Horror Movies: All gore and no plot?

[Silver_Wolf_Kitty]

This thread discusses horror movies and may contain explicit descriptions of in-movie violence. This is not a thread for the squeamish.

Okay, I absolutely have to discuss this topic. Its something that's been nagging me for ages and a movie I just saw was basically the final straw for me.

I will happily admit that I have had an ongoing love affair with horror movies since I was very young, but I'm finding myself slowly disillusioned with the whole genre. It seems as of late that every single horror movie on the face of the planet has zero plot and is overly reliant upon the usage of extreme gore and effects. This has always been a huge problem in horror movies, but it seems like its happening more and more often now that we have advanced so much when it comes to movie effects.

I'm supposing you're wondering what started this feeling. Recently I saw The Collector, a movie which I had heard varying reviews about, but had gotten decent ones from the horror reviewers. I was excited, I'm not going to lie, about this movie which was originally pitched as a SAW prequel and thought that it would have a decent plot. Of course, me being the sucker that I am, I went to see it and boy was I disappointed. It had such great potential of creating a whole new horror icon, but it flopped miserably in getting across any sort of plot. I'm not going to lie, it started out ok. There was a subplot going on throughout the whole movie, but nothing was explained about "The Collector". In fact, once the traps were revealed(which were amazing, I'm not going to lie), even the subplot was forgotten and all it became was people dieing over and over and over again. Not only that, but it threw out a bunch of sex as if that would make up for this failure. I walked out feeling jipped and thoroughly angry at the horror reviewers who seem to have some curtain over their eyes that is preventing them from recognizing a plot. Worse, there was a huge plot hole. How would he place the traps without them noticing? I got the impression that they apparently left for the weekend, but must've come back, but it never was mentioned really and I'm left to assume that they were in the house and thus didn't need to have traps there since he would've already captured them.

I guess the question is, do any of us actually remember seeing a horror movie that didn't rely upon gore and actually had a good plot? Is anyone as fed up with I am with the horror genre? What bad horror movie did you see recently that we should all be aware of to avoid? Do you have a movie you think can redeem this genre(please include a brief description of it and its rating, if you can)?

Please try to keep with the main point of the thread, which is to help other horror lovers(and potential ones) find movies that redeem the genre. I will delete all posts that only consist of naming a movie or does not contribute to the discussion at hand, including statements that consist of "I don't watch horror movies".

[Miranda_]

I couldn't agree more. I actually prefer old skool horror movies like The Exorcist to the new ones, cuz get this; the graphics might not be wonderful now when compared to the new horror movies, but they actually have a plot that grabs you and keeps you watching.

I also rate The Silence Of The Lambs; tho it's not really in the horror movie genre, it did use to scare the crap out of me when I was a teen so I count it. XD No gratitious gore, a seriously creepy villain (Hannibal Lecter) and a plot that keeps you guessing right til the very end if you happened not to have read the book. I had before I saw the movie, but I still was hooked by the movie.

[Silent_Wolf]

I have to say that The Bone Collector terrified me, what little I saw of it. I need to actually sit down and watch all of it one of these days, really. XD Pet Sematary was scary as well; granted, that one's a bit old too but that movie scared the daylights out of me. I can't read the book, or watch the movie. Both just scare me. Especially the end. Euugh.

And don't get me started on IT.

[Miranda_]

Oh no... IT! O_o That seriously freaked me out, especially since the baddie is a clown and everyone knows that clowns are evil. I don't see any movie today managing to take a concept like that and make it real; they'd rather splash blood and guts around and throw in some random love scenes. -.-

[Silver_Wolf_Kitty]

lol, Miranda!

I didn't find IT very scary myself. I think its cause I saw it when I was fairly old, so I found it more amusing than anything else. I did think Silence of the Lambs was pretty creepy. No real gore, but it sure makes your skin crawl.

A good movie I'd suggest is the Skeleton Key. Its more suspense, but it has a plot to it all, one you'd never see coming. I do remember being scared out of my wits at times in it and it is pretty creepy.

Also, Untraceable is good. You need to have a good stomach for that one, it involves some serious torture scenes. The good thing is that the plot is really good and its consistent throughout the movie. You never forget what is going on when the gore is happening, which is something a lot of horror movies seem to have missed. Gore should always fit into the plot in my opinion since what good is it to simply kill people left and right with no explanation?

[Silent_Wolf]

If there is a sequel to The Collector, (I wiki'd it, WTF kind of a plot is that.) maybe it'll elaborate more on the character of The Collector himself.

[Miranda_]

I watched a lot of Steven King based horror movies as a kid; I think that's it. XD I'd read the books before; so what would have been the point of stopping me watching the movies? While we're the on the subject, The Shining was also seriously creepy. O_o It's that kind of suspense and creeptasticness that's missing from a lot of horror movies now.

[TheHayleyDoll]

I saw that Untraceable movie. It was good, but I still like my SAW more. XD

I don't think it really has to do completely with just movies nowadays, though. Horror movies from years and years back still had little plot. Think of Friday the 13th. The first one, okay, second one, maybe, but did they need to have as many as they did? No. It was basically the same plot every time, but with different deaths. Some teenagers go to Camp Crystal Lake, and they get killed by some undead guy that's getting "revenge" on teenagers because the camp counselors were too busy sh@gging, and we're watching him in the lake.

Same with Nightmare on Elm Street. Same basic plot throughout way too many sequels.

That's why I kind of like SAW. The plot is like a story, and you need to remember things that happened in the previous installments and piece things together. I still can't wait to see the next one, because I want to know what was in that box that John (Jigsaw) Kramer left to Jill Tuck in his will. And why did she have that key around her neck? Maybe she WAS working with him all along, and he wants her to carry on his legacy. Who knows.

I still like most horror movies that come out, though. Shutter was pretty good, and it had a really good plot.

I watched this one a while ago... Midnight Meat Train. WTF? The ending was completely STUPID. I think I'm going to tell you all how it ends, because if you haven't seen it, the ending will make you not want to. XD

I can't remember clearly, but there's this big creepy guy (who works in the meat factory) that kills people on a subway and butchers them and hangs them up like you would see in a meat locker. In the end, the main character kills the bad guy. Suddenly, all these strange ALIENS come from out of nowhere and try to eat him, and make him their new "master", so he has to kill people for the aliens to eat.

The movie was 1.5 hours long, and not until the last ten minutes were aliens ever MENTIONED. It wasn't even HINTED AT. I think they couldn't decided on an ending - or a way to actually make a plot - so they added in aliens. O_O

[booni_monkey]

I just saw The Exorcist yesterday. It wasn't really that scary, but the language kinda freaked me out. It didn't scare me, but if you brought up that movie the first thing that would come to mind is the language.

[Silver_Wolf_Kitty]

Originally Posted by Silent_Wolf

If there is a sequel to The Collector, (I wiki'd it, WTF kind of a plot is that.) maybe it'll elaborate more on the character of The Collector himself.

I'd probably see it anyways if there is a plot, simply because I want some background on The Collector, but I doubt there ever will be a sequel. It left a lot of theatres within a week, which is really bad.

Agreed, Stephen King manages to make a lot of creepy movies. Exception being a few of the really WTF short stories(Lawnmower Man, for example). Some of his short stories is basically the equivalent of crap in a bag, no lie. The Shining terrified me as a book, I haven't seen the movie yet because I know its different and I don't want to lose that special fear that the book caused me to have.

Ah, Hayley, the ever classic Jason and Freddy movies. Although the plot is repetitive, at least one is present. I swear, The Collector was just killing. Random traps and killing! It drove me nuts. At least you know that Jason and Freddy=kids having sex and getting their just deserts for being silly little who.res. They really just gotta stop killing the franchise though, I'm tired of it already. (Fun fact, the killer in the first movie was actually Jason's mother. How's that for fun?)

LMAO! Midnight Meat Train? That sounds hillarious. Aliens=automatic amazing ending, sheesh Hayley.