Check out the first part in this two-part series.

As horror films transition away from high gore to scare up viewers, they seem to enter more character-driven and story-driven fare. This is a much welcome throwback to the pre-slasher and pre-vengeance films. It harkens back to the ’60s and ’70s where horror had more of a slow burn.  Even horror-themed episodic TV evidenced this – Rod Serling’s Night Gallery is perhaps the paradigm. Remember the episode with the changing painting? If you haven’t seen it, watch it as soon as possible. The slow crescendo of action, gradually building over time into an explosive finale.

Many of the horror films that have been released in the last year or two have embodied these ‘slow burn’ traits. For a very retro spectacle that wholly evidences the last statement, check out House of the Devil, which co-stars Mumblecore royalty Greta Gerwig. Sometimes these films take time to get going, but I don’t usually mind. Strong scriptwriting and even pacing ensures that the first act is spent building characters and back story before heading into the meat and terror of the film.

The Innkeepers is aesthetically a vintage-style haunted inn story that is satisfying and enticing, but not a flawless film. Yet the stratospheric eerie quotient and well-developed characters keep you hooked until the end. Neo-scream queen Sara Paxton (star of the Last House remake) really shines in this film, which is about the real-life Yankee Pedlar Inn. She has stated in interviews that this character (an employee of the inn) is more like her real-life self than the popular girl roles that have become her mainstay. This character is realistic and believable; she’s not those vapid, generic teenagers that are all too prevalent in these films. This girl is someone you’ve actually known, maybe in a college class or hiking club.

Shelved for many years yet wildly critically acclaimed is the Joss Whedon-scribed haunted cabin film The Cabin in the Woods. This vehicle very effectively turns those overused horror tropes and premises right on their head. I dragged three very reluctant guys to see this on opening night for my birthday, but we all came out of the cinema buoyed by how solidly structured we found the film as well as just simply freakin’ entertaining. I’m deathly afraid that it will be a long time before I am that wowed and unexpectedly impressed again. Cabin is released on DVD on Sept 18. 

Comparisons have run amok between new film The Awakening and the Guillermo del Toro-produced El Orfarnato/The Orphanage (Jay Antonio Bayona directed), but I think it sounds a bit more like a film del Toro actually directed, The Devil’s Backbone. The Awakening takes place in 1920s Cumbrian England, which gives the ambiance a particularly spooky feel. Really, what is eerier than a ramshackle boarding school in the damp, dank Moors? The protag (up-and-comer Rebecca Hall) is a paranormal debunker called into the solve the mystery of the school, plagued by denizens of the dark. If you are on the fence about this one, try watching the first 10 minutes. It starts right off with a seance, and you will immediately get a feel for the film.

The Apparition looks extremely derivative. Reminiscent of lackluster films such as They and Pulse, the ridiculous premise is that ghosts won’t harm a group of sexy newlyweds (and friends!) until they start believing in their existence. Sounds cloying and far-fetched to me, but I will reserve judgment until video. Its theatrical run starts Friday, in case you are intrigued. This film is a good reminder that while the films mentioned in this write-up are less gory than many other horror films from the last decade, the decrease in splatter alone doesn’t automatically make them good. Or even scary.

While this trend is fairly recent, we cannot deny that there have been so many more story-driven horror films vaguely recently. The Caller, Drag Me to Hell, and 1408 were all more or less character- and/or story-driven horror films in the last 5 years or so. None of these films were amazing, but all hinted at greatness to come. It could even be argued that these films (et al.) paved the way for Cabin in the Woods and its contemporaries.

Drag Me to Hell is part of the Raimi Brothers’ Ghost House Productions. Their latest offering, The Possession, will enjoy a theatrical run later on this month. The film was known as Dybbuk Box during its production, but the title was changed to the much more generic and banal current selection. Despite this small setback, I think the premise sounds wonderful: a young girl picks up a Dybbuk box at a yard sale, thinking it’s just a cool ole box. She opens it after much struggling, but her personality changes extremely afterward. Expertly blending Jewish folklore and the Pandora allegory, this movie is based on a real story that you can read about here. The present owner of the box even tried to sell it to the Raimis.

Mexican auteur Guillermo del Toro is a perfect director for horror as he masterfully blends the horrors of wartime (namely the Spanish Civil War) against the unseen horrors of the supernatural realm. This juxtaposition of the super-normal and paranormal really bring a new layer to the genre. Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth are whimsically horrifying and more akin to contemporary Grimm’s Fairy Tales than any other horror offerings on the market.  Cronos is a dryer, straighter film that the aforementioned offerings, but is still worth a viewing (or two). While not strictly horror, his upcoming film Pacific Rim will likely be a double hit – both in the box office and on the critic sheet.

I was really excited when I learned about the premise and cast of Red Lights. Debunking psychic fraud is not a topic that’s been especially been en vogue since the age of Spiritualism ended, but I think it’s ready come out of the spirit cabinet. The cast includes heavyweights Robert Deniro and Sigourney Weaver. Frequent castmates Cillian Murphy and Ellen Page are once again reunited (see Inception and Peacock) to round out the cast. Currently, the film is still is limited release; it may never get a wide release based on its reviews (it has been critically panned).  It’s too bad the execution was so terrible because the premise is so terribly intriguing. There’s always DVD.

I can’t decide how I feel about the new Ethan Hawke vehicle, Sinister. The premise involves found footage as a plot device, but it is not a shakycam film (from my best estimation anyway). The plot centers around a new homeowner who finds footage with clues to who was murdered in the house beforehand. Hawke plays the homeowner, who happens to be a true crime novelist. His thirst for new material leads him to delve into the murder mystery so much that he may be putting his family on the target for future attacks (either paranormal or regular ole human psychopath).

The one-word title of Sinister reminds me a little of Insidious. Referencing back to the slow burner paradigm, Insidious is the paragon of slow burners because it really implodes in the final 20 minutes. It seems like everyone I personally know that has seen this has loved the first act, but reaction to the final act was much more polarizing. I loved this film and felt it was a really unique take on an infrequently-used supernatural phenomenon (I can’t say much more without spoilers). While the movie did contain some really bizarre moments, these mostly bolstered the quality of the film rather than having a deleterious effect. Rose Byrne plays really well against Patrick Wilson and midway through the film you relate to them as a couple you might know that live down the lane. Excellent pacing, a perpetually eerie atmosphere and real scares (in lieu of ‘jump’ scares, although there are a few of those) really make this a solid effort.

Final thoughts: You’ve seen The Others haven’t you? Please see The Others. I saw it in college and a frat boy ran out during the particularly intense climax. Even after the ‘Big Reveal’, The Others has plenty of re-watch value. Also, I’m really excited about Keyhole, which has a great vibe. This new Guy Maddin offering stars legacy actress Isabella Rossellini.

Check out the trailers below and let me know what other story-driven horror films arrive on your radar.

Trailers: The Innkeepers / The Apparition / The Possession / Red Lights / The Awakening / Sinister

Trends in the film industry are always very interesting to me. Lately, I’ve been thinking about how much the horror genre has been evolving (at times arguably devolving) for the last decade.

Perhaps more than any other genre, horror ebbs and flows, transitions and stagnates, re-invents and recycles. Often, the trends we see in horror are simply reflections of current horrors of the day.  The current landscape of fear of vampires, zombies and other un-dead denizens of the dark suggest escapism from more realistic concerns: a frightful global stage, domestic political turmoil and a sluggish economy. Further, vampires very obviously represent eternal life. Why are we so afraid of our mortality?

Other recent horror trends, such as torture porn/gore-nography (e.g. Turistas, Hostel franchise, Saw sequels, Captivity, Final Destination sequels, Last House on the Left remake, etc.) may insinuate the scars of a post-Abu Ghraib society that still linger in the collective psyche.

Horror has become big business in the last few years. With even more cons and film festivals added to the slate each and every year, the horror genre becomes more entrenched in and reflective of the cultural zeitgeist. It will be interesting to see how these cons and festivals change as the trends in the industry become more evident.

About a decade ago, modern torture porn or gore-nography were birthed out of more clever material. One such example is Saw. Yes, it is a divisive movie, but infinitely more clever than its even more polarizing successors. Plus, it cannot be overstated how much less gory it is than its familial films.  The plotline arcs with Jigsaw’s traps driving the action along. Subsquent films relied too heavily on beefing up and goring out these traps so that the focal feature of the film were these torture devices. The storytelling suffered, but the ticket sales did not; to date the original Saw film has spawned 6 sequels. The same could be said about the Final Destination franchise. The original was such an original take on a universal source of dread — death itself. However, the following gore-nographic films relied too heavily on goring out its instruments of death in lieu of beefing up the plot.

For a few seasons, it seemed that every new horror film coming down the pike was a torture porn.  Remakes of old familiars were manufactured but with an upped mayhem quotient (see Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, and House of Wax. The first four films referenced above were fairly graphic films to begin with, especially for their time. The fear a viewer feels in the originals is palpable and timeless; did you feel any of those films were dated or stale?

Even France has gotten in on the torture. In fact, it seemed to start there a little earlier than it did here. I’ll admit that I thought High Tension/Haute Tension was more solidly written, acted, directed and shot than many of its contemporaries. Endless comparisons are made to Frontier(s), another French film that pits its protags against some whacked out Neo-Nazis. This new wave of French horror is called The New French Extremity, and also includes splatter-fests Martyrs and Inside.

Via the Last House on the Left remake, we began a transition bridge where  torture porn became less a subgenre and more an element in revenge films. Examples include Death Sentence, The Brave One and the I Spit on Your Grave remake.  While not strictly horror, Taken has been insanely popular, and its sequel gets its theatrical release soon. Vendetta films seem to, as an instrinsic component, contain high gore or torture in the action of enacting the vengeance.

Unfortunately, other than the event that instigates the need for vegeance (almost always of the vigilante variety), the revenge is all too often the only motivating, flesh-out plot line driving the story. Ancillary characters serve where secondary characters would be more appropriate; in fact, most characters in these films are two-dimensional. Further, even the protag will seem flat because his or her main characteristic is the need or drive for vengeance. That doesn’t leave a lot of room for personality quirks or idiosyncracies (luckily, there are many exceptions, especially in the Western genre. Bronson in Deathwish is another example).

One massive trend in the last three years has been a return to the shaky cam/found footage genre that resurfaced briefly in the 90s after the release of The Blair Witch Project. This subgenre shows no sign of slowing; the Paranormal Activity franchise has taken over Saw’s October theatrical release timeslot. While the fourth film‘s tagline is: “All the activity has led to this,” even a marginal box office showing will secure a sequel.

This guerrilla cinéma vérité is so popular because they are so easy and cheap to produce; further, the handheld camera format more effectively pulls the viewer into the action. There’s much more to explore in the shakycam/found footage subgenre, but I am going to leave that to an entry in the near future.