Gone are the days when your Friday or Saturday night could be spent watching a new slasher flick or discussing how someone was a ghost the entire film. The times when something so terrifying (How about using a crucifix in a masturbation scene and somehow remain artistically true in stating the lost innocence of a young girl. I'm looking at you The Exorcist) required an hour at the water cooler to discuss what you've seen.
The truth is we just aren't in that world any longer. Don't fret though my fellow horror lovers, hope is not lost! No, not at all. Thanks to the budgets of SciFi, the induction of Netflix/Amazon streaming, and the Indie scene still going strong there's still a lot of media out there for us to consume at an unnatural pace.
With that said, what we do see on the main stream makes me fear for our future. We get these amazing films such as The Conjuring or Sinister and then what happens? Sequels and spin offs that absolutely kill what we loved about these films in the first place! It's enough to make me tear up this theoretical internet given space and toss it into the trash can. I digress. No killing of electronic paper today.
Most films, books, comic books, visual novels, games and live theatre have something we can nitpick or just call out about them. The Conjuring wasn't necessarily scary and it didn't necessarily send us into a new path of horror, but it was fun to watch. They granted some genuinely creepy moments and it allowed you to share those moments with your friends. The twist in Sinister was so well done that you had to applaud their bravery in offering the solution to the puzzle during the first scenes of study by our main protagonist. Most of all the characters in the films weren't some super heroes of horror, they were people who had flaws and pleasant sides that were spoken of, or at least whispered about in their film.
Now, I digress from the main stream for the moment. I talked about two older films and I'm ignorning Annabelle and Sinister 2 because I can dedicate posts to them later telling you how I feel about how broken they are, what I want to say is that we have some really great pieces of art to look at outside of these huge films. It Follows, two words that most horror fans can now speak of and a lot have still not had a chance to see. I would have loved to watch the misadventures of these sexually powered characters on the big screen, but the chance never came.
How about, and I'm going to swing for something that should be an easy find in the streaming world, the reimagining of Maniac. What a fun little movie full of fun little moments that has such a fun little nod to the not so fun original. Still messed up, still has some shock value, and to me felt like it wasn't taking itself as serious as the original. That's fine with me.
This blog is going to look at the things i read, the things I watch, the things I play and the suggestions you make and I'll give you what I think is the best opinion. You should watch it or read it. You should burn it or at least not rent it from the Library. Stick with me horror faithful. There's years and years of material to look at and this ride is just starting.
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