What's scary these days anyway?

By Joe Yang

A few years ago, when "torture porn" schlock such as the Saw and Hostel movies arrived in cinemas, people really started getting scared that the nation's youth was (yet again) headed down the path of destruction.

For a brief moment, people wondered if the initial popularity of such films was going to become a major trend. Parents to pundits, including Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly, voiced concern over what these torture movies said about modern society. These movies, after all, were brutal. And they made millions.

But years later, the Hostel sequel and the Saw franchise haven't enjoyed the same kind of box office successes that they had when first released. Although still somewhat popular, they don't seem to pose any kind of major cultural threat.

In other words, the world didn't come to an end because of a few sick movies.

So what scares people these days? As a horror writer, who's undoubtedly also fascinated with horror movies, I wonder if there are any ideas out there that can grab people the way Tobe Hooper's original Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Hitchcock's Psycho did.

When director Wes Craven methodically deconstructed the modern horror movie with the Scream series, he exposed every laughable flaw and formulaic plot turn of most scary movies. This was fun for a while, but seems to have had unintended consequences for later horror movies.

Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees have practically become caricatures of themselves. Aliens and Predators have made more of a mess out of their reputations than Democrats and Republicans. Edgar Wright's Shaun of the Dead took the scariness out of zombies (albeit brilliantly), and now it seems that all we're left with are remakes. Sure, an original killer is created every now and then, but when's the last time a slasher's name carried the same weight as Freddy or Jason?

And with the rise of ultra-realistic video games on advanced game consoles, it looks like the horror film industry only has more to compete with.

However, I remain optimistic. Horror is an element of popular culture that will always be in demand. The basic instinct to purge our deepest psychological fears is as necessary as breathing. So what will they think of next? I have no idea.

But believe me, it's coming...