The Problem with Horror Movies Today 

Jump scares are freaking annoying. Like bitch, if I wanted to get scared by a sudden noise, I would stand next to my toaster.

I think the scariest movies are the ones that creep you out, not the ones that get you to jump out of your seat a few times.

jump scares in bad horror movies are like laugh tracks in bad sit-coms

People watch horror movies for the "thing." They don't watch it for the story. Horror in Hollywood has become pornography.

“The problem with modern horror movies” *It’s been 4 years nothing has changed*

Jump scares are like a comedian tickling you.

Misery by Stephen King is one of my favorites horror movies, because it is pure horror. Imagine being injured and kinapped and held hostage by a psychopath that claims to love you or at least care for you. The way the movie builds up tension is like no other movie. It's starts with hope and slowly removes every inch of it throughout the film. Psychological horror at it's bedst if you ask me.

The problem for me is that I cant stand the characters. I find myself rooting for the killer, demon, or ghost.

It might shock you if someone pops a balloon behind you with a pin, but it's much more unnerving to see them holding the pin and nearly pop the balloon then not pop it just holding the pin there.

4 years ago “the problem with horror movies TODAY” Recommend to me April 13th 2019

Me watching Ouija: -_- Me watching a random dark-asthetic video that has no intent to scare the viewer: *runs to get the bible*

''Imagination is for kids''? I am flabbergasted by how shallow and wrongheaded that sentiment is.

I have to agree that psychological horror is much scarier and enjoyable than a jump-scare film.

Jump scare abuse is exactly why FNAF should not be made into a movie

I mean jumpscares aren't scary though.... I am a HUGE horrorfan and has been since i was seven years old.... The ONLY movie that has EVER given me a jumpscare was Harry Potter one, when he entered the library and the screaming face popped out of the book.... Scary movies today are not scary.... Their jumpscares aren't even scary given how predictable they are, unlike the jumpscare in HP.... You can easily tell when a jumpscare will pop up and THE ONLY people that fall victim to it are people that never watches horror movies anyway - _ -'....

Silence of the lambs is the perfect way to make a horror film. You don’t get scared until the film is over and that’s what I love about it. It’s one of those films where you think about ages after watching it

Doesn't help that they dumb them down for a PG-13 rating to get the tweens and teens in, the biggest cash cow for them.

"This is the easiest kind of scare" That's because a jump scare isn't really a scare at all... it's a surprise.

Most "modern horrors" I've seen with the jump scares I've forgotten about. The original terminator still unnerves me. Imagine being chased by something that resembles a human but isn't human, that nothing stop them, not knives, not bullets, not fire. But fire burns the darkness away, which makes it even more unnerving that it doesn't work. That it won't stop until it "gets you". You run so hard that your legs don't work and you have to crawl, putting buildings, cars and people between it and you and it still comes for *YOU*.

6 years after this video, I'll say this: This has been the best decade for horror movies of all time. The witch, The lighthouse, Hereditary, The babadook, The conjuring... absolutely great. Even the bad horror movies (Annabelle, The nun etc) are, in my opinion, far better than the bad horror movies of other decades. I'll die in this hill.

"Imagination is for kids"? ...Seriously? What's next, "Using one's brain is for scientists"?

What movies think horror audiences want: jumpscares, momentary fright, monsters What horror audiences want: good writing, lasting fear, unique imagery

Robert Eggers, Ari Aster, Mike Flanagan, Jordan Peele, Jennifer Kent, James Wan, Leigh Whannell. These filmmakers gave us amazing horror movies.

My ideas of a good horror movie No jump scare music Less CGI/more practical effects Different approaches/twist that make sense NOT GETTING SEQUELS OR REBOOTS Likable and smart characters Keeping the audience questing

Jumpscares in movies are an equivalent to running up to someone from behind and shouting "BOO!" Yeah, it makes everyone jump, because it's a reflex… it has nothing to do with actual fear

Chris, you hit the nail on the head when you said that audiences have forgotten what real horror is People need to realize that if a person jumps after a jumpscare happens that doesn't automatically mean it scared them, it was because of the loud noise that it made, it's not genuine fear, it's a bodily reaction that we can't help, similar to how, even if you see it coming, if you hear nails scratching on a chalkboard it's gonna hurt your ears and cause you to clench up, people need to stop confusing real fear with natural human reactions

That is EXACTLY how a 2019 version of that jump scare would be. Even worse is the double jump scare. OH MY GAWD Nope it’s just a cat No wait OH MY GAAAAAWD!!!!

The last movie to genuinely creep me out was the ring . Rated PG and you never saw anyone die .

I'm getting tired of modern horror, it's all CGI, demon/ghost and jumpscares.

I don't like horror movies but the best horror movies are the kind that make you paranoid. You know the kind- the movies that makes you check in the closet, keep the lights on and makes sure you don't look directly in the mirror

*REQUIEM FOR A DREAM* (disturbing) *THE SHINING* *THE OTHERS* *THE SIXTH SENSE* (my fav) Were some good horrors

i recently tried to explain why jump scares arent actually scary to my kids while discussing some of the latest horror movies. if your friend hides in the bushes then jumps out and shouts BOO when you arent expecting it, you will likely jump and for a split second you might feel scared. is your friend scary? of course not. its closer to being surprised than it is to being scary. i told them the easiest way to tell whether its a cheap jump scare is this: if you jump and feel scared...then 2 seconds later everyone is kinda chuckling looking at each other as if to say "that one got me" then clearly in less than 2 seconds you arent scared any more. another clue is that most people can sense the jump scare coming even if they arent consciously looking for it. my wife will literally hide her face before every jump scare and when i ask why she says she knows something scary is about to happen. so.. she can close her eyes a couple times for 5 seconds and avoid the "scary" parts of the movie? so...remove 20 seconds of this movie and it wont even be scary. i prefer the "scary" to be unavoidable. i prefer it to be woven into to the story so well that you cant watch the movie while skipping the few scary parts

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown” ----H. P. Lovecraft

A jump scare isn't a scare it's a startle. You can have a documentary of animals and suddenly a picture of an ass taking a massive dump with earrape audio. It gives the same reaction. It's startling. Horror movies need to make you paranoid and scared even after the movie is over

The Babadook scared the shit out of me. I didn't get the association with depression and all that deeper stuff. As a monster movie, it still scared the crap out of me even when they didn't actually show the monster. The book reading to the mother's child was like !!!!!! THAT really freaked me out how the book story changed.

Hell yeah. The babadook is one of my favorite movies of all time. Its deep, thought provoking, and beautifully symbolic of real-world psychological torment. Truly a peace of art. But definitely not for those looking for cheap thrills. If this movie were a painting, it would be one which the viewer HAS to observe with deep thinking rather than a passing glance.

Wow I didn't even realize this video was 4 years old at first LMAO

I hate jump scares! My favorite is a psychological horror

I LOVED Babadook. Wonderfully acted and deeper than your typical surface level monster. One of my favorites for putting you uncomfortably off center just with the mother/son relationship right off the bat.

One of my favorite movies is The Exorcist... I still remember screaming in my head "Don't go up the stairs!" And then they'd peak in the door... now THAT is scary.

1. No originality/remake insanity. 2. PG-13 trying to get a broader audience, loses the soul of horror in the process. 3. Jump scares. 4. Every character is defective and makes you root for the killer because of their consistent stupidity. Etc

After seeing The Shining from beginning to end, I have grown a fear of hotels. That's horror to me.

To me jump-scare is the cheapest way to put a scare on a viewer watching the movie. True horror is to make the viewer feel scared by the atmosphere of the movie itself, not rely on scare by having something lunge at the screen accompanied by a loud music sting/sound effect.

I was so god damn mad when I read the comments on IMDb for Hereditary. “This was literally he worst movie I have ever seen... why where all those naked people standing around!” 🤬🤬🤬Hereditary was perfect.

"It wasn't even scary" is one of the only phrases that can fill me with rage.

Two years later and this video is even more relevant now than then.

I feel the same way about both Insidious and Conjuring. Two of my favorite modern horror films. Both of those movies created such a creepy atmosphere that had me looking around my house. I also agree with you on the Babaduck too.

I`m glad that five years after that video Midsommar has appeared, the daylight horror with complex story and genre, culture references and dark ambient soundtrack with no jumpscares and it just blew up Just as remake of Suspiria that came out last year There`s a lot of shitty horrors, but there are an exceptionally good ones either and they`re becoming popular

The problem with horror movies today: they're not scary

The greatest issue with jump scares, is that you can anticipate when they're about to happen. That's not how jump scares should work. They should be random and un-calculated, other wise you defeat the purpose of a jump scare. Jump scares are supposed to be used in-between the real scares.

My favorite tactic to replace the jumpscare is to use dramatic irony. Let the audience see something spooky or dangerous that the character can't. The Haunting of Hill House makes great use of this. It also uses the reverse strategy of showing the ghost's eye view, where you see the look of fear long before you see the cause of it, but then the camera tracks back and pivots to a side view of the character and the ghost. I find it clever when either the audience or the character - but not both - can see the threat. The former generates a sense of "get out of there, it's right behind you!", the latter more of a "oh god, what terrifying thing are you seeing that I'm not?".

There's 2 types of person (in MY OPINION) Poe's and a Lovecraft's Poe's short story about the cat isn't about a feline...is about a man going nuts (psycological horror) the monster wasn't a cat was the man losing his sanity realizing the monster he was. Lovecrafts monster are goshts or a gigantic weird animal, is a tale of good man vs the monster outside. While Lovecraft reflects a "metaforical" reflection of some human "monster like" traits, Poe actually show the monster human CAN be and is inside all of us. For me, PERSONALLY, that's more scary (obviusly there will be creeps that won't see these tales as warnings or just entertaining but will turn them into role models -and then you have pyromaniacs and other BAD guys who DECIDE that) But coming back to average normal people wich type of horror story they like reflects what they believe about human nature. There's a saying that people concern that others are pshycos is because themselves are insane. I think goes the same with internal moster vs external monster (heck even when "hero" does questionable things -moster would do- to save the day is more interesting that a girl in panties running from a dude with an ax...) I personally don't really loved those films cuz those few that I've seen are a girl cutting troats half naked. Pass. Personally prefer reading like I mentioned, but the only show I liked for long and may be good to analize (I'm not sure wich genre is) Criminal mind's. The protagonist are not flawless or just running in circles. They actually fight with monsters everyday and not only external but they refer to themselves as monsters and that's why they are able to understand and catch them. The "fight" I think is what makes it relatable because it feels real. They're monster but they decide to be good beside all, that's a hero for me (not the punk teen who likes gore cuz his parents dissaprobe that and blames the world for his nasty behavior...sometimes those teens are 30 and go to see Anabelle) My point, everything goes back at your perception of human (born evil vs gone evil) the first reconize that even if he/she is a good person can turn into a monster cuz has innate bad nature and must be mature enough to not be a spoiled kid (is everyone's fault but mine, everyone is bad but me) and those who think the evil is only outside themselves like a shark or a creppy toy and don't see the potential of darkness in them In any case I think is not good obssesed over it. We already see the result of a generation over obssesed in themselves and is terrible. At the end any story, horror, romance, action, etc is merely to entertain us. I only hope that if not all but some can stay merely entertaining and not PC propo, for now I'm happy for still find good films in general in 2019.

Modern horror movies are terrifying. Terrifyingly terrible

I prefer the term JumpShock. It isn't a scare, it just shocks you.

I love psychological thrillers. I think that’s why “Get out” was so terrifying to me. Oculus was great as well.

Words that come out of babadook: a bad book

A real horror movie is the one which fucks up your mind & surrounding, not your eardrums. smh

Agreed! Horror movies need more substance than loud bangs.

I feel that event horizon doesn’t get enough praise. That movie still leaves me unsettled after watching it.

This is why i love old horror movies more than current films.

The worst horror movie I’ve ever seen is The Emoji Movie... I still shudder just thinking about it.

I really like psychological horror or that horror that don't use your human instincts to scare you. Just gives you that feeling that something isn't right.

Need more video essays like this on your channel Chris! I still come back to this.

great breakdown, Chris. I am on the same page. I LOVE horror but I get so frustrated these days. Your robotic reading of the IMDB comment about the Babadook perfectly sums up the typical horror genre these days between the studios and fans. Hereditary, A Quiet Place and even Terrifier are GREAT horrors in their each own way and do NOT rely on tropes and cliches

Most plots nowadays feel halfbaked and like the entire thing was written on a napkin.

My best advice is to set your expectations as low as possible for every movie.

This video is literally everything I think about horror now. It’s such a shame that things have gotten to this weird point but at the same time it’s makes those great gems all the more special to me.

The fact that movies in 2014 were better than what we have now

The scariest things are the ones you can't see

Chris you should make a 5 years later follow-up video

I liked 'The Babadook'. It was a great movie

What I have a problem with in horror movies - and this is strictly my own personal opinion, not a critique! - is when they get too supernatural or when the supernatural gets too powerful. When a ghost gets so powerful that it can do whatever it wants basically, lock every door and window, prevent all phone signals and physically manhandle a person, I lose interest. I just can't buy it. If we on the other hand look a movie like Child's Play, it's still basically a ghost that's killing people, but he still has limitations and has to use physical means to kill those people and they have a chance to defend themselves. It makes it a lot more interesting to me. Also, if a ghost couldn't do things physically, but could influence a person's mind or their emotions, make them angry and those around had to figure out what's going on, that's okay too, but movies like the Conjuring? I just laughed at it. Too over the top for me. As for the Babadook, I didn't mind that we never got to see it, I was satisfied with what we saw in the book, but the family was so annoying that I rooted for the Babadook the entire movie.

I live with an entire family of 'jumpscare junkies' send help

i haven't watched the video, but here is couple things that suck: 1. Unnessecary jumpscares. 2. Breaking the tension every two seconds by showing the monster/slasher. 3. Overall stupid story and script. 4. All the movies are just remakes.

I’m of the opinion that jump scares CAN be good, depending on how they’re used. A good example is in The Dark Knight (2008), when Brian Douglas’ body is hung from the building and slammed against the window of Mayor Garcia’s office. This jump scare is effective, because it comes at a point where everything seems to be going well. Harvey Dent has the mobsters dead to rights on a multitude of charges and it looks like a debt will finally be made in Gotham’s criminal underworld. Then, the same vigilante that Batman saved at the beginning of the film has been hung and it’s revealed that the Joker plans to harm more people if Batman doesn’t reveal his identity. This jump scare works, because it jolts the characters into action. It forces them to face the reality that their troubles are far from over and a bigger threat is on the horizon. It has long-lasting implications for the rest of the film. It isn’t just used to get a momentary scare.

Interesting, the music industry and the movie industry suffer the same problems. The audience consumes way more the dirt cheap low quality products. Maybe the root cause of this problems is just America, everything made for them flits with stupidity (no offense).

I know this is an old video. But maybe they should just call the GOOD horror movies "Chillers". Because a movie that really gets to you - mentally, emotionally, or even skin-crawlingly physical - it gives you chills.

"The Witch" was another excellent movie that was panned by many movie-goers for being "not scary".

In most horror movies, (that I’ve seen at least) there’s sex scenes, which really ruins it for me, I’m here for horror, NOT porn, I’ve heard people ascribe a voyeuristic aspect to horror movies, but I *really* don’t like watching two characters have sex, it always happens though. So, in short, most horror movies are overly sexual and it pisses me off.

Nightcrawler is amazingly disturbing. I highly recommend it to everyone. The implications at the end of the film left me wondering for quite a bit about what we have come to accept in this society when it comes to the news.

Horror for me is something that is so unpreventable and being stuck into a difficult situation. Most horror films nowadays are just these stupid people getting themselves into stupid, preventable, situations.

saw The grudge like 10+ years ago, and the whole idea of can't getting away from her is still scaring me.

I’m so glad you also liked The Babadook and Oculus! Such great movies, I go back to them often for scary movie re-watches because they’re so clever and build the horror so well :)

I deeply loved "The Village"... I keep on watching it!

It's 2018, and this video is still very relevant. It just always will be until there's more people willing to make some serious changes in the industry.

In my opinion, foreign horror movies are much scarier.

Years later and this video still holds up dramatically well

5 years later this still applies to modern horror movies

I. Hate. Jump. Scares.

I had already seen several videos of you, however I suscribed after finding this 2014 video without realizing it was yours, what a great essay on 2010's horror, beautiful.

Thank you for making this video, it has really helped me write my slasher movie script even though it won't get made for a long time because I'm still in school. But for this film I'm not using cheap jump scares like every horror film but I'm using the actions of my killer as the horror to show how a young man became the dangerous, horrifying cannibal he is in my film.

I watched The Shining with my girlfriend not long ago and after the movie she went on a rant about how the horror movies of today are terrible and that movies like The Shining is how you do it the right way, I am verry glad I found this woman.

I want a film to make me feel anxious. it needs to be creepy not jump scary.

Horror movies today be like: "New house for you hubby, oh no it's haunted!" ,"we're going in a haunted area in the middle of the forest at night, oh no the car isn't working!, "they're gonna kill me!, oh no my phone isn't working!"

I watch Korean horror shows and movies as well as anime for my scares. Very few Western movies and shows nowadays seem able to build and maintain the tension the way Asian productions do.

You know when you go to cinemas and you have to wait a while for even the trailers to start? Sometimes they just play music while you wait. Instead, they should show videos likes this.

I agree with a lot of what you said. You are right to look at box office numbers because the people with money that back the movies are interested in the profits and not the art, which is why we have so many cheaply produced jump scare movies, because the motive is the cash grab. One point i think you missed is that its easy to focus on the crappy movies, and compare them to the classics. Being a big fan of horror I've seen some great movies in recent years, as well as the classics, but what we forget is in the era of the classics there were plenty of crappy movies that have been forgotten about. Movies like Annabell & Ouija will be forgotten, and in 10 years we may be praising this era for Oculus & Babadook. Fantastic video Chris! Love hearing your opinions, this was a nice break from the regular reviews :-)

Excellent discussion, thanks for sharing!

Thanks, Cris. Great channel. I agree with you about what is wrong with horror movies. I enjoy good horror but it is difficult to find in the newer movies. I miss movies like: The Uninvited (1944), The Haunting (1963), The Innocents (1961), Rosemary's Baby (1968), The Exorcist (1973), and a few others.

The Shining is one of the best horror movies of all time. Like real -life horror, it seems quite normal in the beginning. Then, there’s a creeping sense of something not quite right. Watching Johnny slip into insanity is the most horrifying thing. Unfortunately, the word “horror” has been corrupted by the offenses listed in this video. A really good psychological movie has the audience feeling acutely uncomfortable. Tension, anxiety, maybe disgust or revulsion-feeling this in a fictional, somewhat controlled setting is what makes these thrillers so cathartic. I felt all that watching the 2018 iteration of the movie IT; oddly enough, I felt really good after. It was like a reset.