096, Alien (1979) grossed $60,150,933. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) took $80,148,261 while the 1974 original only took $30,859,00. Halloween (2007) $58,261,267; Halloween (1978) $47,000,000; Saw (2004) $55,153,403; Saw 4 (2007) $63,270,259. The regurgitation of a film seemingly guarantee’s a financial increase. Consequently, the news filtering through last week of a further bastardisation of a horror classic, A Nightmare on Elm Street, was not particularly shocking news at all. How can they justify yet another film in the franchise? How can they substitute acting for a bunch of scantily clad models screaming? How can they write a script by simply copying and pasting sections from the previous films together? It is Simple; we continue to give them the money to do it.Upon its release, A Nightmare on Elm Street will almost certainly enter the US and UK box office within the top three. It will perhaps shoot straight in at number one. That is the justification they require. In January this year, the Coen brothers released a film that many cineastes thought to be the best American movie in years. No Country for Old Men was beaten to the top of the box office by Alien v Predator: Requiem, a film which left one critic declaring it is “a wrist-slittingly awful addition to the franchises. Surely they can’t fall much farther”. Don’t count against it. For a change to ever occur there needs to be a drastic re-education of the common film goer. Dissenters of such artistically lacklustre movies are currently a minority.
Film is arguably the most accessible, popular, and lucrative art form in the world at present. A medium that is indicative of our time. Yet it is commonly critiqued in a dismissive and snotty manner by those who believe more established art forms such as literature and painting are more worthy of our attention. The merits of each medium are open to debate, yet what is clear, is that this frivolous attitude towards cinema is breeding a generation of cinema goers who are lazy and inept at reading/understanding film. Subsequently, unwarranted and mindless films are becoming ever more frequent. The horror film, a genre with a long history of ideological and critical theory, is the first victim of this endemic. Is there a cure?
Firstly film theorists and film lovers need to stand tall and make sure their voice gets heard. They need to try and infiltrate every blog space, radio show and television programme, talking up our fantastic art form and promoting quality over banality, a duck du jour over a Big Mac. On a similar note, Ronald Bergan recently wrote a piece about French attitude towards film. In agreement with his argument, a more thorough programme of cinema analysis on our television screens is definitely needed in this country, as is a more positive implementation of film studies in our education system. Visual communication is a major factor in today’s society, and will continue to be long into the future. To study such a topic is not the same as studying ‘Mickey Mouse’. If such changes do occur, people may then begin to take a stand against lazy filmmaking, and refuse to part with their money so easily. Subsequently, executives will no longer have the finances to commission the likes of the Nightmare on Elm Street remake.
Perhaps this is just fanciful. But it is hard to seen any other way that the current situation will change. It is only a matter of time before all film falls the way of the horror genre. It is true to suggest that there has always been plenty of poorly made schlock around, that this is nothing particularly new. Yet in the midst of such movies, there was always a steady flow of original and entertaining cream that rose to the top. Such cream seems to have curdled of late.
Hopefully this pessimism is misjudged. After all, how many times have we got to the end of the horror film and thought the monster was dead…
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