Scary vs. gory

I've noticed that recent horror movies try to out-gore each other, and not out-scare. For example, there are maybe 2 scenes in Hostel or in Saw 3 which were based on suspense. Saw 3 has that 5-minute-long skull drilling procedure which will make most people turn their heads in repulsion, but will scare no one.

I agree. Gory does not equal scary.
One of my favorite horror movies is Robert Wise's The Haunting (1963). Still one of the most frightening movies I've ever seen and nary a drop of blood.

On a side note, my 13 year old daughter is taking an interest in horror films, and she's still very much a novice. Last night we rented The Hitcher remake (at my 23 year old stepdaughter's insistence, not mine), and despite a fair amount of blood, she wasn't scared or impressed. So I pulled out my copy of the Castle version of House On Haunted Hill, and she was supremely creeped out. Just goes to show...

ferreal, i agree. i tend to avoid gore because i know it won't scare me it'll just gross me out. two totally different things.

i think horror is intellectual. it digs deep into your emotional phobias and messes with them. your phobias are a psychological component utterly unique to you as an individual, and to mess with them successfully requires great intelligence, subtlety, and deviousness. great skill.

gore requires no skill, just the money to showcase the gore so it's as "realistic" as possible by which of course it's not real at all because it's not subtle or intelligent. not that it can't be CREATIVE, or witty (the first "final destination"), it just can't climb into your very soul and make you very soul want to hide. your soul wanting to hide and your physical self wanting to hide are ... again, two totally different things.

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Scary was totally entertaining to watch..

I think the grudge was a recent movie (although a remake) that tried to use the suspense and scare of the classic horrors. For that reason alone I liked the grudge and bought the DVD and I would appreciate a lot more movies revert to the classic horror style as opposed to the gore. It's as if I'm desensitized to the gore now. I can eat popcorn and watch hostel with no problems haha.

That's what I was going to say. I am actually the most squeamish person I have ever met, yet I sat through Saw 3 and I didn't have to put my hands over my face at all. And yet I still wanted too.

I love scary movies. If they want to be gory then I really don't have a problem with that, just don't replace the scary with gore thinking that it is enough. It's not.

i handle blood and gore quite well

except that one scene in Hostel, i almost threw up....

Horror movies today are not scary at all, whatever happened to classics like The Shining, Carrie, Hell House, and etc.

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I much prefer scary to gory… and try to avoid the latter in movies -- not because I can't handle it but because I've seen too much of it in real…

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My favorite genre is horror, but when I tell people that, most think that I mean gory/slasher movies. Outside of two, Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees, I can't stand slasher movies. None come to mind that I like. Movies like Saw, Hostile, Wrong Turn, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre . . . are not horror/scary, they are pure gore/trash, in my opinion. Give me the classic horror movies from the 30's - the 70's any day. I grew up watching all of these. Even if they don't scare me, they are still way more entertaining.

hm, i don't think many people really separate the two as they should. I LOVE both.

theres movies like the Shining: little to no gore. but its one of the best films ever created (in my mind). Kubrick had the psychological aspect down pat, and he knew how to manipulate each of your senses to get under your skin.

on the other hand you have Dead Alive (Peter Jackson): another awesome film (if you like gore). its not scary, mostly just funny (in my mind), and gross.
Horror does incorporate a bit more genius, but you got to have style and a sense of humor to pull off gore.

and another point. i think that its also demographics when it comes to horror movies. most of these movies are aimed at teenagers and early 20's. and i doubt you are going to find hollywood producing a lot of horror movies otherwise.

I totally agree with the premise of this thread! I've always found movies like the original Halloween and the original Night of the Living Dead to be really scary in all the good, FUN ways. (I'm one of those people who loves all the channels that play "scare-fests" during this month of October leading up to Halloween.)

But gore is something I can't handle well. Well, let me rephrase that: If the gore is with space aliens getting blown apart and all icky, it doesn't bother me so much, or even zombies to a degree. But once the gore is focused on maiming and killing human beings, then I don't like it. And, the more realistic and plausible it is, the worse I hate it.

I have no intention of seeing any of the Saw films for that reason. They just scream, "Let's see how disgustingly we can rip apart and kill humans in this movie!" Umm, no thanks. I'll read the daily newspaper instead.

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I think both have their place, and can enjoy either type. However, I am more inclined to go for the scary...

There are those rare breed of movies that combine the 2 so well that you would probably like them whichever your tastes, for example; John Carpenter's The Thing (anyone else agree with that assessment for that movie?).

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I disagree here. I don't consider someone who can gross us out with gore, someone who is full of style and humor. To me, they just have to have a really twisted mind.
I know what the "SAW" movies are about. There is nothing stylish, or humorous about that.

I think horror in general is a valid genre because what really lies behind it is the human element of getting in touch with death.

We all live our lives and worry about our little problems but we know, deep inside, that one day we'll deal with exiting the mortal coil. There is most definitely fear associated with that, and I think horror films, horror books, horror stories etc are a healthy way to deal with that fear in that it's a sort of trial run psychologically if one identifies with a character who dies.

SOME horror though is done for the express purpose of generating a buck. The true horror fan sees it coming from a mile away and steers well clear of it (or watches it with a small shred of hope for redeeming quality). The larger balance of horror today is done for shock value versus an artistic expression of fear.

The Others is a modern example of a film that I consider to be a high quality example of horror. There are others, but most of the examples I can think of are pre 1980.

To me, anything that simply focuses on a bodycount isn't valid horror at all. The first Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which was inspired by the very real serial killer Ed Gein, was, I believe, a faithful attempt to deal with the idea of someone like Gein. Any and all sequels of that original are schlock, generated for the sole purpose of monetary gain.

I think society has had an influence on the genre. In our current state we want everything yesterday and we don't want to see anything that would require us to think very hard. As such, proper storytelling gets relegated into small easily digestible chunks to allow for conversation in the theater and short attention spans.

I think other genres are more successful with more complex storylines because love, hate, jealousy etc are all easier to deal with than death.

Anyways, just a few random thoughts. If ever there were a thinking man's horror movie I believe that would be just my genre.

After years of covering the police beat for daily newspapers, I've squished through more real gore than I ever wanted to see. So I don't go to films like Jaws with its billows of blood, much less the sadistic torture films that now pass for movies for the 17-25 crowd.

trashy horror (or....gore) films are classic americana an can be appreciated as just that.
and go out of your way and watch susperia (by dario argento) and tell me that style doesn't have it's place in gore.

Give me scary over gory any day of the week. I do think that many gory films though are more fun, but in the end scary sticks with me far longer after the movie's over than gore. Some really scary movies have featured plenty of gore though and of course some gory movies have been scary. Sometimes it runs both ways.

Just to say that House on Haunted Hill will always be a scary film for children because it's about a house, where they eat, sleep and live!

I myself love abit of gore every now and then, but if I want to watch a great scare then I go for psychological horrors, they seem to use music and build ups to the scary parts, unlike gory films that just rip characters to shreds for no reason.