The other day, I felt like annoying and trolling my IRL man (as usual) and called IT a classic. It is a cute movie, but not a classic. Then, I got to thinking. What makes a movie a classic? Are classic movies being made anymore? I don't mean remakes of classics, I mean movies that are of the same caliber as The Silence of The Lambs, Dracula, or Psycho. I think yes. Especially with non-scary films. But, my blog is about horror, so I’m just going to write about the Horror movies from my lifetime that I think will eventually be considered classic cinema.
Hereditary
Ok like, not to be dramatic but I wanna call the cops on The Academy. Because, lets be real...does The Academy deserve cinema? Did the people that nominated A Star Is Born (a movie that gets significantly worse every time it gets remade) for multiple Oscars deserve rights? Be honest. There are at least three Oscar categories where Hereditary really showed the girls how it was done. The first being best actress!
I feel like people with taste have spoke on this at length. I’m trying to get over it, so I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Toni Collette was robbed of every award possible. But it’s also worth pointing out the gorgeous dollhouse aesthetic should have made this film nominated for production design. Also Charlie’s weird little clicks integrated into the music like... sound editing is a friend. Even the visual effects are awesome, and most of them were done practically instead of CGI. Filmmaking is alive and so is Paimon.
And, I’m not as mad as I guess I could be because most people that have seen Hereditary agree that it is a good movie. Not just a good horror movie. But a good movie.
I remember the first time I watched The Exorcist. It was years after My grandma said I wasn’t allowed to watch the movie. I was at my other grandparents house and everyone else was asleep. I decided to watch the movie in the living room because my sister and cousin were in the guest room upstairs.
I was sooooo scared. And, I thought I kept hearing people come down the stairs. But, I assumed that since everyone was asleep a demon was going to come get me. I imagine there are definitely going to be people that will have a similar experience with Hereditary.
Just kidding, I’m from Nevada. We don’t call the cops. 🔫
A Quiet Place
Also, it’s really leaning towards the future being an unlivable hellscape so people can show this movie to their children to remind them it could be worse.
I’m not too sure how I feel about a sequel of this movie, but A Quiet Place is a capable of standing on it’s own. After all, A Quiet Place ran so Birdbox could also run (into a wall). These types of horror movies are nothing new. Previously, we have had Wait Until Dark, Hush, and I suppose The Happening. But, I think A Quiet Place is the best.
Man, I really can’t believe how hard people are going for a movie with Machine Gun Kelly. Like, Birdbox isn’t even the best Netflix movie featuring this handsome and stupid man. However, we only stand one white man on this blog and it's Bill Skarsgard. So, MGK will no longer be mentioned on here even though he is handsome.
The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity
So, I was not invested in Horror when The Blair Witch Project was poppin’. It was 1999, I was more concerned with playing Barbie Riding Club if were being honest.
From what I have read, this movie really changed the game. The Blair Witch Project was certainly not the first found footage horror movie. My research tells me it was Cannibal Holocaust, a movie more infamous than iconic. However, it was the first found footage horror movie that utilized the internet. Like, this was the first viral film! That’s wild to think of a time there wasn’t a new thing going viral every few hours. The Internet movie database literally marked the three main characters dead for a whole year!
So, I feel like if you were to show someone this movie today it would not be scary. Simply because everything is easily debunked. This isn’t a documentary, it’s a few cranky people running around the woods filming everything (badly). When I say this movie is a classic, I mean it in a way that people will discuss the movie in university film classes. I mean that it’s a movie that will never be properly remade. I mean... a ridiculous amount of movies have a huge debt to The Blair Witch Project. Grave Encounters, Cloverfield, The Taking of Deborah Logan....I could go on for a while.
A huge promotion aspect of the movie was a Demand It! feature where you could request the film to be shown in your city. This was the first horror movie to virally market a film with hastags. So when you get a sponsored movie post on your timeline, you can thank Paranormal Activity. Also, if any upcoming horror films want me to post about your film, let me know. I'm bored of talking about toothpaste tbh. Anyway, Paranormal Activity is one of the rare “indie” horror films to make a completely stupid amount of money. The budget for the first Paranormal Activity was eleven to fifteen thousand dollars, it made almost two hundred million dollars. (“Alexa, play I Get The Bag by Gucci Mane”). Even though the franchise died a painfully slow death, it is going to take a long time to replicate the hype these viral movies caused. Unfriended, Smiley, and Friend Request are not and never will be classics, but it’s cool to see how important it is for a movie to go viral.
Get Out
Speaking of viral, remember the Get Out challenge?
Can I even begin to talk about how we will never stop loving Get Out? By we, I don’t even know what demographic I mean because this is one of the few horror movies that have Universal acclaim. Even the people that don’t “get” Get Out can’t deny the insane impact that Get Out has had. By smashing that stereotype that the black man never survives.
By introducing us to our newest Scream Queen Betty Gabriel. By winning Oscars!!! Pick one, oh right, you can’t!
By introducing us to our newest Scream Queen Betty Gabriel. By winning Oscars!!! Pick one, oh right, you can’t!
I think when people talk about the “racial climate” of the 2010s, this movie will definitely be on horror minded people’s minds. And a mind...is a terrible thing to waste. 
Saw
In the early 2000s no franchise was touching the first three Saw films. Nothing! And that's the hill I wanna die on. I agree that the quality of the films are wildly inconsistent, but Saw was a game changer. Torture porn was not a mainstream thing until Saw. And, it’s still a good story if you aren’t a fan of the gore. The story arc of John Kramer is an interesting one. He had good ideas, but went about them completely wrong. He was a very intriguing character.
The entire story from beginning to end is very long and complicated, but I personally don’t think all the movies need to be seen to appreciate the first movie. The twist in the first movie has yet to be topped.
Saw was directed by James Wan. Wan went on to give us Insidious, parts of The Conjureverse, and Aquaman! I just read that he is directing the reboot of Mortal Kombat! It’s what we deserve! James Wan as a director is iconic in his own right, because he has two films that made over one billion dollars. The man is someone I can trust with franchises (and my life, let’s be real).
So, what do you think? Are there any horror films you consider classics? Do you wanna throw up when people talk about how great A Star is Born is? Are you gonna follow me on social media because I never seem to stfu?
Comments
Post a Comment