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I think you nailed it, Ig. The fanbase for horror is generally a lot more forgiving of any horror film to an extent, most likely because of the rarity of quality new films in the genre. It's like the good old days of the bootleg video cassette - the horror fanbase took off during the 80's mostly through word of mouth and trading of hard-to-find films on videotapes between fans that got the ball rolling. Those self-same films would lead to a one-upsmanship 'twixt fans as to who got the nastier film, which would inspire folks to make their own (hey, all you need are some blood capsules, some kind of hot girls to scare, drop trou, and chase, maybe a friend who can do some latex make-up, and a camera and you're all set), leading to a lot of direct-to-video (now direct-to-DVD) flicks.
That's changed to an extent with teh internetz - Bava, Fulci, Argento, Miike, etc. are all readily available via YouTube, torrents, downloads, and so on. Back in the day, us fans would be thankful for whatever we could get our hands on, whereas today's fan has a much easier time tracking said films down, and as a result might find stuff we thought cool kind of quaint (think on it - does Lugosi's Dracula really scare you the way Lee's Dracula might? Would Chaney's Wolfman make you shit your pants as readily as one of the beasties from Dog Soldiers? How about a zombie from NOTLD vs. one of the Walking Dead?)
Ah, but with such ease of service, it's easier to discern the shit from The Shining. Us old-timers do tend to remember films we grew up with through rose-colored glasses, and often we'll compare stuff being made today with those flicks we used to watch or hunt for. The newer fans might search the old stuff out, just to say that they saw it, but they're not as hungry for it as we were back then.
Horror's always been a hard sell for the general moviegoer. The reasons for this are many and valid (I'm not going to go into the feminist POV that horror films are degrading to women... even though it's usually a woman that takes out the bad guy once and for all at the film's end. That's a whole 'nother Horror Thread), but I think the biggest one would have to be embarrassment. Horror films are considered OK when you're younger and/or just starting out in a cinematic career (Jamie Lee Curtis, Jennifer Aniston, Renee Zellwiger, Matthew McConaughey, Johnny Depp, Anthony Perkins, Jack Nicholson, etc. all of 'em got their start in horror to a degree. Leave us also not forget Speilberg, Jackson, and Raimi either). It's where many celebs make their bones, so to speak, and since so many of them got their start there, some of them would view making a horror flick at the current points of their career a step backward. Often they'll get around this by going with "psychological thriller" or "thriller/suspense", but boil it down to it's essence, it's still horror, minus the more outrageous nastiness, of course.
Also, studios are having a tougher time keeping audiences in theaters. Horror is like the Western, Sci-Fi, Superhero, flick. Each genre is popular for a little bit (and it seems the cycle rate gets longer and longer), only to be replaced by another genre a few years later. Studios are loathe to fuck with something that works, and it's easier to crank out a Saw sequel than to risk a new project that might not catch fire. It's cyclical - horror got a shot in the arm via Saw, Final Destination, etc. but it'll ebb away for awhile when another genre takes it's turn. Like a corpse in the cemetery near Uneeda Medical Supply,it merely sleeps, awaiting a chande to rise from the grave, powered by a new idea or monster.
That's changed to an extent with teh internetz - Bava, Fulci, Argento, Miike, etc. are all readily available via YouTube, torrents, downloads, and so on. Back in the day, us fans would be thankful for whatever we could get our hands on, whereas today's fan has a much easier time tracking said films down, and as a result might find stuff we thought cool kind of quaint (think on it - does Lugosi's Dracula really scare you the way Lee's Dracula might? Would Chaney's Wolfman make you shit your pants as readily as one of the beasties from Dog Soldiers? How about a zombie from NOTLD vs. one of the Walking Dead?)
Ah, but with such ease of service, it's easier to discern the shit from The Shining. Us old-timers do tend to remember films we grew up with through rose-colored glasses, and often we'll compare stuff being made today with those flicks we used to watch or hunt for. The newer fans might search the old stuff out, just to say that they saw it, but they're not as hungry for it as we were back then.
Horror's always been a hard sell for the general moviegoer. The reasons for this are many and valid (I'm not going to go into the feminist POV that horror films are degrading to women... even though it's usually a woman that takes out the bad guy once and for all at the film's end. That's a whole 'nother Horror Thread), but I think the biggest one would have to be embarrassment. Horror films are considered OK when you're younger and/or just starting out in a cinematic career (Jamie Lee Curtis, Jennifer Aniston, Renee Zellwiger, Matthew McConaughey, Johnny Depp, Anthony Perkins, Jack Nicholson, etc. all of 'em got their start in horror to a degree. Leave us also not forget Speilberg, Jackson, and Raimi either). It's where many celebs make their bones, so to speak, and since so many of them got their start there, some of them would view making a horror flick at the current points of their career a step backward. Often they'll get around this by going with "psychological thriller" or "thriller/suspense", but boil it down to it's essence, it's still horror, minus the more outrageous nastiness, of course.
Also, studios are having a tougher time keeping audiences in theaters. Horror is like the Western, Sci-Fi, Superhero, flick. Each genre is popular for a little bit (and it seems the cycle rate gets longer and longer), only to be replaced by another genre a few years later. Studios are loathe to fuck with something that works, and it's easier to crank out a Saw sequel than to risk a new project that might not catch fire. It's cyclical - horror got a shot in the arm via Saw, Final Destination, etc. but it'll ebb away for awhile when another genre takes it's turn. Like a corpse in the cemetery near Uneeda Medical Supply,it merely sleeps, awaiting a chande to rise from the grave, powered by a new idea or monster.
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