Here's a theory:
Horror movies these days suck for plenty of reasons.
-Being original and creative in Hollywood has become a taboo. Out of the past 5 years how many Blockbusters were original stories? It's like everything under the sun has been revamped at least 6 or 7 times.
-All of the best writers and directors are always the indy people. But big named studios are always looking for a familiar name, and the same goes for a large majority of the American audience.
-It's true that some of the best horror movies were made from the years '72-'92, but I have an explination for that too. It was around that time that time that a break was made in horror. Prior to that time period horror movies revolved around the "classic creature features". We became tired of seeing Dracula, The Mummy, The Frankenstien monster, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, etc. Plus with the 70's came the time when experimentation was the in thing. We got Alien, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Exocist, Jaws; and people were blown away by this new breed of horror. Who cared if they were good or not, people we're happy with the new stuff.
-In the time period listed above horror sequals were still a new thing. Back then these flicks were planned to get sequal, they were made simply to stand on their own. It's when they got sequals that they went from having a cult fanbase, to a mainstream fanbase.
-Flash foward to the 80's, the decade of blood. Ohh I miss those days. A time when every kill was cool, even if it wasn't over the top. Granted, sometimes the story took a back seat to the blood, but the good ones always stayed on the path.
-But with the 80's and the sequals is when horror started it's downfall. It seemed as though there was a different staff working on every sequal. Everyone wanted to put their own spin on everything, that they ruined it. It's the old "Too many cooks" premise. There were only a handfull of guys like Clive Baker and Wes Craven, and dime a dozen imatations.
-Now here we are in 2004, longing for movies from a time period that we won't ever live through again. Being experimental is long and gone; in it's place is marketing. Let's face it, movies get half their money from posters, trailers, tv spots, toys, games and soundtracks. The possibility of the movie being great doesn't matter anyway, it's as long as the studio at least breaks even. Besides it's not like horror movies are as high on the platform as they used to be. They've regressed back to being cult classics, so they best way to make money is to try and broaden the audience to their best abilities. Hence the PG-13 ratings.
Let's face it Ghalster, movies are just like music these days. Disposable. I would have liked a good Freddy vs Jason, AVP, and new Exorcist. But in the back of my mind, I knew all were going to suck(we have yet to see with Exocist, but I bet I'm not far off).
you are Alucard...
