Follow up to previous post…

Updated on April 14, 2008 By Ken Begg 10 Comments

“These films aren’t aimed at old school slasher buffs (who being older probably wouldn’t be satisfied with a typically awful ’80s slasher film if they saw one now anyway).  No, they are aimed at kids the age we were when the original Prom Night came out (although I personally was not a slasher fan, to say the least).”

Having written that just this morning, I later had a shift in my Library’s ‘Young Adult’ loft, basically a room for junior high schoolers.  Amusingly, I heard one young lady, maybe 14 years of age, describing at length–and I mean for like five to ten straight minutes–a book she had just read.  Or so I assumed.  Eventually I recognized that she was describing events akin to those I’d seen in the Prom Night TV commericials.  A question from one of her peers confirmed this, and moreover, upon being asked the young lady offered that she had found the movie “really scary.”  The curmugeonly middle aged horror buff was aghast at this assertion, but it proffered concrete evidence that these films, as lame as we ourselves tend to find them, manage to please the expections of those that they are aimed at.  Which, naturally, is why we’ll keep seeing them. 

I remember when one critic wrote dismissively that Honey, a Jessica Alba (if I remember correctly) dance flick from few years back, was basically just a redo of Breakin’.  Hip snarky pop culture reference aside, this points out why critics don’t hold much sway over the prospective audiences of such films:  Breakin’ was made in 1984, nearly a quarter of a century ago.  Honey‘s target audience not only hadn’t been born at that time, but wouldn’t be for several more years.

So, yes, I personally wish that kids were more literate (so to speak) in their horror movie tastes.  But then, the older generation of my time disdained the junk I was watching, too.

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  • Blake Matthews

    “But then, the older generation of my time disdained the junk I was watching, too.”

    I remember sitting down one evening to watch “Beginning of the End” and listening to father go on about how modern horror films (this was in the early 90s) were just terrible and not like the stuff of his day. I also remember purchasing “Gamera vs. Guiron” and my grandma looking at the box and saying, “Well the movies from back then were pretty good, but the ones today are horrible” (again speaking of 80s to 90s horror films). While I agreed with both of them (and still do), I find it ironic that they said that in light of two not-so-great examples of such fare.

  • Danny

    “So, yes, I personally wish that kids were more literate (so to speak) in their horror movie tastes. But then, the older generation of my time disdained the junk I was watching, too.”

    Well, I mean, they’re kids. As they age, they’ll gain more refined tastes, and be a bit more discerning. I wasn’t much younger than them when I thought the Power Rangers movie was the hight of awesome.

    “I remember sitting down one evening to watch “Beginning of the End” and listening to father go on about how modern horror films (this was in the early 90s) were just terrible and not like the stuff of his day.”

    It’s been scientifically proven that pop culture was at its height when you were twelve. Regardless of how old you currently are.

    Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to search Youtube for clips from the Power Rangers movie.

  • Ed Richardson

    Kids by definition are not going to be literate on anything, especially movies.

    I’m sure none present here were, back in 84, waxing on how early Spielberg and Carpenter borrowed heavily from Hitchcock any more than kids today see Cloverfield for what it is – 1954’s Gojira in new clothes.

  • BeckoningChasm

    Interviewer: “Mr. Sturgeon, what year was the Golden Age of Science Fiction?”

    Theodore Sturgeon: “Twelve.”

  • Although, I remember a time (in the 70s) that the tastes of the older generation coincided with the younger generation. This is around the time that my parents and I both enjoyed horror fare such as “The Exorcist” and “Jaws”.

  • Blake Matthews

    “It’s been scientifically proven that pop culture was at its height when you were twelve. Regardless of how old you currently are.”

    Well, “Drunken Master II” and “Fist of Legend” did come out when I was 12, so that must speak for something. :)

  • Sandy Petersen

    The fact that my parents disdained the crap I used to watch doesn’t mean it wasn’t junk. Nor does it mean that the stuff my kids watch isn’t junk.

    I do think that older films have a higher chance of being good than the latest hit simply because of accumulated time. If an “old movie” is anything from 50-15 years ago, that gives me 35 years of potential films to draw from. But last year’s hits is only a single year. I’ve got 35:1 odds on my side.

    Now if you’ll excuse me I have an appointment with Godzilla and the Smog Monster.

  • Flickflack

    That does it… we need to have a Horror License before people are allowed to make, or watch, horror movies.

    And, just to throw out semi-obscure title, the test shall involve Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors.

  • Blake Matthews

    “And, just to throw out semi-obscure title, the test shall involve Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors.”

    That’s actually a very good late night movie. The unresolved ending to the plant story left me kinda creeped out.

  • fish eye no miko

    I think one of the reasons people think “they don’t make them like they used to” is because they forget all the crappy movies (and songs, and tv shows, etc) from when they were young. The good stuff endures, and makes people forget that, yes, they used to make bad films “back in my day”, too.