Classic Horror?

I’ve been wondering what to write about the past few days. I finally figured out what I wanted to say…Horror movies come and go. Some are good and some are not so good. And sometimes, a horror movie goes beyond just being scary, gory, suspenseful, thought-provoking. It reaches the Classic phase. Now, when I say classic, I mean the movie is that good. It will stand the test of time. Other movies get compared to these films.You probably conjure up images  of Legosi’s Dracula or Karloff’s Mummy or Chaney’s Wolf Man. Either way, it’s pretty likely that you probably don’t think  of Halloween or Friday the 13th. Saw doesn’t spring to mind. And what about Roth’s Hostel movies?

You either think of the old black and white films or the stuff that came out shortly after movies were in technicolor. Funny isn’t it? The movies we think of as classic are going to be the movies our kids and grandchildren think of as ancient. The movies that they grow up with, thinking they are the real classics, are the movies of now. The Saw movies, Friday the 13th movies, Halloween movies, Hostel 1 and 2, and etc will be the films they pull from when they sit down and remember the good old classic films of years long gone…When they decide to have an old horror movie marathon, complete with popcorn and some other goodies to munch on. You know what I’m talking about.

So that brings me to my next point! What determines that a horror movie is classic? The word classic is defined as of the highest rank or class, the established model or standard. So when we say that Bela Legosi’s Dracula was a classic horror film, what we are really saying is that his film was the best of the time, of that time. So of our time of horror movies, what movies would be considered classic horror? I like to think that the Halloweens, Friday the 13th(s), Nightmare(s), and possibly even the Saw films could be considered classic. Twenty years from now, when these movies have been somewhat retired I’m sure people will say they were classic horror movies of that time, our time. It kinda makes you wonder what tomorrow’s movies will be like, doesn’t it…