View Full Version : Underexplored themes in Horror?
Ash28M
07-16-2009, 02:07 PM
It seems that Hollywood has become completely devoid of original ideas. Saying that can you think of any themes that haven't been fully explored to it's potential. One thing that comes to mind is there hasn't really been a good film made about the horrors of "Hell". Sure there has been films where the Devil possesses someone or comes to live among us or you may possibly even get a small glimpse of Hell. Growing up a catholic the actually visions of hell as place of everlasting torture and agony Is such strong fascinating imagery. I don't understand how it hasn't been explored further in film. Possibly Sam Rami can make a Drag Me to hell 2 where Christine's boyfriend finds a way to follow her into Hell and attempts to rescue her:)
MidnightRambler
07-16-2009, 06:32 PM
There's a spoiler in your last sentence, I haven't seen DMTH yet. The classic Japanese horror Jigoku is set in hell, but yeah, that theme is underexplored in horror. Maybe they could make a movie featuring a man in hell on a mission from God preachin' the Bible and kickin' some demon ass (someone like Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction or James Woods in Vampires)...
Here's something I wished for a long time: a good horror movie set during a mountain climbing trip on very high altitudes. I think the tough survival conditions, cliffhanging, isolation and beautiful but dangerous surroundings would make for a great sense of dread and atmosphere. The setting could work well for almost any subgenre - slasher, man vs. nature, creature-feature, zombie movie (zombies being all the previously deceased climbers), ghost story... Maybe Neil Marshall could make a sequel to Descent called The Ascent ;) The Abominable Snowman kinda fits the theme, but that was more than 50 years ago...
I was glad that they didnīt really show the hell in DMTH. I think the reason they never really explored the idea of "hell" because most people imediately think of cheesy place filled with fire. I like the idea of "hell" we see in Hellraiser or even Silent Hill (not exactly hell but the idea the hell might look like that).
shockwave
07-16-2009, 10:44 PM
I've always thought a farming community or something similar to TCM or Blood Harvest if explored and done right would give a great feel of isolation and despair.
teenybopper music (boy bands, Britney Spears, etc. that kind of stuff) - I suppose it's horrifying enough without making it into a horror movie, but aside from Suicide Circle I can't think of any movies in this vein.
Maybe it should remain underexplored, but I always thought there was something creepy about Menudo.
adric
07-17-2009, 01:46 AM
i havent seen a GOOD american vampire movie in awhile. and after that exorcist review, sexual abuse is definitely underplayed. yea its uncomfortable and wrong, but so are good horror movies.
Angelman
07-17-2009, 01:49 AM
teenybopper music (boy bands, Britney Spears, etc. that kind of stuff) - I suppose it's horrifying enough without making it into a horror movie, but aside from Suicide Circle I can't think of any movies in this vein.
Maybe it should remain underexplored, but I always thought there was something creepy about Menudo.
Ask and ye shall receive: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372803/
Boy Band and Horror. Saw it on cable last week.
Ask and ye shall receive: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372803/
Boy Band and Horror. Saw it on cable last week.
wow. I disturbs me to think that I might not be able to imagine anything that someone hasn't turned into a movie (however horribly bad the idea is).
On the plus side, this had Adrienne Barbeau in it, and an alternate title: Boyz II Death...
Was it *really* cheesy?
Angelman
07-17-2009, 07:44 AM
Was it *really* cheesy?
It was one of those films I got awkward watching even though I was by myself. Cheesy doen't begin to cover it.
CrazyFatEthel
07-17-2009, 03:51 PM
Ask and ye shall receive: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372803/
Boy Band and Horror. Saw it on cable last week.
Ok, I'm just going to have to go and see this one. It has Adrienne Barbeau, AND Ryan Starr from the 1st Season of American Idol. And you all know about my obsession with Idol. :evil:
dirkwu
07-18-2009, 06:17 PM
Here's something I wished for a long time: a good horror movie set during a mountain climbing trip on very high altitudes. I think the tough survival conditions, cliffhanging, isolation and beautiful but dangerous surroundings would make for a great sense of dread and atmosphere.
Not really horror but a really good thriller is Shoot To Kill 1988 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096098/) with Sindey Poitier, Tom Berenger and Kirsie Alley. A hunter murderer in disguise joins a mountain climbing group on their track to Canada. Really awesome when you see them all struggling and you don't know who the murderer is.
MidnightRambler
07-18-2009, 07:16 PM
Thanks for the tip, I'll have to check that out soon, sounds a bit similar to The Eiger Sanction with Clint Eastwood which I enjoyed a lot although it's not that great of a movie...
Angelman
07-18-2009, 08:27 PM
Not really horror but a really good thriller is Shoot To Kill 1988 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096098/) with Sindey Poitier, Tom Berenger and Kirsie Alley. A hunter murderer in disguise joins a mountain climbing group on their track to Canada. Really awesome when you see them all struggling and you don't know who the murderer is.
I always liked that flick.
Copyboy
07-18-2009, 10:23 PM
YES! I always liked SHOOT TO KILL too. Haven't seen that in a while.
I always thought that someone should make a horror movie set at Easter. I know Easter as we know it has nothing creepy to offer with all the pastels and bunnies and chicks and flowers and blech! But combining the pagan and christian themes of fertility and resurrection could lead to a truly disturbing horror movie if done properly. Sort of like The Wicker Man, only set at Easter in some all American suburbia like Haddonfield.
YES! I always liked SHOOT TO KILL too. Haven't seen that in a while.
I always thought that someone should make a horror movie set at Easter. I know Easter as we know it has nothing creepy to offer with all the pastels and bunnies and chicks and flowers and blech! But combining the pagan and christian themes of fertility and resurrection could lead to a truly disturbing horror movie if done properly. Sort of like The Wicker Man, only set at Easter in some all American suburbia like Haddonfield.
That actually sounds like a really cool idea! juxtaposing the happy/shiny/pastel surface with the dark rotten underbelly of conflicting religious ideologies...
spawningblue
07-20-2009, 04:33 PM
YES! I always liked SHOOT TO KILL too. Haven't seen that in a while.
I always thought that someone should make a horror movie set at Easter. I know Easter as we know it has nothing creepy to offer with all the pastels and bunnies and chicks and flowers and blech! But combining the pagan and christian themes of fertility and resurrection could lead to a truly disturbing horror movie if done properly. Sort of like The Wicker Man, only set at Easter in some all American suburbia like Haddonfield.
Yeah its kind of weird as that is really the only holiday that hasn't been tackled.
Rockmjd
07-20-2009, 05:41 PM
Yeah its kind of weird as that is really the only holiday that hasn't been tackled.
What about Easter Bunny, Kill Kill! :lol:
Workshed
07-20-2009, 07:28 PM
YES! I always liked SHOOT TO KILL too. Haven't seen that in a while.
I always thought that someone should make a horror movie set at Easter. I know Easter as we know it has nothing creepy to offer with all the pastels and bunnies and chicks and flowers and blech! But combining the pagan and christian themes of fertility and resurrection could lead to a truly disturbing horror movie if done properly. Sort of like The Wicker Man, only set at Easter in some all American suburbia like Haddonfield.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_BRW4gNHvrkk/Rhjhq-zg37I/AAAAAAAAA44/SizeOSotxYg/s400/evil_easter_bunny.jpg
CrazyFatEthel
07-20-2009, 08:10 PM
^ Nice
spawningblue
07-20-2009, 10:22 PM
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_BRW4gNHvrkk/Rhjhq-zg37I/AAAAAAAAA44/SizeOSotxYg/s400/evil_easter_bunny.jpg
haha damn that is creepy! I would check out a horror movie with that in it in theatres.
Copyboy
07-21-2009, 01:45 AM
THAT is amazing! HA HA!
Shock Waves
07-21-2009, 03:05 AM
I feel there is a lot to explore in historical situations.
I've always thought horror and Westerns would be a good mix.
More spaghetti Westerns with zombies/monsters/vampires is something I would like to see. (something kinda like Dead Birds, but more intense)
Maybe a few more war flicks with "berserker" scientific experiments or other creatures that could run rampant under the guise of war. (The Bunker, The Outpost, et al are a start)
gunner
07-24-2009, 07:39 PM
That picture is priceless!! Wow!! If only movies could make a creature that scary!!
My under (or not) explored theme will be...GEO CASHERS!! There's a cult of devoted (some downright obsessed) folks out there right now willingly trekking into secluded, isolated areas using their personal GPS devices to find hidden "treasures" planted there by complete strangers. This opens a doorway for unlimited disasters to happen. From a mongoloid in a hockey mask waiting for you to tiny little shrapnel bombs or trinkets laced with deadly disease. The possibilities are endless yet to my knowledge the idea hasn't been touched.
KGBRadioMoskow
07-24-2009, 10:51 PM
One thing that comes to mind is there hasn't really been a good film made about the horrors of "Hell".
In the classic Cat-lick church / Dante's Inferno vision, can't really think any, apart from those films that save the Hell part as the final punchline. In the "post death torment for eternity" sense, its actually not that rare, though again most spring the Hell connection as the twist end.
Beyond the obvious Hellraiser films, I can think of Jigoku (mentioned before in this thread), Salvage, The Beyond, Vault of Horror, Jacob's Ladder, Tales From the Hood, and Dark Corners. I'm sure I'm missing several more - those are just the ones I remember from my own DVD collection (and I'm pretty sure I'm missing a couple from there, too).
What about Easter Bunny
Just got done reading a short horror story about a group of 20 somethings that go vacationing in a small New England town and meet up with an old man in the woods who hunts down fairy tale creatures. Ends up these slightly other dimension entities aren't the cute and fuzzy things of our children's tales, and stand to do even nastier things the longer they insinuate themselves into our reality.
As for "unexplored themes", can't really name any that I haven't seen *something* about. Add in books, and its probably just about all been covered. But I have noticed that movies about parasitism - specifically long, drawn out parasitism in the "serve as a host for soon to hatch larva", isn't too common. Lots of films involving relatively quick parasite caused demises (The Ruins, Alien, The Quatermass Experiment, Slither, Xtro, Night of the Creeps), very few explore the idea of wasting away for weeks or *months* as something(s) feeds and gestates. Sick Girl is one of the few, but it decided to go monster movie transformation horror.
As an example, read another horror story many years ago about a woman who visits her sister who has dropped contact unexpectedly. Upon visiting she finds her sister wasting away, fatalistically content with her impending demise - in fact having seemed to have struck some loneliness driven suicide pact. Said deal made with a strange man who seems to filling a role of guardian, care taker, and possible lover. Despite the woman's best efforts, she can't seem to get her sister to leave as her condition deteriorates, while suspicion over the always hovering "boyfriend's" role grows, with the only thing certain being the sister is trading her life for his companionship. By the time the woman figures out the truth - the boyfriend isn't human, or even male, but a human mimick with a wasp-like procreation, guarding the host for her latest brood of offspring - it's too late, and the woman becomes the next (this time unwilling) host in what was probably the creepiest "rape" scene I've ever read.
DVD-fanatic-9
07-25-2009, 06:16 PM
There don't seem to be many black-comedy horror films anymore. Yet the characters in horror films today are so stupid, shallow, boring, and impossible to care about- the genre is more than ripe for some more stuff like Teeth and Jennifer's Body only... maybe a little less sexual and a little more socio-political. No more teasing. Something more personal. No more Zombie Strippers. Something more gut-grabbing done in a dark or satiric way. No more spoofs. Something more intellectual.
Also- alternate dimension type movies. Something that aspires to rise above direct-to-DVD at least. Like Dreams in the Witch-House, but with less cliche. Oh and- more witches. I don't see too many witches these days. But, no teenagers and no more ugly cities. Not like Mother of Tears, something more stylish. I think this thread should be about stuff we see too much of. Because that's it right there- no more criminals. No more ugly cities. No more dirty crackhouses. More style! More ambition. Less people trapped somewhere and having to work together to get out. No more detective thrillers.
vBulletin® v3.8.2, Copyright ©2000-2013, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.