So yesterday I went to see Hostel, directed by Eli (Cabin Fever) Roth with Quentin Tarantino in the Producer’s seat.
Now I have to say at this point that I love the idea of Horror Movies more than what often is the end result. In general though, these are encouraging times for the genre. I loved Ring (the original Japanese one), and thought that the 2004 Dawn of the Dead was pretty respectable too. In fact, I enjoyed it more than the original, as I did with the 2003 revisiting of Texas Chainsaw Massacre (sacriledge to some I know, but there you have it). I thought Wrong Turn was a great romp through Deliverance territory.
I’m optimistic about the current release of The Hills Have Eyes as you might imagine, (the original looks like a bad, low-budget pantomime to me) though I’ve not seen it yet.
Thumb’s up also up to The Descent and Creep; Two quality Brit horror-flicks.

My problem with Horror in general though, is that when it comes to ‘Scary’ movies, I’d rather be frightened than repulsed. Hence, Gore per se, doesn’t really do it for me. I mean, it’s really not that hard to turn an audience’s stomach, we know this.
Hitchcock’s Psycho however, Polanski’s The Tenant, and Roeg’s Don’t Look Now do it for me every time. These are movies I never tire of watching. So I guess this places my tastes firmly in the Psychological Horror category, as opposed to the more violent, slasher-variety.
Which brings me to Hostel. I don’t want to go into a review of the film, (you can find plenty of those on the WWW) but the first half is a cross between crap soft-porn and one of those Carling Black Label (for non-UK readers: a standard-issue lager-for-the-masses) ads on TV.

You know 'em, the ones where all the gals love to cook for you, serve up pints on a silver platter, then wash the dishes while you watch football on the telly with your mates. Plus, they find you irresistible no matter how pig-ugly or stupid you are. But hey, this is the world of advertising.
This is the central premise of Hostel -- aimed squarely at frat-boys. That said, so are most horror flicks.
Add to this some common directorial shortcomings, like too much music throughout, and really bad, cheesey club-scenes. I always find the latter particularly annoying. It’s as if the director yells ‘Action’ and everyone starts slowly gyrating, all sexy like, with their hands above their heads.
Not forgetting a pitiful script; If you omit the words ‘Dude’ and ‘F*ck’, there’s really very little left for much of the movie.
The audience is never made to care about the central characters either. In fact, they become so annoying that it’s kind of relief to see ‘em being eliminated.
The way in which female nudity is used is straight from the early ‘70’s. Back then it was a really big deal to see T&A onscreen, and even the most respected directors would find some slim reason to feature one or both. This tendency looks pretty sad in 2006.
One thing’s for sure: Tarantino had better put his name to something with real quality, real soon. For me, he went sharply downhill after Jackie Brown, which I loved. (And yes, that does mean I think Kill Bill was/is piss-poor).
For what it’s worth dear reader, here are my all-time favourite Scary Movies, in no particular order:
1. The Wicker Man (1973)
2. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
3. The Haunting (1963)
4. The Omen (1976)
5. The Wolf Man (1941)
6. Onibaba (1964)
7. The Thing (1982)
8. Don’t Look Now (1973)
9. The Devils (1971)
10. The Descent (2005)
11. The Others (2001)
12. Peeping Tom (1960)
13. The Innocents (1961)
14. Eraserhead (1976)
15. The Exorcist (1973)
16. Psycho (1960)
17. The Tenant (1976)
18. Martin (1978)
19. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
20. The Shining (1979)