Eugene A. Clark in GEORGE A. ROMERO'S LAND OF THE DEAD (2005).
© Universal Pictures

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A Golden Age of Horror?

Let's play a little Password shall we?

Clues: Blech. Ugh. Egads. Oh No. Don't do it.

The correct answer is: Things you say when watching a horror film.

The problem is you often find yourself saying them for all the wrong reasons.

Here are some "not so good to bad" horror films I've seen recently (in no particular order):

The Cave (a mildly diversionary way to pass a couple of hours),
The Fog (Fog you! A total disaster and a waste of a great opportunity),
Boogeyman (An hour and a half of my life I'll never get back. Shame on you Sam Raimi),
Exorcist The Beginning (would have been kind of interesting if it didn't have the word Exorcist in the title)
Resident Evil II (Quite possibly the worst of the bunch. I can't believe I didn't walk out.)

Oh. The Horror.
BUT..
...things aren't as bad as they seem.

I'm always hearing horror fans talk about how many bad horror films there are.

I too find myself shaking my head in disbelief when I'm walking out of a movie like The Fog or Boogeyman thinking "Drats! Another terrible horror flick".

Let us horror fans try put this whole mishigas into perspective. Let me pose a question to you:

How many musicals and westerns have been made in the last ten years? Let's try and count 'em shall we? There's Chicago. Moulin Rouge. Phantom of the Opera and Open Range (forgive me if I missed one). Ok, so let's say we have four. Now granted, good things could maybe be said for all of them. Let's say musicals and westerns are batting a thousand in the quality department.

Let's also remember that the musical and the western were genres that not only defined American cinema in their day but have influenced filmmakers all over the world. TRIVIA: There were over TEN THOUSAND westerns made BEFORE the advent of sound. Realistically though both genres, for all intents and purposes, are extinct.

Horror survives everything. Sure we get Ghost Ship, the House On Haunted Hill remake, the 13 Ghosts Remake, The Fog remake, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (you made a damn remake!), Boogeyman (should have been a no-make) but we are also blessed with some fantastic offerings.

Here's a list of what I feel are decent to excellent horror films of the last ten years (remember only four westerns and musicals in the same amount of time.):

Seven 1995*
Scream 1996*
Devil's Advocate 1997*
The Faculty 1998
Halloween H20 1998 (The best one since the original imho)
Ravenous (1999)*
Final Destination 2000 (The horror version of the classic Rube
Goldberg-esque board game Mouse Trap)
The Others 2001*
Jeepers Creepers (2001) (a respectable b-movie offering)
Dog Soldiers 2002
28 Days Later* 2002 (not a huge favorite of mine. I'm a fan of the first half of it but it re-invigorated and re-defined the zombie genre)
Cabin Fever* 2002
Ju-on* 2003
Ringu* 1998 the ring* 2003
Dawn of the Dead* 2004
Saw* 2005
Saw II* 2005 (get this. A sequel released in the same year as the original AND it's better! One for the history books my friends)
Shaun of the Dead* 2005
Land of the Dead* 2005 (What a ray of light it was to get a worthy successor to Dawn of the Dead after the sadly disappointing Day of the Dead. Some things are worth waiting for. Thanks George!)
Haut Tension* 2005
Constantine 2005 (a respectable b-movie offering dressed up like an A movie)
(* movies that, in my opinion, are particularly noteworthy)

That's twenty movies! Five times as many musicals and westerns combined!

The horror genre is notorious for producing bad movies and I find myself talking with friends lamenting how bad horror can be BUT we've gotten some gems and dare I say classics(?) among the stinkers. I dare, I dare.

The problem for us horror fans is that we go to see all of these cruddy pictures. Each time hoping beyond hope they'll be good.

The plain fact of the matter is that there isn't enough good horror to sate our ravenous desires but we should be grateful that horror is still alive and kicking and that we appear to be in a sort of "golden age" period with an unusually large amount of good horror coming our way. Just something to think about this the next time you think "Egads, another bad horror film".