Horror Movies: Classic Vs. Modern

The genre of horror movies has changed drastically throughout history.  
Photo By Orphydian Deviant Art 

Halloween is a great time for many activities, including watching horror movies. While the majority of people seem to get a scare out of modern horror movies, nothing can beat classic horror movies.

    There are plenty of factors that can contribute to the unique effect classic horror movies can deliver that modern horror movies cannot. The genre of horror has changed in various ways throughout its magnificent history. However, some of the changes more than likely made horror films less scary. All of the things that classic horror movies possess make them stand out from many of the modern horror movies that young people crave.

    One element that horror films would always use was suspenseful music. Music plays a great role in films of any genre. There are points where a movie needs music to draw the audience into what’s going on. As for classic horror movies, they are full of suspenseful scenes accompanied with haunting music. This is a key element that makes the audience anxious about the scene. As the scene progresses with creepy music, the audience is kept on the edge of their seats waiting for that horrific jump-scare. A lot of today’s horror movies seem to lack music during suspenseful scenes, however. The trend with modern horror deals more with scenes that lack music, and use natural sound as the character walks into a silent, creepy setting. The silence of the scene may cause people to anticipate what is going to happen, but it does not make the scare more effective.

    A major change in horror movies over the years was the change from actual costumes to impressive CGI. Many modern horror movies rely on horrific monsters that are animated. That does serve as an advantage, seeing how directors can do more with CGI than they could in the past with people wearing costumes. CGI monsters cannot, however, look real enough to the point where they can be taken seriously by viewers. They are always flashy in a way that makes them stand out from the physical objects in the movie. 

    In classic horror movies, monsters would either be animatronics or actors in costumes and make-up. These monsters were more horrific in that they were more physical. This is one of the reasons why Universal Studios’ monster films were legendary. Whenever physical people and objects are involved in a scary scene, the mood can be taken much more seriously than that of a modern horror movie and its monsters.

    Horror movies have, at various points, used blood and gore effects to horrify viewers. This does serve as a good element to make the movie more heart-pounding. A fair share of modern and older horror movies have included gruesome scenes with blood. Scenes such as those are extreme in some cases, but complement those movies resulting in a strong effect on the audience. A movie can, however, become dull after too many bloody scenes. Classic horror movies almost never use excessive blood and gore for their scenes. Instead, they focus more on themes that will haunt a person through sheer fear. Classic horror films instead tend  to exclude vulgarity and express more traditional approaches to scare their audiences.

    Classic horror movies create more of heart-pounding and suspenseful mood for viewers. Modern horror movies tend to focus more on intense “in-your-face” action, while still incorporating some common elements of the horror genre. With that said, a good horror film needs plenty of subtle actions along with features that can draw viewers in to the point where they are shocked by what they see on the screen. If you plan to watch some horror movies that will give you a really good scare for Halloween, perhaps a classic horror movie is what you need.