Horror movies are my favorite movies. I'm not sure why, but it must have something to do with the fact that I'm scared to die (the two things can't be unconnected): I enjoy, perversely, being scared, but I think I mostly really like seeing death (violent death especially) trivialized and mocked. The best horror movies, to me, are those that paint it as a very vivid but also surreal and dreamlike experience. I like it when the effects are not terribly realistic but not unrealistic enough to be totally absurd. And I'm probably wrong, but I imagine that when horrific things actually happen to people it is a surreal experience, and surely does not resemble anything like the razor-sharp digitalized bullshit that most horror movies display these days.
I like crusty special effects (within reason) better, and a lot of the time it's scarier that way. There're many thousands of exceptions. (Example of when crustier is not better.) Then again, I guess I don't usually watch them to get scared anymore. (It hasn't always been that way. I remember a period in highschool when I couldn't help but take it all very seriously. I imagined every hammer blow to the head was happening to me, and I didn't enjoy it but felt compelled to keep watching them anyway. Luckily it doesn't really happen anymore.)
I really don't understand the attitude that not only is it some sort of virtue for all special effects to appear as "realistic" as possible, but also that CGI can actually help us achieve this stupid, stupid goal. I get that the effects filmmakers used to have to employ were cheesy and unrealistic--paper mache stop action and really bad green screen technology for example. I guess horror directors today are trying to push back against that and also to find new ways to make their movies as scary as they can. After all, audiences These Days are pretty jaded.
But I'm not necessarily looking to see the most realistic death when I go to see a scary movie. Most of the ones that have come out in recent years are completely awful. I especially hate the "gritty" torture porn style of Eli Roth (though I haven't seen Hostel yeah yeah) and Rob Zombie's shitty version of Halloween. Not that the first Halloween was that great, but whatever. I like the second one cause it's really crusty. I stopped watching Jerk Zombie's version after what I guess is the first time baby Michael kills someone. It wasn't fun. I like a lot of gore, but it sort of defeats the purpose for me if you're just trying to replicate perfectly the exact sound a skull makes when a tree branch crushes it. And I'm not just being a pussy when I say that. I find it really boring. What's the point? And then it's exacerbated by the fact that these types of movies rarely have any style...the aesthetic is like an hours-long nu metal videos from the late nineties or else the same tired digitalized interpretation of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. (PS, I love that movie, it has the best atmosphere ever, but as I read in some online review of it once, it spawned the whole AWFUL genre of a pack of teenagers doing something whateeever and getting picked off one by one...)
Aaaaaanyway, maybe I'm not being fair. My taste is really specific and I do like a lot of really bad movies. The first part of this clip has one of my favorite examples of effects in a horror movie. It's so cheap and cheesy but it's so much more awesome and affective than if it had been done with CGI. (Demons is really one of the best and you can watch it all on Youtube right now.) The noises she's making are great and even though it's so obbbbviously fake my gums Always hurt when her teeth start coming out.
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