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In my reply to one of the other threads, I mentioned about recent horror movies not being scary. Now a horror movie is supposed to scare, but honestly saying in recent times, which movie has had that effect?

The Ring and Ju-On maybe...but those are japanese offerings...hence the intrusion of japanese horror into mainstream cinema and acceptance of em by the horror-movie-starved people like us...

But look at the bigger picture. Most supposedly masters of horror movie-making have either hit a dead end or are waning...Each movie and each movie-maker is a fine example (choose anyone)...

Jason and Freddy managed to scare portions of the teenage audience, but when combined together in a movie, they lost that scary touch...the main reason being they gunning for each other's throats...same with Aliens vs Predator...the whole "versus" thing maybe good for the box-office and commercialisation of horror icons...but in terms of scares, a big downslide...

I remember the original Alien...the long dark silhouetted spaceship, brooding gloomy corridors, terrified crew, and an unknown creature aboard which could be anywhere, even over your head, the howling wind on the Alien planet...now AvP, where the audience isnt scared of the Alien anymore...

The Shining, Exorcist, TCM, Halloween, Friday the 13th...all nerve-janglers, all making you jump outta your seats...*sigh*...

If the makers are hellbent on killing the genre, then they are doing a fine job of it. Tobe Hooper went down, John Carpenter followed, and people like James Cameron, Ridley Scott and Quentin Tarantino wont even touch horror (I loved "From Dusk Till Dawn").

New movie makers arent scared of experimenting, like the recent "Jeepers Creepers", "Saw" and "Silent Hill" (although its a movie adapted from a game but still scary in parts)...but movies like the Blade series (which made vampires look like lame cattle fodder), Underworld (vampires vs werewolves, yet nothing scary about it), remakes of old horror classics which dont scare enough like the originals...makes me wonder when is the next full-fledged horror movie coming out which will make it into the top 10 of every ardent horror fan like me out there?

I feel like sitting beside the comatose body of "The Horror Genre" at an ICU, thinking if it can be revived back or should we resign and call the coffin-makers and the church for funeral services?