by Spencer Hawken

Created on: February 07, 2008

Have Hollywood horror movies gone too far? The answer for me is an irrefutable NO. The reason I say this is because the reality being that very few movies spawn from Hollywood, I put it that the question should really be "Have American horror movies gone too far?" To which I'd still reply NO!

Hollywood Horror

Sadly the horror movies that spawn from Hollywood are very rarely my perception of horror. The likes of Friday The13th, Nightmare On Elm Street, and Halloween all headed to Hollywood for funding to be released, but never originated from Hollywood. The reality of the point being that few movies actually originate in Hollywood, having literally turned up there for funding. Hollywood does not have a partially good history when it comes to horror, for Hollywood is all about the money and nothing else, Horror movies generally have a higher certificate and render the movies potential earnings considerably less. So Hollywood tend more to lean on the side of psychological thrillers.

Wes Craven's Scream was the first example of a good Hollywood horror, and in reality since then they have been few and far between. Hostel, Saw, 30 Days Of Night are not Hollywood horror, neither was The Exorcist.

American Horror

While in America there are movies that push the limits, the aforementioned Hostel, Saw and 30 Days Of Night all being prime examples, America is majorly behind the times, Italy was delivering these sort of scares 30 years ago, Spain 25 years ago, while Japan was delivering this sort of horror 15 years ago. America like the United Kingdom are far behind the rest of the world.

As for the context of the story, these aspects of horror have been around for as long as horror. Heads have always rolled all the way back to the 1920's, and organs have always been severed. Look back to the 1960's at the scenes of brain devourment from George Romero's Night Of The Living Dead, this is every bit as graphic and disturbing as today's horror. Think back to the original Sweeney Todd movie from the 1930's, your talking victims being brutally murdered, chopped up, then turned into pies? Are we really challenging horror as far as it can go? We are addressing nothing now that we were not the best part of 80 years ago.

There is a big void between horror and a psychological thriller, and the trouble being is that to some there is no void, some do not realise the difference and that is where things really start to fall down. What Saw and Hostel do, is almost create a synergy of the two

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