Before reading the rest of this article, humor me, dear reader. Open up this link in another tab, and mute the video. Focus on the video and don’t click away for the duration. This video will be addressed soon in the article, but keep in mind how it made you feel.
Hollywood,
for quite a while, has been somewhat of a joke in the horror area. A
lot have been sub-par at best, and others have been a joke. I think a
lot might stem from a lack of focus on atmosphere and the lack of
subtlety. There are a lot of potential ways to fix all this, and I
have my own ideas on the ways this could be done.
A big
element in a lot of Hollywood horror focuses on monsters that are
stoppable, that can be beat. They are either humans (Jason, Freddy,
"Scream"), monsters with weaknesses (vampires with holy objects,
werewolves with silver, zombies with anything), or torture porn-type
horror ("Saw" movies). All three have very obvious weaknesses, and I
think they are missing out on a very large portion of horror
possibilities, existential horror.
H.P. Lovecraft was one of
the driving forces in existential horror, and a lot of people still
treat him as the master class of it. Existential horror is about
subverting human achievement. Humans have for the longest time tried
to mark the world and state their existence. Creatures that fall into
existential horror tend to be things far outside human understanding.
Us to these creatures is the same as ants to us.
That was the point of the video linked above, because if you are anything like me that video gives a sense of how small people really are, and how to the majority of reality, we have accomplished nothing of note, which reasonably drives fear into some people, as most people like having a purpose, or claim to fame. I’ve recently examined two pieces of media, both working on Lovecraft style or theme to them.
The first seems to be calling Lovecraft the hardest, as it is a modern retelling of one of his works. "Banshee Chapter," a movie released in 2013, which is a modern adaptation of "From Beyond" (1986), which was based on a short story by Lovecraft. It’s a story that does contain things not of this dimension, which gives it an overall creepy vibe, but it doesn’t exactly go far enough. The monstrosity still seems very concerned with humans, as in destroying or “wearing” them. It’s a step in the right direction, but not as far as I would personally like.
The second is a YouTube series that goes by the name "Marble Hornets." This is a series of found tapes that takes a unique take on Slender Man, a character from the Internet equivalent of campfire stories. In these stories, Slender Man is an otherworldly creature who puppets humans who come to close to him. Said humans can lose time, or their individuality. It’s impossible to get a good understanding of what he is trying to do, but the story drives a lot of curiosity into the reader to understand what's going on
This is but two potential sources of inspiration Hollywood, and I hope it starts to realize how much potential the industry is missing when it focuses on horror in the way it has been.
