The war against corporate horror needs your help.
Horror goes in waves, we are currently in a remake wave and cheap ass wave. This coupled with the fact that Hollywood doesn't seem to understand that IT creates the next generation of stars. In horror, the directors are more visible than many of the actors.
This brings me to my point. Everything we knew has changed! In today's society, we all surf the web, we all watch the popular and funny youtube videos, we all have giant TVs, which we don't watch nearly as much as we did when we had smaller crappier ones. Some people still go to the theaters to watch a film, and many log into their XBOX accounts and kick the shit out of bad guys for hours on end. Just ten years ago this was all different. Go back even further and it was 100% different. This is a great time for creative people to get noticed, but they have to be willing to play the studio game.
In today's world corporatization is the norm, from porn to big movie studios, they are all corporate entities, and that is fine, as long as these giant corporations start paying attention to the indie market. But paying attention is not enough, they need to open their collective wallets and support these forward thinkers as well. Indie films have become accepted, but TV is still run by giant corporations that seem to only want reality shows. We have 3 horror channels, yet none of them produce much (if any) original content. While indie filmmakers are running around trying to get their movies greenlit, any one of these channels could put themselves on the map by producing a stand out hit.
In the feature world, Twisted Pictures was born because of the Saw franchise. This franchise alone has changed the horror industry of late. We have all suffered through a crapload of torture porn films, some good, some bad, and we have a whole bunch more coming. But Twisted took this indie film that was made for a couple million bucks and turned it into a cash cow that hasn't stopped producing green milkAKA money! They seem to get it! Dimension Extreme has taken risks with the edgy films they have released. Getting behind foreign horror films because, at the moment, that is where the original stuff is coming from.
We are in an age where we are still looking for what the next best thing is, but anyone who follows the genre knows what is going to happen in any given movie, as soon as you see the logline. With very few exceptions, the horror genre is this get a bunch of super hot young adults, get them naked briefly, then one by one kill them off one by one until only one or two are left alive. The final showdown happens, and the killer/monster/slasher is offed, but not entirely because they have to keep it open for a sequel. This is not the formula for all the great horror films, it is just a tried and true formula, but it leaves us audience members and fans talking about the "cool kills" and not the great characters. Almost every horror fan lists The Exorcist as one of the top ten greatest horror flicks created. Yet The Exorcist doesn't play by these rules at all.
So what is the solution?
Create a new marketplace for horror, and doing so by ignoring the typical and predictable trends of the last few decades. I challenge the Horror (and non-horror) TV stations to embrace to indie filmmakers. Buy their movies, take some chances, and produce short form original content. I have often said that I don't watch the news because it's mainly negative and pop trash. The latest shenanigans of Britney or a dancing star does not interest me in the slightest. I do however frequent Digg, and of course all the various horror websites, because they are giving information that matters.
It's not a small battle; it's a WAR to regain our attention. The way to win this war is by working with the big studios, and embracing the changing technologies, and the new ways it can be delivered, reported, and marketed. By creating something original and thought provoking, we can see the next wave of horror take over the mainstream, Smart Horror!
By SpookyDan
I will be speaking at The On Hollywood Digital Conference on Wednesday the 11th in Beverly Hills, and I encourage any attendees to chat with me about how to help accomplish this. Lets start this needed change, and this article only scratches the surface!
Horror goes in waves, we are currently in a remake wave and cheap ass wave. This coupled with the fact that Hollywood doesn't seem to understand that IT creates the next generation of stars. In horror, the directors are more visible than many of the actors.
This brings me to my point. Everything we knew has changed! In today's society, we all surf the web, we all watch the popular and funny youtube videos, we all have giant TVs, which we don't watch nearly as much as we did when we had smaller crappier ones. Some people still go to the theaters to watch a film, and many log into their XBOX accounts and kick the shit out of bad guys for hours on end. Just ten years ago this was all different. Go back even further and it was 100% different. This is a great time for creative people to get noticed, but they have to be willing to play the studio game.
In today's world corporatization is the norm, from porn to big movie studios, they are all corporate entities, and that is fine, as long as these giant corporations start paying attention to the indie market. But paying attention is not enough, they need to open their collective wallets and support these forward thinkers as well. Indie films have become accepted, but TV is still run by giant corporations that seem to only want reality shows. We have 3 horror channels, yet none of them produce much (if any) original content. While indie filmmakers are running around trying to get their movies greenlit, any one of these channels could put themselves on the map by producing a stand out hit.
In the feature world, Twisted Pictures was born because of the Saw franchise. This franchise alone has changed the horror industry of late. We have all suffered through a crapload of torture porn films, some good, some bad, and we have a whole bunch more coming. But Twisted took this indie film that was made for a couple million bucks and turned it into a cash cow that hasn't stopped producing green milkAKA money! They seem to get it! Dimension Extreme has taken risks with the edgy films they have released. Getting behind foreign horror films because, at the moment, that is where the original stuff is coming from.
We are in an age where we are still looking for what the next best thing is, but anyone who follows the genre knows what is going to happen in any given movie, as soon as you see the logline. With very few exceptions, the horror genre is this get a bunch of super hot young adults, get them naked briefly, then one by one kill them off one by one until only one or two are left alive. The final showdown happens, and the killer/monster/slasher is offed, but not entirely because they have to keep it open for a sequel. This is not the formula for all the great horror films, it is just a tried and true formula, but it leaves us audience members and fans talking about the "cool kills" and not the great characters. Almost every horror fan lists The Exorcist as one of the top ten greatest horror flicks created. Yet The Exorcist doesn't play by these rules at all.
So what is the solution?
Create a new marketplace for horror, and doing so by ignoring the typical and predictable trends of the last few decades. I challenge the Horror (and non-horror) TV stations to embrace to indie filmmakers. Buy their movies, take some chances, and produce short form original content. I have often said that I don't watch the news because it's mainly negative and pop trash. The latest shenanigans of Britney or a dancing star does not interest me in the slightest. I do however frequent Digg, and of course all the various horror websites, because they are giving information that matters.
It's not a small battle; it's a WAR to regain our attention. The way to win this war is by working with the big studios, and embracing the changing technologies, and the new ways it can be delivered, reported, and marketed. By creating something original and thought provoking, we can see the next wave of horror take over the mainstream, Smart Horror!
By SpookyDan
I will be speaking at The On Hollywood Digital Conference on Wednesday the 11th in Beverly Hills, and I encourage any attendees to chat with me about how to help accomplish this. Lets start this needed change, and this article only scratches the surface!