The real skill is in what you don’t need to show not what you do. Realistic violence can be brutal enough to properly shock when done well. Those films are much more disturbing than some gruesome shokka.
Realistic violence (done realistically) is rather different for me than ‘gruesome’. I prefer chillers, psychological thrillers, monster mayhem, camp classics and flights of fancy to realistic violence. One viewing of Schindler’s List was enough to put me off ‘realistic violence’ forever. Midsommar was an excellent film, but could have done without the graphic head-traumas (?). The violence in ‘Funny Games’ (Michael Haneke/1997) was IMO perfectly realistic, so much so that I was just left feeling sickened.
Can someone recommend me recent horror movies that deliver the scares in an innovative way?
Depends I suppose what counts as ‘horror/scares’? Supernatural/chills or grisly violence? Psychological terror or ? Eerie science-fiction or monster-mangling? Absurdist psycho-drama?
I enjoyed ‘The Witch’ (Robert Eggers) for it’s trip into a family’s puritanical/superstitious hysteria (or were they?) Genuinely creeping unease (even terror) throughout the film.
Also enjoyed ‘In Fabric’. Not a clue what was happening though 😆. It felt like Dario Argento channelling neo-giallo films while off his ya-yas on some Hammer-Horror-laced LSD
I broadly agree that horror film content has become so predictable. Likewise with predictably formulaic sub-genres
https://popcornhorror.com/genres/
I do enjoy a good horror film, but typically I don't find them that scary.
Games on the other hand.
Memories of the first Silent Hill game on PS1 still strong. Proper scary.
I actually gave up playing Silent Hill, it just freaked me out too much. I just about tolerated the ghostly children, but when I got to the sewers I just gave up. Most of the Resident Evil games had a good sense of creeping dread but I don't think I've ever played anything that had the sustained level of unpleasantness as Silent Hill
Silent Hill (and Silent Hill 2) just managed such an incredible level on intense, creeping dread. I've never experienced anything quite like it.
I still remember the first time it 'changed' in Silent Hill, going through the clock tower in the school and wondering what the flip was going on.
In terms of watching horror on my own - yep, because my regular film watching cohort aren't into horror, and I quite like a good one. Things like The Babadook, Get Out, that kind of thing for me - I'm not a fan of the Saw style of modern horror (but each to their own and all that, I know a lot of folk who hated The Babadook).
The answer has to be Midsommar, hasn’t it?
+1
No spoilers but it's a very original take on the horror genre - I'm not sure "scares" is the right word, but it will stay with you for sure.
I think it might be on Netflix again now, with Halloween approaching.
When i was a kid my parents would go out on a Friday night leaving me to stop up and watch the Hammer films, i remember watching The Haunted House of Horrors i think it was called, scared the bejeebus out of me.
Not fussed at all now though.