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Originally Posted by wanderer
Thanks for the reply. The article is about how horror has changed since it begun and what films have made it change. 'Saw' is one that I had thought of just because it seems to of sparked a new era of gore and violent movies and also includes a kind of psychological presence.
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Not just Saw, but Hostel and Rob Zombie that really brought meaning to torture porn. In fact, it's interesting how "exploitation" (of the 70s horror films, for example), has become "torture porn." You could talk about how Texas Chainsaw Massacre has evolved (or "de-volved," whichever side you want to take) into films such as the aforementioned, Wolf Creek, and Touristas.
It's been mentioned before, but The Ring brought the JA horror explosion to America, which seems to be
so hot right now (with The Grudge, Dark Waters, One Missed Call, Shutter, The Eye, et al) and you can argue whether or not it's a good thing.
Even though it came out in 1999, you might want to site Blair Witch as being on the cusp of 2000 and becoming one of the most influential films in modern horror film history. You now see the hand-held first-person cam being utilized more often (Cloverfield, Diary of the Dead, [rec]) as a medium for seeing into the characters' psyche.
The movie 28 Days Later made us reimagine the concept of "zombies" by creating a movie with an infectious theme, but creating a human monster that was more of a frenetic, horrifying, immediate threat. Instead of lumbering beasts, you have rage-filled running terrors. Definitely a new face of infection that you'll see also in the Dawn of the Dead remake, Mulberry Street, and 28 Weeks Later. A
new kind of human monster.
I think that Del Toro is an amazing horror director, but I wouldn't necessarily call him "influential." While Eli Roth definitely was a catalyst for the new genre of torture flicks and The Ring brought Japanese Ghosts across the world, I don't see Del Toro necessarily starting any kind of fads. Not that he's a bad director; far from it. He's brilliant, but I think that for the time being he's a genius on his own (with his own constructs and archetypes that he constantly revisits). He's definitely a visionary, but I don't think that he's necessarily changed the face of horror...
yet.