I write horror as a means of escape. The world is in a sad state nowadays and people love to give their two cents on current issues. But to me, most of what people have to say is BS and is simply them liking to hear the sound of their own voice. So I go to movies to get away from all that. Unfortunately these days, you get the same BS in movies too. As tired as I am of remakes, superheros, and bad 70s TV shows, I'm also tired of pretentious Oscar winners like Cinderella Man trying to shove ideas down are throats. Even genre movies are doing this today. The political overtones in War Of The Words and Land Of The Dead made me groan (and I LOVE George Romero). Horror is the best way to escape from all this since most horror films are so out there, it's easy to get lost in them.

Okay, there's my philosophical response. Basically, I write horror since I've been madly in love with the genre since I was traumatized by the Tales From The Dark Side movie when I was six years old.  

Though if you think about it even horror films (The simple ones) are very unbelievable in the way they are made and written so I don't see how it is valid that they are a good means of escape... People being brutally killed onscreen is an escape for people?

Horror films are unbelievable. Like I said, they're 'out there', detached from reality, and that what makes them a good means of escape. People also suspend disbelief when they watch horror films which makes them even more immersed in the film. People that don't, don't watch horror films.

In response to your other comment: people are attracted to violence. It's a sad truth that many people don't like to admit but it is still truth. It's a taboo subject and people are always attracted to what's taboo. Think back to when the Nick Berg video was released online last year. The websites hosted that video became inaccessible because of the traffic on them.

I personally think that horror movies, in addition to escape, are a healthy way to acknowledge that there is violence in the world and feel comfortable discussing it. Films like the Nick Berg tape, on the other hand, are not as those types of videos are real people dying and I don't think there's anything healthy in watching real people die as a means of acknowledging and feeling comfortable discussing violence. That's why I've refused to watch any of the hostage tapes on terrorist websites or 'mondo' films like Faces Of Death.

I have heard many times that Faces of Death is a fake.

I don't think horror movies these days are scary or thoughtprovoking. Horror movies don't need to be R to be scary, but some movies censor themselves so much for a mainstream audience they lose there effect entirely.

In terms of originality in horror movies, i hear that charlie kaufmann is writing a horror movie which sounds promising for this dying(in quality) genre.

And WES you'd be right... FACES OF DEATH started out as a sorta twisted america's home video's kinda thing, but then grew quickly into... Let's script deaths and use props and fool the people.

As a whole... viollence is not an escape, it's a cop out answere to say it is. You can't take any horror movie serious. You simply cannot. I write horror, I love horror, It's in my soul, it's what I need... but at the same time... I know that my escape isn't in horror... Reality is a much better place to see, live and be in.

All genres are easy to write.  Writing them well, however, is another matter.  And people just have a lower standard when it comes to horror/slasher films.  They ignore the good ones (ie:  The Excorcist, The Shining, Psycho) and compare their scripts to the bad ones (pretty much any horror movie made today).

The bar is just too low for this genre and that's why so many people, here, write them.


Phil

I think all of you guys are analyzing too much.

Those who haunt these boards are (primarily) youngish males.

And for this demographic, horror is the favorite to read, watch, or to write -- for whatever reason.

Faces Of Death is fake but there's real footage spliced into it including cruelty to animals, wartime footage, and prisoner executions.

If the age limit was raised the problem would go away is what you're trying to say than Bert, Don won't raise it... He's already made that clear once before so I guess we'll all just have to live with it and take out your frustrations on the many bad horror screenplays based on other bad horror films as Dogglebe put it.

On the one hand, you can check the ages of the writers in their profile and only favor a certain few who are over a certain age. The problem there is there are a few young writers who are cutting their teeth on bad horror, but you can read in their scripts the potential for greatness. Don said once that some of the best people on here started when they were quite young (Wesley, you were one he mentioned by name). Had there been an age limit of some sort, we might not even have you.

Situations reversed I wouldn't want myself on the boards from when I was younger, I'd say I'm right in the middle age group of the boards. Though maybe I'd be considered old because most members are in their early to late teens ha-ha

Wow, I hate to know what that makes me. And Phil. And Don, for that matter.

Hey George,  don't group me in with you old farts.  We made be the same age, but I age like a fine wine.  You sonsabitches age like milk on a hot day!


Phil

I generally avoid the horror boards because the vast majority of the stories fall into either zombie or slasher.  Neither of them interest me.  Let the kids have their fun there.

This is partially why Dreams in Dust and Marble was placed in the shorts sections and not horror.


Phil