and tears into this
production, and what do these critics do? A bad review. You’ll see headlines, online forums, and even hear it on the streets,
“Decent, but not as good as........” It’s impossible to top them all, so you do the next best thing and ask yourself, what made that
other horror movie so good? After dedicating my life to analyzing horror movie script and movies, its easy to determine which
hones the right stuff and what another lacks. We see the same old killings, and the same old gore. Your audience is maturing and
it’s all getting boring. Everyone wants more, something better, and different. There needs to be a new and fresh idea that sends
shivers down spines.
Relating to the Audience
It’s key to find this new idea and then relate it to the audience. If you can find some characteristic of an average Joe and turn it into
a weakness, it’ll put into perspective just how vulnerable we the audience actually are. For example, the classic, “A Nightmare on
Elm Street.” Freddy Krueger, a disfigured murderer who kills those in their sleep. The slight thought of someone being slaughtered
because they fell asleep leaves goosebumps. Freddy Kruger was that guy who kept people up at night and that’s exactly what you
want. How can you not congratulate a movie with such an original but horrifying scheme?
Music
A good horror movie has no defined music, almost any sound or music will justify the movie fine. The music just needs to fall at the
right time and the right place. You could hear a piano chime or you could hear loud music. In a horror movie both cases could lead
to a death. Loud piano chimes is a given, but how could loud rock music work in a horror movie? A character could be casually
rocking out and all of a sudden a killer could casually walk in and go for a kill. While the character is dying and weeping out for
help, the music blocks out any help because no one hears their call. You’ll be off your seats yelling, “Help him!”
The Killer Appearance
There’s a certain fear people get when they don’t know exactly what they’re against. It scares each soul to see a murderer behind
a generic mask. It makes them seem inhuman because we have no idea what’s under the mask. If the killer doesn’t have those
aspects then it gets to the point where you think, is this really a horror movie? Or a suspense? It’s best to have something
unnatural about the killer or ghost, if being a ghost wasn’t unnatural enough that is. If there’s nothing unnatural about these killers
then the audience have a safe boundary. For example, what’s scarier, Freddy
Krueger who can kill you in your sleep, or the mail man down the street that
you made angry?
Endings
No garbage endings, please! Do some directors really believe it’s necessary to
have some mind boggling twist at the end? I’m not saying a big twist doesn't
work, but when a movie is over, the crowd expects to know what exactly happened. All the basic questions should be answered.
For example, I recently watched a zombie flick, there was the casual eating of the flesh, but right before the movie ended, a plant
comes out of the hero’s computer and strangles him. There was no explanation of any of it whatsoever. I understand the director
wanting to leave a cliff hanger but a plant? Seriously? People love to be scared. It gets their adrenaline rushing, their hearts
pounding. What is it that compels the audience to hope for an extra scene at end? There’s always something more to look forward
to. Something new to keep everyone asking, what’s going to happen next? The audience may look away, they may close their
eyes, but the masterpiece opens them to a new fictional world where nowhere is safe, where no one is to be trusted, and where
evil is just around the corner.