Horror legend Jeffrey Combs recently did an interview with Dread Central in which he states his belief that the horror industry continues to remake classic horror movies because it is afraid of trying something new. This is an interesting take and deserves to be explored a little more simply due to the irony of it.
Who would have thought the industry which is supposed to come up with new ways to scare us is scared of coming up with new ways to scare us?
When I am not writing, I work as a small business consultant. I can relate with business owners (and industry execs) who are afraid of trying anything new. Human nature would lead us to prefer to stay with something that is already successful instead of jumping headlong into something unproven. The problem is fear keeps markets stagnant. A lack of growth, or market shrinkage, becomes the problem.
Hollywood has always excelled in finding formulas that work and driving them into the ground by inundating the market with similar properties. When moviegoers have seen enough of a particular type of movie, they stop purchasing tickets and attempt to move on to another genre or subgenre.
Right now, we do not have a high number of horror movies in the theaters. Most of what is coming out of DVD is found-footage style movies. So where can people go when they are tired of their lack of options?
2012 has a number of horror movies slated for release on the big screen and direct-to-video. The issue we horror fans have is we do not have the wide selection of subgenres in horror we had a few years ago. We can watch rehashed and remade movies, found-footage movies, second-rate zombie flicks, or paranormal investigation movies. We do not have the options, though, so the market will stay stagnant.
Great horror movies are still being made, but Hollywood is not in a rush to pick them up for distribution. Hundreds, if not thousands, of unique horror movies are sitting on shelves right now waiting for the chance to exploit the fears of the masses. It is the fears of the studio execs, though, that keep these potential masterpieces out of our theaters and DVD collections.
“Scream 4,” “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark,” and “The Thing” never became the blockbusters Hollywood originally predicted. The execs sit in their offices trying to beat dead horses while movies that break the mold get pushed off. Disney canceled “At the Mountains of Madness” and the creators of original movies like “Bad Kids Go to Hell” sit and wait their turn to scare the pants off of us.
What can horror fans do? We need to continue to be vocal until the studios finally look to us for help. We need to continue to fight for what we want to see and encourage the execs until they realize their fears of anything new are not justified. We need to continue to band together so our voices can finally be heard.
More from this Contributor:
How ‘Bad Kids Go to Hell’ Breaks the Hollywood Horror Mold
Why 20th Century Fox Should Cancel the ‘Frankenstein’ Project Now
Does the ‘At the Mountains of Madness’ Movie Wait Dreaming?
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