One of the biggest flaws of not only horror, but with modern movies in general is the many remakes and sequels we’ve had in recent years. Especially prevalent in the horror genre, successful series get sucked dry by sequel after sequel. Instead of branching out and trying to be creative, we get a 6th Scream movie or a 13th Halloween. As much as I and many others love the classics, that doesn’t mean the series needs to continue; we’d like more movies that could become classics. 

Jumpscares. Gore. Loud, generic music. These are all cheap shots that may give temporary fear, but nothing lasting. We don’t need to see a monster randomly pop up or disturbing scenery to be scared. Taking your time to build suspense pays off way more in the long run, especially upon rewatch.

I know that it’s kind of classic for horror movie characters to be “dumb,” acting in a way that you know will probably get them killed, but a lot of modern characters are dumb for different reasons. They’re hard to relate to, or they’re not fleshed out well. In especially bad movies, you may even root for the antagonist instead of them, just because of how horribly they’re written. 

I know that originality is hard to come by, impossible even, but what the horror genre really needs are new movies. No more remakes, no more sequels. Just new, well-thought out stories.