The ‘horror’ genre has been around for a very long time, captivating audiences with fear and bringing them excitement with every new movie released since the beginning of their existence in the 1890s. Since then, this genre of film has captured a huge fanbase that continues to stay loyal to the frightening footage year after year. But as of recently, many horror moviegoers have a mental outline of everything that is about to come: jump scares, an unexplainable slammed door, blood on the walls, and everything that has been overused.

As time has passed, much of the horror fanbase has taken note of the downgrade in quality of the films. The new films that have been released do not make the audience feel fearful but rather uncomfortable. Many of the plots revolve around death rather than incorporating things people are fearful of. For instance, the 2017 remake of the 1990 Stephen King’s horror classic, IT, incorporated the fear of clowns and the paranormal to create a suspenseful mood for the audience. The new film gave a more comical vibe that led audiences to feel more comfortable and relaxed, with the clown concept different than having them on the edge of their seat. The scaring techniques used in IT (2017) have been seen in several horror films in the past, causing the movie to become predictable and cliché.

Classic horror films continue to be a fan favorite due to the well-thought-out plot lines and attention to detail. Take Nightmare on Elm Street for example. The original film not only scored a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes but it was memorable. The movie is known almost everywhere along with the concept of children being ‘preyed’ on by a serial killer in their sleep. The new adaption of the classic film that was released in 2010, scored a 17%, many saying it was, ‘anticlimactic’ and ‘boring’. Comparing both films is unjust due to the downgrade in quality from the original and the remake. They simply don’t compare to one another. Modern films focus on the gore and death, making the movie unrealistic and derogatory to viewers.

The lack of realism in the new movies being released today comes from the amount of special effects and technology producers have at their fingertips. Several decades back, everything seen on the screen had to be done by the actors, giving a more lifelike experience for audiences. Movie makers had to rely on their actors to make the audience feel something, to make them fear for something. While special effects and fake blood might scare some people, it will not compare to an award-winning scream.

Due to the overwhelming amount of horror films from the past, movie makers today are able to take and modernize their ideas into what they think the audiences would like to see. In some cases, the viewers love the modern scary movies, but they must remember that several of the best horror movies today took incredible amounts of inspiration from the classics made years ago. The opinion of any scary movie is strictly dependent on the person watching it and what details they find the most thrilling, whether those details are the guts and gore, or realism of the film.