A New Future for Horror?
In an interesting essay-review, Times Online critic James Christopher wonders whether REC and THE ORPHANAGE can save the horror genre, now that the glory days of THE EXORCIST are long behind us:
There has been no lack of imitators in the wake of The Exorcist. But the paucity of fresh ideas in the horror genre is now a genuine issue. The imminent arrival of two shivery, chalk-and-cheese films from Spain - a ghost story called The Orphanage and a reality TV thriller, Rec - emphasises just how parched the English-speaking market has become for good horror.
Christopher believes that American producers would do well to learn a thing or two from these films, and stop simply remaking Asian horror films. He finds a sympathetic soul in Hamish McAlpine, who distributes many Asian horror titles on DVD:
McAlpine believes the genre in America has hit the buffers. “Horror has basically run out of track. It is repetitive, boring and profoundly unimaginative. It does well at the box office because a lot of kids have not seen the recycled horrors first time around.”
McAlpine’s company, Tartan, has been instrumental in introducing extreme Asian cinema to the rest of the world, and Hollywood lost little time pasteurising every scary frame.
He is withering about the quality of these glossy remakes. “Every one of them has been execrable,” he says. “There isn’t a producer in the world who would proudly own up to one on his CV. It’s utterly symptomatic of Hollywood’s chronic lack of imagination about horror.”
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