Horror Movies That Are So Bad, They’re Good
Adrian Halen 07/19/2021 Articles special, Exclusive Articles
The horror genre seems to have far more than its fair share of bad movies. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why this is, but common suggestions include the fact that writers often fail to create characters that are likeable and relatable, that directors rely too heavily on gore, and that it’s difficult to keep the tension needed to be scary since many older movies have already used many storytelling devices and techniques.
There are, of course, many great horror films including The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and The Thing (1982), but they are in the minority.
The reliance on gore is often due to laziness, but while gore can be “disturbing”, that isn’t the same as “scary”. Additionally, it becomes incredibly obvious that a character is about to be killed off when they wander down a dark alley or get separated from the group, audiences have seen this a million times, and can see what’s coming a mile off.
Some people blame bad horror movies on small budgets, but Paranormal Activity (2007) had a production budget of just $15,000 and has become one of the best films ever made in the genre.
nstead, it’s likely a combination of all of the above, and many other factors.
However, sometimes, horror movies are so bad they become good. Their cheese amuses us even more than it makes us cringe, their predictability becomes a game, and their bad acting becomes a source of delight.
Of all the bad horror movies ever made, these are some of the best.:
The Haunted Casino / Dead Man’s Hand (2007)
Leprechaun 3 (1995)
The Open House (2018)
Read the details about the movies above HERE
A Charming Apocalyptic Misfire: The Curious Case of Clive Barker’s ‘The Plague’
By Luiz H. C.
Clive Barker has always made it clear how grateful he is for Stephen King’s quote about him being “the future of horror”, an unexpected compliment that launched a legendary career. Over the years, the author has repaid that kindness by attempting to do the same for other horror artists, going so far as to start his own independent production company in order to help propagate the work of up-and-coming filmmakers. Back in 2006, this led Barker and Seraphim Pictures to proudly produce Hal Masonberg‘s The Plague, a unique apocalyptic thriller that was ultimately sabotaged by behind-the-scenes drama and meddling distributors.
Taking a cue from films like Village of the Damned and Invasion of the Body-Snatchers, The Plague follows the aftermath of an unexplainable illness that causes every child on earth to fall into an irreversible coma. A decade later, we accompany Tom Russell (James Van Der Beek) as he’s released from prison and returns to his quiet hometown in search of peace. Unfortunately, the infected children begin to wake up with homicidal intentions, compelling Tom and a small group of survivors to attempt to escape town during what appears to be a bizarre version of the biblical end times.
Part zombie movie, part supernatural thriller and part philosophical parable, it’s no surprise that The Plague‘s peculiar setup convinced Barker to add his name to the project. The idea of an entire generation turning against their predecessors makes this a uniquely tragic apocalypse, with parents being forced to confront their own offspring in order to survive. Having the comatose children share a collective hive-mind also ramps up the stakes significantly, with the infected slowly learning how to systematically eliminate all surviving adults with evolving strategies and weapons. This nightmarish scenario leads to a series of gruesome deaths that wouldn’t feel out of place in the Books of Blood collections.
While I have fond memories of watching The Plague on late-night television years ago and having fun with its unorthodox approach to what could have been just another George Romero knockoff, there’s no denying that the film is an absolute mess. Despite a genuinely interesting premise and likable characters, the storytelling here is downright sloppy, with wonky pacing, bad editing and the baffling absence of a proper final act. The movie simply “stops” instead of actually “ending”, leaving viewers with a vague collection of loose ends and never really bothering to explain its central mysteries.
Luckily, despite studio-mandated edits and a shoestring budget, The Plague still retains a mysterious Twilight-Zone-like atmosphere that helps to keep things interesting. The small-town setting helps with the eerie mood, and the vague nature of this apocalypse keeps audiences in the dark alongside our confused protagonists. These characters are also generally likable, though Van Der Beek really steals the show as an ex-con trying to make up for past mistakes. Ivana Milicevic is also great as Tom’s reluctant ex-lover Jean Raynor, and the movie even benefits from the always-charming Dee Wallace in a small but memorable appearance.
There is more to this article. See the entire article HERE
How Do You Make Movies in a Pandemic? Ask Horror Directors
With Hollywood productions largely shut down, more filmmakers are using computer screens—something genre films have been doing for years.
IN 2018, ANEESH Chaganty released a little thriller called Searching. It was the writer-director’s debut feature, and it garnered him a bit of attention (and eventually $75 million at the box office). Centered on a young father trying to find his missing daughter by scouring social media, the movie relied on a novel narrative tool: The entire thing was set on computer screens. At the time, it was seen as a smart gimmick. Little did Chaganty know that his filmmaking strategy would be an invaluable model for making movies in the middle of a global pandemic.
Back in March, Hollywood effectively shut down. As fears over the new coronavirus spread, social-distancing necessities rendered work on TV and film sets nearly impossible. As a result, studios and filmmakers began looking for a way to keep working from home. That’s when Chaganty’s inbox started getting bombarded. Originally, the inquiries “felt very smart,” Chaganty says. Friends in the business would write saying they’d just ended a meeting where Searching had come up, and everyone was wondering if the team behind it had any similar tricks up their sleeves. Then it happened again. And again.
“It just felt like nobody was realizing that everybody was having this same realization, that you can make something on a computer screen, or at least make projects on it a little faster during this time,” he says. “It was a little funny and disarming. In March and April, we were just getting like, ‘Hey man, we just ended up thinking about Searching!’ and it was like, ‘OK cool, so is everybody.’”
For the record, Chaganty does have a couple projects in the works. He has a movie called Run that got pulled from the release calendar when movie theaters closed due to Covid-19, and he’s working on a Searching sequel. Also, Searching wasn’t exactly made by recording Zoom calls; he filmed the actors in person and added the screen effects in postproduction. He’s not really trying to be the movies-on-computer-screens director, but he does see the kind of films he makes—mysteries, thrillers—as uniquely suited to these times. When all creative endeavors have to be accomplished remotely, over videoconference and email and Slack, you might as well turn the bug into a feature. “Ultimately, what computers are is information.” Chaganty says. “It’s just words; it’s information being conveyed to you and information you can send. No genre in the world has more reason for information than a mystery.”
The same is true for horror. In many ways, the genre is proving prescient when it comes to the limited kinds of movies filmmakers can attempt during lockdown. Way back in 2014, director Levan Gabriadze set his entire film Unfriended in a Skype call between a handful of friends. Its sequel, Unfriended: Dark Web, did the same. 2014’s The Den also leaned heavily on video chat. It’s no wonder, then, that one of the first features made during the Covid-19 pandemic—Host, which hits the streaming service Shudder on Thursday—is set in Zoom. Shot entirely by the film’s cast in their own homes, director Rob Savage’s movie—inspired by a prank he pulled on his friends—was made in less than three months. It centers on a group of six friends who perform a séance on a videoconference; naturally, things go wrong. (Fun fact: Savage organized a Zoom séance with his cast and an actual medium as preparation. A book flew off the shelf of lead actor Jemma Moore’s house.)
“We saw a short horror film Rob shot during quarantine that went viral, and we immediately asked if he had an idea for a full-length feature,” Craig Engler, Shudder’s general manager said in a statement. “What he and his team created in Host surpassed all our expectations.”
Host is a prime example of necessity being the mother of invention. Savage had only so many tools at his disposal—basically his crew, their laptops, and what they had handy while quarantined—but he says he was also to get help from a lot of people because everyone was clamoring for a creative pursuit. The result is a movie that feels like a product of quarantine (because Zoom calls are now inextricably linked to the pandemic) but also something separate from it: a classic haunting flick full of jump-scares. “As a horror filmmaker, one of the things you’re always looking for is an idea the audience will take home with them,” Savage says. “You’re always looking for a way to ground it in day-to-day reality. We were just lucky that everyone is stuck at home, and everyone has this shared reality at the moment where 99 percent of us Zoom in how we communicate, how we see people.”
That said, no one—Savage included—wants to make a movie that feels like a gimmick, like they made it just to see if they could. Genre movies, and those who make them, are uniquely equipped for using computer screens as this stage, but that doesn’t mean making a movie that looks like it was made during a pandemic is wise. Nick Simon recently completed filming his latest feature by directing his cast over videoconference and having them film themselves. (They even did their own hair and makeup.) The currently untitled movie also features a group of friends who summon a spirit, but Simon’s film is decidedly a horror-comedy, something meant to lighten the mood during dark times. For that reason, Simon was pretty adamant that the movie not take place during the coronavirus lockdowns. Pandemic horror is pretty easy to do, but kinda gauche during a public health crisis.
“We wanted to come up with a story without ever mentioning that stuff,” Simon says. “This is just a story told with the restrictions we had. How do we write something, or tell a story, when we know we can’t leave our house? We know that we can’t have our actors together. Can we come up with a story that’s not about the situation we’re in?”
“We saw a short horror film Rob shot during quarantine that went viral, and we immediately asked if he had an idea for a full-length feature,” Craig Engler, Shudder’s general manager said in a statement. “What he and his team created in Host surpassed all our expectations.”
Host is a prime example of necessity being the mother of invention. Savage had only so many tools at his disposal—basically his crew, their laptops, and what they had handy while quarantined—but he says he was also to get help from a lot of people because everyone was clamoring for a creative pursuit. The result is a movie that feels like a product of quarantine (because Zoom calls are now inextricably linked to the pandemic) but also something separate from it: a classic haunting flick full of jump-scares. “As a horror filmmaker, one of the things you’re always looking for is an idea the audience will take home with them,” Savage says. “You’re always looking for a way to ground it in day-to-day reality. We were just lucky that everyone is stuck at home, and everyone has this shared reality at the moment where 99 percent of us Zoom in how we communicate, how we see people.”
That said, no one—Savage included—wants to make a movie that feels like a gimmick, like they made it just to see if they could. Genre movies, and those who make them, are uniquely equipped for using computer screens as this stage, but that doesn’t mean making a movie that looks like it was made during a pandemic is wise. Nick Simon recently completed filming his latest feature by directing his cast over videoconference and having them film themselves. (They even did their own hair and makeup.) The currently untitled movie also features a group of friends who summon a spirit, but Simon’s film is decidedly a horror-comedy, something meant to lighten the mood during dark times. For that reason, Simon was pretty adamant that the movie not take place during the coronavirus lockdowns. Pandemic horror is pretty easy to do, but kinda gauche during a public health crisis.
“We wanted to come up with a story without ever mentioning that stuff,” Simon says. “This is just a story told with the restrictions we had. How do we write something, or tell a story, when we know we can’t leave our house? We know that we can’t have our actors together. Can we come up with a story that’s not about the situation we’re in?”
Everyone will find out when Simon is finished with his film, but the signs point to yes.
See the entire article HERE
The internet’s scariest alternate reality game: The devil in New Jersey
by Susan Leighton
The devil is in New Jersey or at least that is what a scary new internet alternate reality game wants you to believe.
The devil has a residence and apparently, it’s in New Jersey. This past weekend, social media has been hooked on a scary new alternate reality game. We even tried it.
A mysterious post featuring a 908-area code telephone number has been making the rounds on Facebook. Random scraps of paper have been left all over various parts of the Garden State encouraging people to call it.
Most of the responses have ranged from people thinking that if you dial the digits you will get a call like in The Ring saying you have seven days to live to others cracking jokes about what could possibly happen. However, in reality, it is the beginning of a scavenger hunt of sorts.
After you call the number, you will hear a busy signal. That fades and then the next thing that happens is a man (who sounds an awful lot like Jeffrey Combs) comes on the line and asks the following eerie question, “Who is the grey man hungry for human flesh?”
This query references the notorious serial killer, Albert Fish a.k.a. “The Brooklyn Vampire.” If you aren’t familiar with his tale, it is a chilling and gruesome one. Fish, who was also known as “The Gray Man,” was a psychopath who lured unsuspecting children to their deaths and then cannibalized them. His life was made into a movie in 2007 starring Patrick Bauchau as the sadomasochistic murderer.
Once you answer correctly via text message, you will be prompted with a video link which takes you here. The film that plays is filled with ancient cartoons and footage of Valentine’s Day cards. Pay close attention to the end of the dialogue because listeners will be asked another question.
Okay, this one is tricky and took some research. It involves a man named Toby Rasputin who is a patient at the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital. He escapes the facility and then hotwires an old pick-up truck. Heading out to County Route 579, the voice asks what is the speed limit so that the fugitive can elude capture and make it to his destination undetected. 65 m.p.h. would be the answer.
Some astute players noticed that in a particular social media post, which can be found at this link, the person behind it is employed at The Basement Escape Room. Which has everyone wondering if this is an inventive advertising campaign for an upcoming virtual event?
If it is, then hats off to the marketing department at The Basement because this is inspired. Check out the following video which is a nice introduction to this haunting ARG.
Did you know that BloodyDisgusting has a horror forum? Post your thoughts about horror HERE
Take the Plague Quiz HERE
Would you survive the bubonic plague? Find out HERE
PESTILENCE: A MEDIEVAL TALE OF PLAGUE HERE
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