The Classic Monsters .....
These types of films had and continue to have an audience because they for their time were fresh and new and now in 2016 have become something of a forgotten art form.
Frankenstein is an incredible story, well written and what fans should enjoy about a scary monster movie besides a scary monster of course, what's a monster movie without an ICONIC monster, right ?
This was an interesting movie for me to see Karloff having played Frankenstein and now taking on the role of the Mummy. Universal started cranking out the monster movies and these films are successful even today you always see kids dressed up as the Universal monsters on Halloween .
This movie is interesting because it's NOT a typical monster movie and showed a change in the way we see a "monster" on screen .
This is a movie I would have aspiring writers / directors watch if you want to get a different look at the monster movie genre before you start writing anything .
This is one of my personal favorites of the Universal Monsters because for the first time it was unclear where the monster came from, was it an alien, a prehistoric creature etc, I men they tell you when you watch the movie but it wasn't a man made monster like Frankenstein's Monster . something to keep in mind for writers when you're thinking of a backstory for your monster .
The Modern Slashers ......
I think in the 70's 80's and 90's they successfully mixed the monster genre with the budding Slasher genre perfectly cheating these now ICONIC slasher franchises in the process .
This movie delivers on so many levels and while I don't like it all together there are many things I do like about it, the sequels were not as good as they could've been to be honest and I have enjoyed the remakes and retelling more then the sequels to the original film. Leatherface was brought to life by the late Gunnar Hansen who will forever be known for this ICONIC role. Leatherface is the grandfather of the modern monster films I believe because he was the first one to hit the big screen.
Their monster was Michael Myers who was a flesh and blood human being which like Leatherface was a new way to go with a "monster" . This film changed my life and made me a horror fan for life .
Which thankfully they did because Friday The 13th is a great movie and Betsy Palmer was a fantastic serial killer as Mrs. Voorhees. then in 1981 we saw the arrival to the true baad guy of the franchise Jason Voorhees the son of Mrs. Voorhees.
My thoughts on this are that Jason faked his death to save his beloved mother from having to care for him any longer and he DID see his mother beheaded at the camp by Alice Hardy and the events of the series from that point on are Jason seeking revenge against anyone who goes near his lake .
Freddy over time got to be too funny with his one liners and the over use of comedy in his kills but alot of fans including myself LOVE to watch the series anyway . Nancy Thompson played by Heather LangenKamp was his main target in the first film she was brilliant n this role and really made a name for her self on the big screen. Freddy will always have a special place in my heart for many reasons .
This was a franchise that did well with the first three films and then fell off with parts 4 and 5 only to dig themselves out with the return of the scary Chucky. This series really has a unique feel to it and tackles a different fear all together, some people fear water / drowning , others fear clowns and in this films case they pray on peoples fear of dolls. and in the first three films in the series they really hit the nail on the head and after that they fell off with more comedy and humor in the writing then making it scary like the original movie .
The plot was interesting to me every 23rd spring for 23 days it gets to eat, this as an amazing idea and the fact that it was written this way so there couldn't be a sequel was great also but as we all know there was a sequel and there is supposedly a third film coming out this year. the writing on this film was great as well as the Creeper himself played by Jonathan Breck who does an amazing job in the role and makes the audience look around the theater while watching the film, well atleast it had me doing that several time.
Why We Need To Create New Monsters ....
We all LOVE the classics that I have talked about above but they are all old news with the remakes coming out the studios are holding onto the old days of horror when they could be looking forward to the future of horror.
Alot of fans really don't like the remakes but I did for many reasons and as a film maker I understand they wanted to bring in a new audience for Leatherface, Michael, Jason and Freddy while making a film for loyal life long fans as well where they fell short was they changed the stories too much and the old school fans didn't like it .
Believe it or not in a way they had to make those changes to bring in a new audience because new fans haven't seen the original films like the old school fans who watch them over and over again. Do you know how they get both the new and old fans into the theater ? Curiosity it's really that simple new fans are curious about the movie because they don't know much about the originals and old fans are curious about the new film because weather they want to admit it or not they want to see how the writers will change the story.
With my first film Sins of Man : Rise of Mortis I created Mortis while yes I agree looks alot like Scream's Ghostface and while that was done on purpose to show respect to the original I also did it because I like the idea of a killer who you can't see and could be anyone, there is no backstory they just start killing people and at the end of the movie they tell you why they did what they did .
I have a monster movie in early development because I want to make a "classic" monster movie for Wicked Carnival Productions because I thin it could still work in this day and age even though we have seen it all and there is nothing new in movies.
There isn't anything new or fresh coming from Hollywood but as an Indie film maker I want to bring something fresh and exciting to the genre. I think a monster movie with a classic feel to it with some of the newer ideas could really be a huge film.
Stay Tuned & Stay Wicked my friends :)