I’ve always loved horror. Not just the genre itself, but the psychology behind it. A well-executed horror film can quicken the heartbeat or cause the hairs on the back of the neck to stand up. Why? Is it the score? The lighting? A well-written story? Perhaps it’s the editing or cinematography.

I believe the answer is actually a combination of all those things and more. Unfortunately these pieces are often ignored and replaced with CGI blood, jump scares, and other gimmicks (you’re a filmmaker, buy a tripod for fucks sake and save the handheld shit for when you Facetime your parents).

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to bash the hard work of filmmakers all over the world. I myself have only made a small handful of short films, none of which I would say are very good, and each of them took more effort to complete than I ever imagined. I’m simply making a case that some ingredients are being overlooked in a large percentage of recent horror films.

I know the good horror scripts are out there, so who is passing on them? Is it the studio, thinking they’re just not commercially viable? Or are directors waving them away, not wanting to work on something that may not get them an academy award? Why? Stephen Spielberg directed Jaws. John Carpenter directed Halloween. They had balls enough to put out some scary, fun stuff. So why aren’t we seeing more clever horror films from big named directors? When did horror become “trope” and studios start taking passes on good scripts and instead feed us terrible nonsense like a Poltergeist remake and Ouija? When will talented people be given well written horror scripts, a good supporting team, and told to scare the hell out of some people? Horror movies still make money, so why not take them seriously? Why create and market horror for young audiences when you know they’ll still pay to see movies marketed to an adult or general audience (for example – Sinister, The Conjuring, The Babadook. All marketed to adult/general audience and all hugely popular)? Are adults themselves losing interest in horror films? Not from what I can see.

Thanks to technology, many indie filmmakers are now able to bring their works directly to horror fans at a very low cost. This will have a large impact on the horror genre. But will it be a positive or negative impact? Both, I believe. Fans will be seeing a lot more smart, scary films made by very creative people, but we will also be seeing a lot of crap made by leeches wanting to make a few bucks.  Similar to the author self publishing situation on Amazon and Barnes&Noble, it will now be easier to discover a lot of new and fantastic titles, but it will take some wading through a deep pile of garbage before finding them.

Thankfully there are also horror/thriller dedicated studios such as Ghost House Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, Dark Castle and others focused on the production of horror. Television has taken some real chances with horror as of late with shows like American Horror Story and The Strain. If 9/10 big-budget horror films are going to disappoint at least we have the indie filmmaker, the small studio, and television to fill the void.

Feel free to share your thoughts.

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