What will be the next big trend in horror movies?

[The Burgomaster]

During the 1940s, there seemed to be a trend toward "legendary" monsters like Dracula, the wolfman, the Frankenstein monster, etc.

During the 1950s, the trend moved toward giant mutations caused by atomic bomb blasts or other "science gone wild" accidents.

During the 1960s, the giant monster movies seemed to come mostly from Japan.  Thanks to Hammer, we started seeing more of the "legendary" monsters again (usually involving Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee).  Thanks to PSYCHO, we saw a lot of slasher rip-offs.

The 1970s brought us a lot of lesbian vampire movies and movies about the devil.

The 1980s was full of FRIDAY THE 13TH and HALLOWEEN rip-offs.  Also, quite a few zombie movies.

In recent years, we have had to suffer through the SCREAM/I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER type films.

So, what do you think will be the next trend in horror movies?  Are we going to see a lot of vampires? zombies? giant monsters? demons?

Anyone have a guess?

[Mr_Vindictive]

I hope that horror will soon turn away from visceral to more mental.  It would be nice to have smarter horror films being made, instead of the standard mindless killing sprees.

[raj]

Heck, I vote for more lesbian vampires!

I think there may be a trend toward more psychological thriller type movies-- though I have no evidence to back that up (never stopped me before).
The other trend is rehashment -- er, remakes, er, um, "homages".

[jmc]

I think over the next decade they'll be busy remaking everything, and probably making sequels to the remakes.  Every now and then, someone will make a relatively original horror film but I don't think it will happen that often.

[Susan]

zombies seem to be making the comeback

[jmc]

I guess...though at least two of those movies were based on video games.

It would be nice if the DAWN remake took off in a big enough way that people started making a ton of zombie movies again the way they did in the early eighties.  Assuming at least a few of them were any good.

[Susan]

jmc wrote:

> It would be nice if the DAWN remake took off in a big enough
> way that people started making a ton of zombie movies again the
> way they did in the early eighties.  

I think the success of "28 days" (considering it was a foriegn pic) probably created interest in this genre again. Then we'll have films that will ride coattails of any successfull ones. Overall the "horror" films that come out lately seem to do well with audiences, particularly teens. Teens have always been the real target audience for horror films over the past couple of decades (as where prior to the 70's it seems like the more serious and violent were targeted to an adult audience) It seems like it would be a relatively profitable. God knows they've pretty much put a stake in the vampire genre

[Max Gardner]

My problem with the slew of zombie films being produced as a result of the fair amount of publicity enjoyed by 28 Days Later is the fact that they all seem to be trying to emulate that film.  House of the Dead (which was one of the worst movies I've ever seen, and immensely enjoyable) and the Dawn of the Dead remake both feature zombies of the fast, aggressive variety.  This doesn't work.  In 28 Days Later, they were fast and aggressive for a reason.  The current zombie trend apes 28 Days Later, hoping that hollow imitation will bring in the box-office revenues just like daddy.

[jmc]

Of course, they weren't really zombies in 28 Days Later, they were humans infected with a disease.  But the people making these movies don't seem to be paying much attention.

[FearlessFreep]

"Scary" would be a nice trend to start...

[Grumpy Guy]

My prediction is that the current trend will continue for the forseeable future:

Nothing major coming out of Hollywood will be even remotely scary.

Occasionally something will slip past the "LACK OF QUALITY" controls of tinsel town and be scary or at least interesting, but most of those will be re-makes of films from non-english speaking countries.

Meanwhile, countries other than the US, whose film industry isn't in the grips of the "Let's tone it down so the stupid people can get it" mentality will produce the most interesting, thought provoking, and scary films.

And, oh yes - there will be a vast flood of made for TV and direct to video stuff.  This product will, for the most part, follow Stugeon's Law (90% of Everything is Crap).

[Susan]

>>>Meanwhile, countries other than the US, whose film industry isn't in the grips of the "Let's tone it down so the stupid people can get it" mentality will produce the most interesting, thought provoking, and scary films.<<<

Why is it that no matter the genre, american films do dumb it down? I'm tired of people who say "I go to movies where I don't have to think". To me that's a pretty powerful statement...and perhaps hollywood was listening.

Nothing is worse than when the end of the movie has some revelation in which they begin to go into DETAIL to somehow explain to the audience with the assumption we couldn't get it.  sometimes it seems to me that overall, films as a whole are just dropping in IQ. I'm not a movie snob either who strictly goes to indy films and fawns all over critics choices. I have  a broad taste,  I equally like movies with swashbuckling adventure and explosions. It just seems like half the time i'm being babysitted by hollywood during those 3 hours  and instead of breaking out risk, it's hungry hungry hippos again..and again...

[FearlessFreep]

Why is it that no matter the genre, american films do dumb it down? I

Try being a musician and watching the pop music industry some time :)

Entertainment producers have learned that it's easier to produce a 'product' with known quantities that can be sold then to actually try to be creative and develop talent and take risks

I hate to say it but for everyone who says "the movie sucks" it tells me "there's someone who saw the movie" and the producers don't care if it sucks as long as you watch it so...we get what we ask for when we using our money to ask for more.

[dean]

From what I've seen, the psychological thriller is quietly [in some cases] slipping in.  It seems that the Hitchcock style is sorta returning [case in point; M Night Shymalan has, well to me anyway, a very Hitchcockian style in some cases]

But i think there are two main streams in horror films, the slick, smart, quiet thriller, and the bloody and jumpy slashy type films like Wrong Turn [oh, I meant Texas Chainsaw Massacre, they're basically the same!]

1.  Zombie films are becoming more frequent: Resident Evil has it's sequel coming etc

2.  Japanese horror is becoming to the horror genre what Marvel is to the comic genre, like the Ring sequel and I think someone mentioned 'The Eye' or something to that effect earlier on.

3. Remake Remake Remake till you can't make no more!

As long as they have the right atmosphere and an actual interesting and CREATIVE story, I really don't care what type of movie it is, be it slow, jumpy or remade.  Just as long as it's not just a bunch of scantily clad teens running away from a guy with a knife, I'm happy.

[Eirik]

"Anyone have a guess?"

We're going to see (already are seeing) lots and lots of T&A.  Bet the farm.  

However, to answer your question, I suspect we'll start seeing more T&A as the monster (Underworld, Terminator3) and not just as the victim.