The Scary Truth About Horror Movies

          Several years ago had you asked me what movie genre is my favorite I would have assuredly answered Science Fiction without pausing to think about it. I mean my favorite all time movies include ALL (and I do mean ALL) the Star Wars and Planet of the Apes movies, so how could it not be? Then I cataloged my movie collection and to my horror I found another genre dominated my collection... horror!

Horror history

          Now, after hours of personal reflection, I have come to embrace it. I am a horror fan. That being said, I am not a fan of the modern day slasher film. Sure Leatherface, Freddy, and Jason had decent original movies (well, technically Jason didn't truly arrive in the Friday the 13th series until the sequels, but that's neither here nor there), but as the sequels went on they got worse and worse. The Halloween films were good for the first 2, and after that I never really kept up with them. What stands apart for Halloween, is out of all the slasher movies I've mentioned so far, those were the only remakes that are worth watching (thank you Rob Zombie, the modern day master of the horror genre in my humble opinion). Chucky was never good, but not really unwatchable until he moved into horror-comedy after the initial trilogy. Surprisingly, Freddy vs Jason was very well done and I actually enjoyed it.

Truly scary

          B-movie horror, especially the "so bad it's good" type movie, is much more my speed. Both The Evil Dead and Return of the Living Dead series, are much more what I'm looking for. But of course I have to pay homage to truly scary movies. Classics like the Universal Monster movies starring Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, and Lon Chaney Jr. The Exorcist, which is my pick for the scariest movie of all time, and of course, especially since I'm from Pittsburgh, George Romero's Living Dead series. These are the movies that keep you up at night, and make you think twice before checking out the strange noise, or entering a darkened room.

Big or small

          Now I see they are transitioning Jason Voorhees into a weekly television series. That's right, Friday the 13th, the series is coming to your living room. I'm not sure what to think at this point, but my initial feeling is one of dread. They're taking a gimmick that is best given in small doses, and only once or twice at most, and stretching it out over weeks, months, and possibly years. I'm just not sure if it can be done effectively, unless it becomes more a drama exploring Jason's supernatural origins. I'm also hoping for cameos, name drops, or other easter eggs mentioning other movie monsters. Of course there is always the chance this gives us a version of Freddy vs Jason vs Ash that has thus far only existed in the comics. One can only hope...