The art of horror is such a delicate and special thing. Sometimes horror movies get hated on because most horror movies do not have stellar plots. On the other hand, you don’t watch a horror movie for the plot; you watch it to get scared and to get your heart rate up. The horror genre is one of the only movie genres that does not typically explore sensitive topics such as sexual assault, nudity, racial profiling, and childhood trama. This is because the director has to find the balance between scary and traumatizing.
This special balance is why Hollywood shouldn’t take something that was perfect the first time and remake it. Let me clarify, a remake is different from a sequel because the sequel is often scarier and continues the story. My problem is when they remake the original story and add new things that completely ruin the original. This almost always results in something laughable.
The legendary Wes Craven had much to say about his favorite genre. He has said all of the following: “The first monster you have to scare the audience with is yourself.” “Horror films don’t create fear. They release it.” “Certainly the deepest horror, as far as I’m concerned, is what happens to your body at your own hands and others.” He was one of horror’s most influential directors, and he understood all this and used it to his advantage to make some of the most important horror movies of all time such as Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, and their sequels.
Most horror movies also throw in some comedy, so they can be enjoyed by more people. There’s people who like to laugh and there’s people who like to be scared. The art of filmmaking is a difficult process, so it is really challenging to mix two types of movies: horror and comedies. Those who do it well show how much skill it takes to create a good horror movie.
Now let’s talk about the sequels. Don’t get me wrong, there are some good ones. But if you’re going to completely change the backstory of a character and their motives, then you deserve to have your third toe on both feet surgically removed without anesthesia. I know that sounds harsh and that’s because it is. On the other hand, look at it this way: let’s say someone shot your dog, and to make things better they cloned the dog, but the dog’s head is now backwards. It is no longer the same dog, but they try to give it back to you. That dog isn’t yours anymore, it is some dumb-looking dog now. The same goes for movies. Don’t kill a movie, rearrange its parts and try to pass it back off as the original. It isn’t.
So let’s go over what we’ve learned: horror is an art and shouldn’t be messed with. To put it another way, you wouldn’t draw a duck over the Mona Lisa.
