| alkytrio666 |
06-01-2009 09:37 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Despare
(Post 811173)
I'm curious as to what horror films you have been watching recently in the theaters. There have been some ok horror flicks in the past, oh, five years but with the exception of Grindhouse none have provided the thrill that Drag Me has. Bloody Valentine 3D, Halloween, Friday the 13th, Last House on the Left... some ok remakes in the bunch but they didn't even approach this film. Raimi combined horror and humor effortlessly once again and the anxiety he created in some scenes was beautiful. I loved it, I guess I could see somebody who needs gore to complete their horror experience being disappointed but the themes involved and execution of the story was anything but "lite". I love how a lot of members here said Evil Dead could have only gotten a PG-13 rating if it was released today but a lot of the same people complain about a horror flick with a PG-13 rating. You don't need to have a graphic film to be able to build tension and get scares, I'm glad Raimi sees that. I firmly believe that if he felt his film needed an R rating to be effective he would have pushed it further but it simply didn't need the push. There's still plenty of gross moments too :) .
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Actually, if it sounded as if I thought the film was a poor comparison to recent horror, I would like to make it clear that's not the way I see it at all. I've lost a lot of my passion for the genre over the last few years, mostly due to the prohibition of the quality horror film. To say that Drag Me to Hell is the best horror movie of the last year, or even the last several years, would not be an outrageous thing to say; I'd agree with you. But considering the competition, that's not such a shining achievement. I saw Drag Me to Hell as mostly pastiche; it was as if Raimi was saying "remember when horror movies used to be like this? Remember when I made films like this?". The evidence lies in the dozen or so self-references to his own Evil Dead series. But what if I wanted something new? What if I wanted a solid, filling entry into the genre, like Halloween in the 70s, A Nightmare on Elm Street in the 80s, Silence of the Lambs in the 90s? Drag Me to Hell as a kind of simultaneous crowd-pleaser for newcomers and salute to genre fans is fun for a ride, but what is it really saying about the state of the horror film? That we can only reminisce about the good old days from behind the comfort of safe, studio commercial filmmaking? I don't necessarily care about a rating; what bothers me is the difference in quality. The Evil Dead was a non-stop terror ride which never apologized and stayed gritty and fresh. Drag Me to Hell had to, for example, have a shot of Justin Long answering an iPhone. With Sam Raimi at the helm, I was ready for the next step in the horror movement; instead, I got pastiche. |
