Paying the Price
Katherine Brannon
Issue date: 10/26/01 Section: Opinion
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Author Anthony Price once said, “Being frightened is an experience you can't buy”. Those words are particularly meaningful when applied to the most recent decade of American cinema. The last ten years of film have produced dramatic masterpieces (Schindler’s List, Secrets and Lies) and cutting edge comedies (Fargo, Shakespeare in Love). But what about truly scary and terrifying movies, where are the brilliant thrillers of the 90s? Is I Still Know What You Did Last Summer expected to be our generation’s answer to Psycho? Can drivel like The Blair Witch Project even be classified as horror considering the standards set by past works such as The Shining? With authentically chilling pictures few and far between, the average filmgoer is left with little choice but to suffer through 90 minutes of slice and dice crap, or abandon this once thoughtful and intriguing genre all together.
But perhaps the entertainment industry shouldn’t take full responsibility for terror’s decline. Typical and dull, a movie like The Faculty could never hold a candle to Hitchcock’s stunning success Vertigo. Realistically, however Vertigo’s dramatic camera angles and slow paced story would unlikely inspire fear in a 21st century audience. The shocking and horrific deeds of the past are mundane in a world where every prime time drama and news program screams murder and mayhem. It seems as though a desensitized public has forced producers and writers to minimize plot and maximize gore in order to attract viewers. Such tactics are possibly the only alternative when the most intelligent and gruesome stories have been told so many times (both as fiction and reality) that our only response is tedium.
Naturally there are exceptions to this dismal evolution. Seven and The Silence of the Lambs are both excellent films that offer an authentic scare by exploring individuals at their worst. The endurance and triumph of the horror film might depend on whether or not there is a limit to human depravity. In twenty short years the standard for evil excelled from slaughtering one’s family to snacking on a person’s liver or tongue. Such a severe change suggests the ultimate evil which will render all other sins lackluster is not far from being discovered and capitalized.
Of course, the events of September 11th affected the whole concept of fear and the role it plays in our lives. Terror on the big screen appears insignificant and almost blasphemous when terrorism itself so vividly invades reality. For the first time in a long time, most Americans have to deal with feeling scared on a daily basis. Such constant discomfort leaves little room in our society for the horrific to be entertaining. Being frightened may have once been priceless, but, unfortunately, in this world it's just a part of the cost of existence.
But perhaps the entertainment industry shouldn’t take full responsibility for terror’s decline. Typical and dull, a movie like The Faculty could never hold a candle to Hitchcock’s stunning success Vertigo. Realistically, however Vertigo’s dramatic camera angles and slow paced story would unlikely inspire fear in a 21st century audience. The shocking and horrific deeds of the past are mundane in a world where every prime time drama and news program screams murder and mayhem. It seems as though a desensitized public has forced producers and writers to minimize plot and maximize gore in order to attract viewers. Such tactics are possibly the only alternative when the most intelligent and gruesome stories have been told so many times (both as fiction and reality) that our only response is tedium.
Naturally there are exceptions to this dismal evolution. Seven and The Silence of the Lambs are both excellent films that offer an authentic scare by exploring individuals at their worst. The endurance and triumph of the horror film might depend on whether or not there is a limit to human depravity. In twenty short years the standard for evil excelled from slaughtering one’s family to snacking on a person’s liver or tongue. Such a severe change suggests the ultimate evil which will render all other sins lackluster is not far from being discovered and capitalized.
Of course, the events of September 11th affected the whole concept of fear and the role it plays in our lives. Terror on the big screen appears insignificant and almost blasphemous when terrorism itself so vividly invades reality. For the first time in a long time, most Americans have to deal with feeling scared on a daily basis. Such constant discomfort leaves little room in our society for the horrific to be entertaining. Being frightened may have once been priceless, but, unfortunately, in this world it's just a part of the cost of existence.