Hitchcock used flashes of the knife and chocolate syrup for the blood in Psycho illustrating the violence but not making it the center of attention and Laurie Strode's knife wounds looked more like scratches in relation to Drew's vivisection in the first twenty minutes of Scream but modern horror films really pack in the gore factor. Psycho and Halloween's appeal came from the suspense. The viewers of the time were on the edge of their seats anxious for Janet Leigh and later afraid Vera Miles as she looked for her missing sister. In comparison modern horror cuts away the suspense and goes for shock value by even going so far as to make sure that theaters sound systems assault the viewer's ears as the on screen viscera assaults your eyes. When Michael Myers stalked his victims in Halloween the suspense came from the audience being aware of the character's jeopardy but the character oblivious to their own fate. Contemporary horror special effects have evolved with the technology becoming more graphic and more convincing if not realistic. When the character wakes up shackled to a chair in Hostel there is no suspense only anticipation because the viewer knows the torture is about to begin. If a character in a modern horror movie finds themselves in jeopardy, unlike in classic horror, the viewer isn't wondering if they will get away but how disturbing is the scene likely to get before it's over.
Sidney Prescott was a sympathetic portrayal of a young woman in jeopardy and even her friends seemed like people with whom the viewers could relate but by the time the characters in Hostel find themselves in the torturers clutches the viewer has already seen them depicted as totally unsympathetic characters. When Janet Leigh steals the money in Psycho we know she will be punished but we can empathize because she commits a crime in a moment of bad judgment based on wanting to be with the man she loves. Instead of being sympathetic the characters in Hostel and Saw are degenerates who seem to revel in their own nasty stereotypes. They are depicted as arrogant tourists who leave America to travel Europe engaging in drugs and elicit sex generally treating the native people as little more than playthings for their amusement. The representation makes these characters thoroughly hate able of course is meant to dehumanize them for their inevitable torturous demise because modern horror is all about gore and the torture of unsympathetic characters
The Death of Classic Horror: Psycho Vs. SAW
I think it has something to do with the level of talent the director possess's also. I mean comparing Hitchcock to Eli Roth is like comparing Frank Sinatra to Michael Bolton. And John Carpenter? He probably had the best 4 year run of any pure horror director from 1978-1982 and is a master of "the set up".
But look at Neil Marshall, he made us care about the soldiers in "Dog Soldiers" first. Same wth the women in "The Descent". Danny Boyle, 28 Days Later, did the same thing.
"Saw" by Wong, Eli Roth, Alexander Ajae, these directors undoubtedly have skill, but their target audience is not those who care about character development. Their target audience expects to get the name of the lead characters and then go straight to the first death scene...period. No sublety, they are afraid of that target audience coming out of the movie calling it boring, which is a sure death nail in the coffin of any horror film.
I wonder what Hitch's directing style would be now in 2008? Carpenter, sad to say, is a has been. Has not made a good horror film since "In the Mouth of Madness", as a matter of fact, "Ghosts of Mars" might have been so incredibly bad that it ended his career.
Rob Zombie, he likes character development, the problem is that his character development is of the killers, not the victims.
Tobe Hooper is still making horror, made a pretty good remake of "The Toolbox Murders".
The Death of Classic Horror: Psycho Vs. SAW
Stephen King said, "I believe terror to be the finest emotion, and so first I will try to terrify. If I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify. And if I find that I cannot horrify, I go for the gross-out."
Too many filmmakers nowadays go straight for the grossout--the bloody, disturbing images that will get people talking. These are people who mistake notoriety for fame.
Bloody violence and disturbing images will not stand the test of time, though. It's been proven again and again that the books and movies that last longer than a gallon of milk are the ones with well-developed characters and universal, identifiable storylines.
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