What makes good horror?

[Backstabba]

What makes good horror, gore or story?

Its a big debate me and a friend have been argueing about for a long time, he thinks gore can make a great movie, and save a horrible movie from being horrible (if it has great gore). I say that its all in the story, not saying gore doesn't heighten the experience sometimes, it can make a horror alittle more entertaining, but if I saw a horror movie with an AMAZING story but horrible gore, I'd still love it...

....What do you all think?

[Cronos]

it used to be only about the gore for me.....but then i realised that even if a film had amazing gore, it doesnt make it a good film

a film might have amazing gore but if the acting, direction, script and characters are crap, its just not any good or enjoyable

also gore for gores sake, i no longer find much enjoyment in that either...even if it's great gore, if there's no real plot or characters there's nothing to engage my interest and i generally end up bored shitless (such as with Murder-Set-Pieces, great gore but no plot or characters)


so to make good horror, its all about the plot and characters, if you dont like them then you dont care what happens to them....and if a film can successfully do this and also have lots of the red stuff then i know im in for a good time

[jaw2929]

A good mix of both... See: High Tension ;)

[aixela]

When I was younger, the gore would make the movie great to me. But as I get older, the story becomes more important. If there is a great story I can usually overlook bad acting and other short comings

[slasherfan]

Uwe Boll!

[Duke Nukem]

First, I'll tell what doesn't make good horror, everything about "Last House on The Left" and "The Devil's Rejects." They aren't horror films, just scholck. They are disturbing (in a bad way), sick, disgusting films that are not fun or "entertaining" to watch in any way.

And the what good horror is: classy suspense films like "Psycho" and "Halloween." They're a little bloody, but it's not about the kills, it's about the build-up and atmosphere. Those are films that you could say focus on the story more than gore.

At the same time, more blood can make good horror movies. There are a variety of sub-genres in horror and it is okay to enjoy slasher movies with no plot, one-dimensional characters and gore-galore once in a while. I always pop in a "Friday The 13th" movie sometimes, they are fun and cheesy movies. You can't take them as seriously as "Halloween," but that's why they're a different genre.

Story can make a good horror movie, too. "Frailty" is a horror movie with a unique story. It had gore/decapitations, but the focus wasn't on that, it was on the characters involved in the scarily disturbing and realistic story. It was disturbing storywise and disturbing in a good way.

Lastly, You can't that just say that only gore and not story, or just story and no gore, is the only element that can make a good horror movie. It's one, the other, or both in the same movie. You never know.

[slasherfan]

This is a hard question to answer really.
I think what makes good horror is talented people.
Story can make good horror, but if it's a stupid dull story, it will fail.
Gore can make good horror but some films just throw it in and hope people won't notice that the movie is pointless and badly made.
I kind of little a little bit of everything, gore, suspence, story. Sometimes I can live without one of the above, or even two depending.
I really like gore, hence being a fan of slashers but I have found some gore movies to be pointless and dull like Murder Set Pieces, YAWN.

[CreeperBEATNGU]

Generally speaking, what makes good horror is when the filmmakers don't put up Hollywoodized boundaries that stand in the way of horror.

Recent films such as The Devil's Rejects, the SAW films, Haute/High Tension, and Wolf Creek are what great horror is all about. They don't follow a set of rules, such as the star that can't die just because they're the star, you can't kill off this character or that character because it could offend certain audience members, the good guy must triumph over the bad guy in the end, etc...

Filmmakers feeling the need to follow those types of set boundaries can run a genre entry fast, as was the case with the TCM remake(although that film was far from a total loss, it suffers from over Hollywoodization that drags it down from ranking as high as it could and should have).

Of course simply being uncompromising alone isn't enough. The talent needs to be there. Without strong writing, direction, performances, music, cinematography... that balls to the wall style alone can't save a horror film(as was the case with The Last House on the Left).

That's the typical problem with PG-13 horror, they're the most Hollywoodized and tend to stick to the "rules" much more than R rated horror films do. I can think of very few great PG-13 horror films. The main one that comes to mind is The Ring. On its own that was an extremely well crafted suspense film that scared me as much as any R rated horror film, however pretty much everything that it inspired(The Grudge, Boogeyman, The Fog remake, Dark Water, The Skeleton Key, and I'm sure more to come)ranges from mediocre to terrible. As much as I love it, it did the genre as a whole more harm than good. Films like the ones that I previously mentioned are restoring the genre back to the way that it should be.

[TheDeadWalk]

Grab your audience and then don't let them go.

By any means necessary.

[thedudeman69]

Titties and lots of blood and guts. :D

[Xipe Totec]

True human emotions, intelligent characters, original aspects.
For a movie that wants to be scary, I'd tell them to start from there.
If People on the screen are truely terrified, you feel it and you get scared. The problem is, in most genre films or tv series (except for those done by Joss Whedon) characters don't go through the whole canvas of human emotions thingy, they act it, and honestly, there is a big difference. Emotions are fucking powerful, if a character goes through them, you have to do it also, you have to feel it. Usually the characters just run, say cliche lines like "who's there" and IMO don't act like they are in a situation where they're primal survival instincts kick in or something. Sometimes it's good to watch mindless fun, but a truely scary movie it makes not.

[Jason13thh]

I would say it depends on the genres I mean for the slasher genre which is my favorite genre by the way it's character developpement that counts for me and the level of fun,too.

My favorite slasher movie is My Bloody Valentine because I really like that characters, it's fun and there is atmosphere.