I Still Believe in Heroes

            We live in an era where remakes and sequels of beloved films are constantly coming out. Every once in a while, a classic or a highly popular film gets remade and it turns out so bad that people claim it “ruined the original”. One such case is Rob Zombie’s remake of John Carpenter’s 1978 horror classic, Halloween. The purpose of this article is twofold. As always, I want to encourage readers to watch a classic film. With this article, however, I also want to try and dispel this notion that bad remakes/sequels ruin the original film.              John Carpenter’s original is widely considered to be a masterpiece and one of the founders of the slasher sub-genre. The story is a relatively simple one. It starts off in Haddonfield, Illinois in 1963 on Halloween night where a 6-year-old Michael Myers kills his older sister shortly after she has finished having ...

What is it about horror movies that draw audiences in to see them?   There is the thrill of being scared, sure, but is that really as far as it goes? I think not. You see, more than any other genre, horror films are a product of their generation and they typically speak to or highlight the societal issues that are going on around the time that a given horror film is made.   In many ways, horror films help us understand or comment on important issues such as race ( Get Out ), sexuality ( It Follows ), and mental/physical/emotional issues ( The Babadook ). Horror is a genre with many faces but for this particular article, I will touch on what I believe to be the best horror subgenres, the slasher film, and discuss why they are important.              I can understand why people may be a bit turned off by slasher films. In many ways they are a lot closer to reality than a monster or demonic horror movie. Many slasher films...