" Horror Films Don't Create Fear , They Release It " - Wes Craven ,Director.
Movies are not just an another extension in technology invented by evergreen communication media.
Movies are meant to replace the magic shows and directors are for magicians.
If a finest piece of classical music and well written Theatrical drama, can evoke our emotions, A movie can do more than that.
A movie can teleport us and can take us with it to the world it is based on and also can create long run ,if not permanent ;changes in trends and behaviors of society.
Every movie tells a story with a theme and this movie along with story, theme and targeted audiences, gets categorized into a Genre ;
A movie is defined and judged by its genre and it has to serve all the genre tropes . A best movie always stick to its genre and serves the audience what they are looking for.
The Primary Emotions of human's life is the basis for Primary Genres in movies ;
Happiness - comedy , sad - Melo drama, Anger - action Thrillers , Fear - Horror, Love and more - Romance.
Here We are talking about Most Important and active emotion of humanity ; Fear .
Fear is the only constant emotion we have; If All emotions are guests ; Fear is host of the Party.
If a movie is called as a good movie, it means it can serve any of these primary emotions or compliments them.
The only genre that can always serve its purpose and fascinating to watch is "The Horror".
Fundamentals of Horror :
Horror is mostly used as synonym to scary or frightening. That is why the scope of horror cinema is limited in India and most of the countries.
Horror movies can be based on a horrific incident, on fear, on dread , on disgust(body horror) ,fear of loss, fear of recovering from loss, fear of god etc.
The definition of horror genre is extended to all of its synonyms.
Some of these synonyms later become sub genres in horror , take for instance , The Psychological horror; where director often confuses audience by playing with reality and dream/nightmare.
Mike Flanagan(oculus, the haunting of hill house and Bly manor(both are Netflix series) is a fresh entry in the list of directors deals with this genre and also you can watch The others(2001) as a reference.
Most of the new horror movies looks absurd and feels like there is no point in it. sometimes they are cryptic(Shutter island(2010) and The Light House(2019)) and sometimes they are too much artistic(Suspiria(2018) ).
Truth is the horror genre has gone through renaissances almost back to back, The Path breaking era of Alfred Hitchcock and almost immediately to the New age cinema revolution in Asia and Europe (especially Japan, China, Hong Kong and Germany(Nosferatu(1922) ).
These changes caused horror genre to explode and expand , thus leads to many films with original ideas and later , ended up in exhausting all possible stories a simple minds like us can imagine and led to this artistic Phase. Even now we can see simple horror stories(not original stories) that are executed well here and there.
Sub genres of horror :
These are the types of horror movies, well known in the world cinema and helps in expanding our knowledge about the un explored world of horror :
Paranormal Horror :
It includes all those stories from folk lore ; The Witches , The evil cults, bad fairies, mythical ghosts, ancient ghosts and monsters and aliens etc.
Movies to watch :
The Exorcist film series -1973
Pan's Labyrinth -Guillermo del Toro -2006
The conjuring film series - 2013 - James wan and more.
The Witch -2015 - Robert Eggers.
Autopsy of Jane doe - 2016 - Andre Ovredal.
Hansel and Gretel - 2020.
Svaha; the sixth finger - 2019 , Korean ; Netflix movie.
Gothic Horror -
These movies are generally deals with 18 and 19th century myths and mysteries of counts and kings.
Edgar Allen Poe's works , Bram stoker's Dracula and Frankenstein etc. are best examples.
Its effectively any movie with an 100 yrs old mansion or house in its title or any movie with a 100 yr old ghost in it.
Movies to watch -
Nosferatu(1922) - German adaptation of Bram stoker's Dracula.
Dracula untold - 2014.
Golem - 2018.
Thirst -2009 - Korean movie.
SCI-FI Horror :
It is a mix of both science fiction and disaster horror; disaster horror deals with a themes like out break of pandemic of a deadly virus(Train to Busan - 2016) or by a natural disasters(2012 movie - 2009).
These movies are generally deals with theme “ man made creations/inventions going out of control”.
The greatest auteur of sci fi horror is “Stanley Kubrick”.
Movies to watch :
2001 a space odyssey - 1968 - Stanley Kubrick .
Predator film series -1987.
Jurassic park -1993.
I, Robot - 2004
Life - 2017
Ex Machina- 2015.
Up Grade - 2018.
More in next one, Thanks and peace..
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