Serious question here: Why are horror movies so consistantly bad/poorly made? Is it really THAT hard to make a good horror film?

Ok, I'm just going to speak freely with one point, I fully know it'll come across as douchey but...like, The Ring? Seriously? If you put Ringu on there I'd understand, but the American version of Ringu is more of a comedy then Cabin in the Woods is. The ONLY people I've met who talk highly of it are preteens.

If you're talking about Ringu? I can't speak on that, I can't stand foreign horror because as petty as it is, foreign languages take me out of the film to no end, but Ring is...GOD. Why would you put that in the same line as The Birds!? You're a monster.

Ok, let me actually sort through this..

The fly - It's a sin, but I haven't seen it.

The Exorcist - Bias is keeping me from speaking on this one.

Jaws - Not really horror. Thriller, yes, but not horror.

Psycho - Bias again. I swear this isn't a copout but other factors keep me from actually judging this film properly.

The Birds - 100% agree it's a good film.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Again I'll agree, but then again I don't see this one often being thrown around. Perhaps because people ASSUME you've seen it.

Cube - I do call this one bad. But I haven't seen it in a long enough time to give a good reason for why. In fact, this convinced me I might need to go re-watch it. Because usually I see people shit taking it.

The Orphanage - See my reason for not watching Ringu.

American Werewolf in London - Wait, this was horror? I always thought it was a black comedy.

The Shining - It's debatable. Personally I call it bad, but then again I might just be refusing to let my distaste of the film as a final product actually speak on it's actual quality.

28 days Later - Is bad. Pacing, production value, cinematography, storyline, acting, it's all around bad. It's popular, but it's badly made.

Let the Right One in - I'm ashamed. I love vampire movies, but I just keep putting it off. I'll just call this one good out of assumption you're right.

The Evil dead - Which...one are we talking about? The original Evil Dead is...you're kidding right? It's HORRIBLE, it's absolute TRASH as a horror movie. If we're talking about the 4th one I can get behind calling it good, but Evil Dead 1 was just bad, in pretty much all aspects. I mean, it's enjoyable, it's hilarious, but it wasn't suppose to be hilarious, it was suppose to be straight forward horror.

The Descent - I remember this movie being one people shit on back when it came out. Apparently it has a 70% approval rating or something like that? Where were all these people when it came out? I never see this movie come up in horror conversations either.

Carrie - I wouldn't call it bad, or good. It's middle of the road.

Night of the Living Dead - Bad horror, great social commentary. I actually can't really think of what genre you WOULD want to call this movie. I'd only sort it off as horror because of blood and gore...there's no suspense in it at all.

Dawn of the Dead - Cheating! CHEATING! If I say anything other then praise then I'm going to be considered an idiot. No, really though, ok, fine, this one is good. Unless you mean the remake...in which case...there's no way you mean the remake.

The Thing - Good. Nothing more to say about this then good.

Dead Alive - Ehh, don't feel comfortable saying anything about this one.

The Eye - ...Which one? Because the American one got trashed to hell, and I'd say it's pretty damn bad.

Audition - Can't say. Aforementioned reason. Yeah, I suck, I know. Even if it was in English I wouldn't watch this one. I don't do needles.

The Changeling - I have actually never heard of this film until now. Gonna check this one out this weekend.


I'll admit you listed quite a few good films, or at least films I can't call bad. But here's the problem...If you took ALL of them, they'd equal less then two years of movie releases. If you look up for example "1999 horror movies" you'll see a HUGE collection of horror movies, and most of them are bad both on a technical level, and a public opinion level.

There might be more gems then I let on, I'll admit what I originally wrote WAS incorrect mostly (although seriously...Nightmare on Elm Street is bad. I love it to death, it's one of the best horror movies, it belongs on most lists, but it's a bad film. It's badly made. Even though It's my third favorite horror movie of all time, I'm not going to lie to myself and say it's good.) there are more then a handful of good horror movies. But when it comes to the number of horror movies that you can CALL good, compared to how many come out? No, in that case I feel I'm still right. A majority of horror movies are badly made, have horribly cliche or nonsensical plots, or rely on tropes that ruin them. Maybe 1 or 2 movies a year out of 20+ manage to be good. That's not a good thing.

As for Cabin...I honestly appreciate it more then quite a few movies on your list. Yeah, I guess it's worse then Birds, or Chainsaw, or The Thing, but I dare say it's a thousand times better, and more important, then a movie like 28 Days Later. It deconstructed the genre to the level that Evengalion deconstructed the Mech genre.

And I did know a few people who found it scary! I mean...it wasn't, but some people thought it did!

Anyway, thanks for actually taking this conversation seriously. I don't mind the downvotes, I don't mind arguing, just- FUCK. People, actually drive the conversation. Reddit is for conversations and discussion, not downvoting JUST because you disagree.

/r/movies Thread Parent