Horror Movies

The screams are spread over the theater room, and meanwhile, the undeniable sounds of the audience's heartbeats project terror along with transitory shock. Indeed, we are all spellbound by the actors' and actress' reactions when they encounter an extraordinary or terrible circumstance. Nonetheless, a friend of mine told me, "It is insignificant to spend any money for more than one hour just under the torture of fear." Even so, horror movies will never go extinct as long as we still celebrate Halloween. There are three distinct kinds of horror movies--thrill, gore, and suspense. All three render an impressively eerie plot that interacts realistically with the audiences' senses as an exhibition of frightening aesthetics.

When we watch thrillers, our strong feelings of excitement or displeasure can rise and surge. Such kinds of movies emphasize a tight depiction as the principle thread running through the entire story. We are usually frightened with a series of unimaginable events rather than considerable violence or blood. For example, Scream (1996) and 1408 (2007) are two typical thrilling movies. In Scream, the process of how the murderer hunts and kills victims and how the quarries elude traps and find out the clues the murderer leaves behind are the main selling point. This is a well-constructed crime story, told with speed and punch. As for 1408, it is based on a supernatural theme. The climax is a ghostly manifestation haunting a hotel room numbered 1408, where lodgers never check out after they checked in. No matter what the setting is, there must be some startling or puzzling elements to continuously attract our interest and curiosity.

The second kind of move is more unacceptable than the other two because they are filled with bloodier scenes and atrocious plots where most audiences can be thunderstruck. The well-known gore movies such as the Saw series (2004-08) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) represent an extreme of brutal abuse as well as some eccentric behavior. It is indispensable that there is at least one insane or cold-blooded character, a human or a monster. There are accustomed to trapping and slaughtering substantial numbers of innocent sacrifices in the story. Therefore the the Motion Picture Association of America classifies most of these moves as R or NC-17. In other words, they often negatively influence children's mental and physical growth.

There is another choice of horror movies called suspense, which is for audiences that enjoy a slow and exquisite development. At the beginning, different incidents and premonitions usually happen in a specific sequence. Afterwards, all the situations become clearer and clearer with many subplots converging into the chief intrigue. At last, the astonishing and dramatic ending strikes a chord with the audience. For example, the move From Hell (2001), adapted from the real story of Jack the Ripper from the Whitechapel area of London in 1888, had a huge box-office success. Director Allen Hughes subtly formed a mysterious and gruesome atmosphere. Another movie, Sleepy Hollow (2000) is similarly comprised of a gradually revealed outrageous secret about headless corpses. In short, these kinds of movies rely on a thoughtful arrangement to bring audiences into a compelling ending.

Most people cannot resist their fascination of horror movies. Sometimes the movies can reflect our views and vent our stress. Nowadays taking advantage of special effects, horrors movies are able to be as vivid as science-fiction movies. More amazingly, the progressive make-up technique plays a key role in making us experience the horror. I am convinced that a new style of horror movies will soon prevail.