First of all, apologies for the Feature being a bit late this month. I started writing something in part about the impending release of The Da Vinci Code, but also on factually controversial films in general. However, since everyone under the sun was writing about this recently, I put the idea on hold and eventually abandoned it.

I'm no expert on horror films - I'm not Mark Kermode - but they do seem to be pretty useless these days. Of all the horror films to have come out this year, it was only The Hills Have Eyes that worked for me, because it had characters you cared about, as well as plenty of scares. The remaining majority have ranged from inept to mediocre - An American Haunting was exactly the same as The Dark, Hostel was just a more graphic episode of E.R. and When a Stranger Calls was about as frightening as a big phone bill. Even Silent Hill, which I was actually rather looking forward to was disappointing, and the future isn't exactly brimming with potential classics - June will bring a remake of The Omen and Reeker, a film about a demon that pongs a bit...

You might think I'm being a bit harsh about some of these, but I actually have quite a good reason to be; I'm useless with horror films. You know when you're sitting in the cinema during a horror film, and there's a bloke sitting next to you who jumps at absolutely everything? Well it's quite likely that's me. So when the genre has got to the stage where its films don't really work on someone as predictable and easy to scare as me, then I think its in trouble. As I've said before, I'm no expert, but just by watching the films that have come out this year I think I can see what the problem is - the majority of horror films these days just don't have any atmosphere.

Before you think I'm being vague and unhelpful, I'll explain exactly what I mean. How often with horror films now do you sit watching them in the cinema and feel genuinely uncomfortable throughout? It's this sensation I'm getting at - anyone can make something suddenly appear on the screen to make you jump, but it takes skill and patience to ensure a tense and disturbing atmosphere. I don't doubt that making the audience jump is a valid method of scaring them, but unlike with a creepy or eerie atmosphere, it's possible to condition yourself against this, and prevent the tactic from continually working. So many films now use these cheap tricks, that even the most jumpy audience member can see one coming a mile away because the build-ups have become so predictable and similar.

Just using some of the films that have come out so far this year, I hope to demonstrate more precisely what I mean by highlighting some of the methods and scares they contained. This will naturally contain a few spoilers and I apologise for that, but I'll try not to give away major plot elements where possible:

The Fog - Because the town is covered in lots and lots of CGI fog, this gives a few opportunities for people to suddenly leap out of it, causing a jump or two. The rest of the "scares" come from a suddenly starting a loud banging noise whenever someone is about to die - this sound effect loops over and over ad nauseam. And the final half hour is just extras in plenty of latex to make them look a bit dead. There is also plenty of mysterious green lighting during this point too.

An American Haunting - First of all, nearly everything takes place at night. Betsy screams a lot while loud music is played. At one point she is pulled out of bed by her hair and slapped around by an invisible force. There's a vision she has of a young girl who keeps her face hidden, and when she finally reveals it (several times), lo and behold it's all rotten and creepy. For good measure the film chucks in some creepy voices and white contact lenses for Miss. Hurd-Wood, and of course she has to open her eyes really quickly.

Silent Hill - Again, anything creepy happens when the lights go out. Rose is chased by a variety of snivelling goblins, slithering bugs and re-animated corpses. A mysterious creature wearing a metal hat also follows her around with a gigantic sword. All this looks really cool, but the thoughts going through the minds of the audience are "what's going on, I have no idea" rather than "what's going on, this is disturbing". At least this film resisted the temptation to have characters turn around suddenly to confront us with a warped face or something similar though.

Hostel - after using up half the film making an extra long episode of Eurotrash, we see someone being attacked with a drill. Or rather, we see a person sitting in a chair screaming, followed by close-ups of a drill going into some sort of flesh - we don't know where it is. Later on someone is cut up by a chainsaw, someone hides in a pile of dead bodies, and there's a girl with an eyeball hanging out, and for some reason orange puss spurts out when the optic nerve is cut.

So essentially, both The Fog and An American Haunting went "Boo!" a lot, Silent Hill was just continually weird, and Hostel was continually violent and a bit gory. However, I am of the opinion that it's possible to prevent yourself being moved or upset by these instances, simply by knowing when they are going to happen. Anyone knows that in a horror film, if a character has their back to the camera and someone is slowly moving closer to them, at some point they are going to turn around and make them jump in some way - be it the movement itself, or because they suddenly appear grotesque. This is one of those things we've seen so many times that the majority of people are not longer intimidated by it, and this is becoming the case with more and more horror film staples.

So what films do I think have this crucial "atmosphere" then? I think this atmosphere can take a number of forms - it can slowly chill you, it can present you with something consistently ghastly, or it can put you in a helpless situation, or all three. If you're looking for relatively modern films that do these things, I would say The Shining The Exorcist and The Thing are quite accomplished works. I know these aren't exactly recent - the youngest one is nearly 25 years old, but as I've already said, the genre has been suffering. The Shining spends a great deal of time setting up a family unit, only for it to be ripped apart. It draws us in to the mysteries of the hotel it's set in, and creates an atmosphere through slow and disturbing character development, frightening visuals and haunting music. The Exorcist is similar insofar as it takes the innocence of a young girl and corrupts it in the most extreme way possible. Again it features memorable visuals and some vile scenes, but it works because the story is intriguing enough to grab out attention. The Thing features some of the most violently over the top horror sequences ever committed to film. It's never entirely clear what the creature (apart from it being an alien) actually is, or what happens to it, so there is a sense of unease there.

With the films I've mentioned it's entirely possible that you disagree with me entirely - you may well find those films dated, slow and boring. However, I would argue that there is very little in those films that is predictable, very little which relies on simple scare tactics, and that there is quite a lot modern horror films could learn from them.

© David Mercier
Discuss films and features on the FilmJudge Blog