Gore and More discussion

This thread is designed for all members to discuss their thoughts about the horror genre, be it good, bad, or indifferent.

Personally, I think the horror genre peaked in the late 70's, early 80's. With monster hits like Halloween, Dawn Of The Dead, Friday The 13TH, The Shining....the great horror classics just kept coming and coming.

Modern horror is not as good as retro horror. The odd films like Insidious, Paranormal Activity, Orphan and a few others are frightening, but for the most part I've become desenitized to horror.

These bloody awful remakes and sequels...stop already! Give us something original and actually scary!

The books are faring better than the films for sure. I still prefer horror books from the 80's.

Being a child of the 80's, I guess it's part nostalgia with me. I like the horror of that era.

Stoker is the KING of the vampire story. Anne Rice's Lestat is excellent, too.

Agreed. The original Dracula is the best by far.

For Horror movies, I tend to enjoy 50's thru 80's era. I think they knew better how to scare people with a well written story and creative use of sound effects.
To me, most modern movies rely to heavily on being in your face with blood and guts. It gets to a point with me when that becomes just gross and repetitive.

Too true, Jennifer. I like horror movies where I don't always see what's happening. It has that scary 'where are they? What's going to happen next?" appeal.

I was a gorehound in my teens. Now I believe less gore is more.

Well, the slasher films from the 80’s weren’t written well at all, it was all about the shower scenes and boob count and some loony hunting down the naked college coeds.

IMO, one of the best horror movie ever made was ALIEN, I know it is a sci-fi movie, but it is also a great horror movie. I also like JAWS quite a bit, not seeing the shark until the end really created tension.

Too much gore in movies turns me off, the wife and I couldn’t sit through SAW or HOSTEL.

Alien, Halloween, The Other....My favorites.

LOVED Alien and Aliens.

Kevin wrote: "Well, the slasher films from the 80’s weren’t written well at all, it was all about the shower scenes and boob count and some loony hunting down the naked college coeds.

IMO, one of the best horro..."

Those slasher films were aimed at teenage adolescent boys. I enjoyed them when I was young. Nothing wrong with a high boob count. ;-)

Even bad horror movies were better in the '70s and '80s.

Ever since Scream, bad horror movies have been too self-aware, and all of them try to be parodies and suck at it.
When you try to make a movie so bad it's good, you usually fail.

What made the old dumb flicks great was that they weren't afraid to be insane.
Think of Lifeforce. Yes, it was full of gratuitous nudity and has a blood shower... but it is great because it's crazy. And a lot of that craziness was stuff you just can't plan (not enough money to make the whole movie).

And, yes, for the bad movie subtype, the days of creative special effects were a major boon. The cheap CGI of today ruins a lot of that.

I find horror fiction to be a more well rounded genre now than it was in the past. There are more authors, and these authors seem to aware of the sub-genres and write for their audiences. Writers such as Ketchum and Laymon have devoted followings. So do writers like Susan Hill and Phil Rickman. Very contrasting types of horror, making it easier for the readers to choose the type they prefer.

I have found that as I get older I watch less and less horror films. They just don't have the power to scare me anymore so they are kind of pointless now. The Conjuring is a good example.........most people loved this movie. I thought that the first hour was good, but a fun haunted house movie instantly turned into a steaming pile with the arrival of the Warrens. Horror films lose their power when the watchers start giggling.

In light of the recent American Horror Story season let me tell you first off what horror isn't...100% Gore. It's not all about Gore and I'm sure this group being called Gore & More can clearly state that More means everything else horror. The reason I bring AHS up is because it's one of the best horror shows but they dropped the ball this year when it comes to horror. Horror is a genre that is based off several different types of elements including suspense, creepiness, eerie, bizarre, mystery, sinister, death, darkness, etc. Horror is in a way a device made up of a ton of different themes each delivering their own type of dramatics and scare. Horror solely based off one of these things especially Gore doesn't always make it horror but makes it undefined mess in an unorthodox direction.

Gore is like any other type of horror, it's a theme. You coat a little bit of it here and there along with the rest of your horror devices and you have a solid horror story or movie. You simply use gore and you may lose people, gross them out or just turn them off and not want to continue with such a product. Build up is also essential to the presence of horror, there's needs to be a build-up in order for the horror to resonate. I believe horror has definitely defined itself over the years and today it's one of the most popular genres because people find themselves not being able to get enough of it.

I'm not a big fan of gore and for that reason, I was hesitant to join this group. Ken assured me about the "And More" portion and I caved. I'm glad I did.

I think there is a place for gore in the horror genre, but it's not my favorite spot. My love of horror mostly lies in the atmospheric. I have noticed since the 80's that the popularity of horror waxes and wanes, but not as predictably as the moon does.

Brian Keene recently made a post to horror writers to cheer up! He states that horror always does well under Republican administrations and I've been thinking about whether or not it is true. I think it is.

Char wrote: "I'm not a big fan of gore and for that reason, I was hesitant to join this group. Ken assured me about the "And More" portion and I caved. I'm glad I did.

I think there is a place for gore in the..."

Exactly. Your like me, you like something to go with the gore. Just slapping it everywhere and only using it as the sole theme creates messiness. It's good if there's a balance and also like you said this group delivers on that balance.

Well, to be fair the Splatterpunk movement slapped that gore all over the place and I have to admit that it was fun!

Barker, Skipp and Spector, all those guys rose up during that time. But I suspect it flamed out early because gore can only take you so far. There needs to be a substantial framework around it. Some of the authors of that time, like Barker, had the chops to write whatever he wanted and still be successful. For some of the other authors of that time, not so much.

And maybe Splatterpunk hasn't flamed out so much as...changed. Now we have authors like Wrath James White, Carlton Mellick and Edward Lee writing bizarro and extremely graphic horror that seems to have built up a solid fan base.

I guess I'm arguing that gore for gore's sake does seem to have a place in both books and film. Maybe it's not our place, but it's a place and it looks like it's here to stay.

Its all about the story and characters. You can put lipstick on a pig, but its still a pig. The same is true for horror. Gore can compliment a good story and be used for emphasis to drive that point home. But, if you don't have substance there, it's just lipstick on that pig. Now, I know many love buckets and buckets of gore in their stories (and movies), but I've read stories where it was page after page of one long scene of killing after killing, the next one more graphic than the next, and it simply numbs me. The shock and horror go away. I've seen too much. For me, a few well placed horrific moments with gore, and the rest is a well-crafted story, has a much greater impact on me.

I agree with the three of you (Justin, Charlene, Ken) that (at least for me) horror needs to be about more than just the gore. This being said, I too have read stories which basically consisted of page after page of violence and abuse, with a seemingly endless need to keep upping the ante.
It may not be my thing, but there is definitely still a market for splatter and torture porn. It sells!

I'm actually not a gore fan either. I have a strong stomach but it just does nothing for me, especially in film. I'm not a b splatter fan. I like the creepy, paranormal, psychological, and intelligent stuff more.

Gore placed appropriately during a monster killing or something works, but gore for the sake of it is boring. Hack 'em and stack 'em leaves me checking my watch.

I don't mind gore as long as the author evens it out in the story. I don't like every other sentence to be bloody gore, but if it is here and there it doesn't bother me. Some authors just keep dishing it out sentence after sentence and there is no plot to the story, but some authors know how to space it out where it is not so bad to read.

In most of the horror books I read, I lean more toward the atmosphere and spine chilling stories that wrap themselves around your soul and doesn't let you go. As far as I am concerned, give me a ghost story any day.

I agree with Marie , gore is ok here and there but a well -written ghost book that leaves you on the edge of your seat beats gore any time

Brad wrote: "Hey! My first book is full of gore! Ouch! You do have a point though. But there's more than one way to tell an entertaining story. Depends on what blows your hair back."

Brad, I am sure there are many ways. Depends on the author. I am sure I have read many gory tales in my youth (just cannot remember them all)

I have actually removed the horror category from my favorites for recommendations and switched it to paranormal instead. This eliminates a lot of books I won't want to read, specifically the subgenres of survival horror, slasher horror, zombies, etc. I still love horror, but my tastes for it are quite limited.

I tend to like all horror as long as there is a balance and there's structure just like with any genre or story. I feel lately I've been looking into more ghosts, classic horror and macabre which isn't to say I like any other type of horror less but just that my focus on horror right now is those three specific. I'm trying to build my horror presence on Pinterest and my e-mail list so one way I've done that is by sticking to certain elements and genres of horror to show that not only do I enjoy them but I know a thing ro two about them as well.

Somewhat off topic but kind of on topic. I'm on a hunt for THE goriest most sick and twisted horror movie of all. A friend and I watched I Spit On Your Grave and found it to be amazingly gory and twisted. Ive watched Hostel (not gory enough) and alot of the 8 Films To Die For, but I'm looking for the sickest shit out there. Reccomendations would be fantastic