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17 People Make Really Good Points About What Makes A Good Horror Movie

Updated 5 years ago, December 9 2021
Spooky

There’s no getting around it: Some horror movies are trash. From ineffective monsters to a plethora of annoying jump scares, horror fans have amassed an extensive list of what they love and hate. A recent reddit post asked people about their horror opinions and some are so clever. Horror filmmakers, take note!

Real Monsters Or Bust

“The hill I’ll die on is that physical, practical special effects will always be superior to digital effects.

I may be a little biased because I come from the era of Rick Baker, Tom Savini, Stan Winston, and Rob Bottin. And, while digital effects are not a make or break deal for me, they are a big part of how I evaluate a horror movie overall. Just my opinion, but the hill I’ll die on.” – u/DJA1982

Get Out Of My Sight

“The unknown is always scarier than the known. Not every demon or entity or monster has to be fully shown, or shown at all. Little bits for intrigue are almost always better and scarier than the full thing, which is usually more laughable than anything.” – u/blueberrydonutholes

The More You Know…

“John Carpenter was right that the Halloween franchise should be anthologies, with each movie having different characters involved in a different story, and each movie could be pumped out every other year.

The reason why is because you can only tell a story about a faceless voiceless slasher killer so many times, because when you do that, you’re really telling the same story over and over again. But by doing that, the franchise gets old very quickly, as familiarity breeds contempt, and it becomes impossible to breathe new life into the franchise.

Therefore, there are only two good Halloween movies: the original Halloween and Halloween 3: Season of the Witch.” – u/PipsSnareDrum00

So Easy, You’re Mom Could Do It

“There will always be a place for found footage in the horror genre. Some of the scariest movies of all time are in the format. And I like how it gives everyone a shot to try to make their own scary movie, for better or worse.” – u/ejbraceface

Leave Us In The Dark

“The more you explain, the less scary it is. Give me one example of a prequel or sequel where some previously unknown origin makes things scarier. There isn’t one. I really do not understand this compulsion to want things explained.” – u/firesuitebaby

Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems

“Budget doesn’t denote quality. Low-budget can be just as creative, if not moreso and more fun than big budget FX & casting.” – u/Nurokatt

You Can’t Remake Perfection

“Don’t remake good movies! Remake movies that missed the mark or missed their potential. Why take something perfect and try to re-do it? There is so much potential in b-movie and exploitation film to really execute ideas that were in the “wrong” hands before.” – u/dopesickness

On The Other Hand…

“Remakes don’t ruin the original. If it’s bad then it makes people appreciate the original more. If it’s good then you have a great companion piece to a film you love. Also, people ignore that remakes/ re adaptations have been around since the start of cinema.” – u/Abe2sapien

Let’s Pretend It’s Real

“Mockumentary is another great way to use horror because it builds up tension and you have to rely on the story as opposed to the actual horror events. Using the horror sparsely always works better IMO.” – u/i_like_2_travel

It’s Just Icky

“Horror and disgust are different things. No shame if you like extreme shit, but I can’t stand having to sift through a bunch of gross shit while looking for good horror that actually tells a compelling story.” – u/pieisnotreal

Too Many Jumps

“Jump-scare is like a climax which means tension is rapidly decreased right afterward. Things become creepy when you don’t give the audience that release.” – u/GoHummus

The Less You Know…

“No resolution at the end is totally acceptable for the horror genre. There’s no need to always burn dead people’s bones, scream Latin nonsense or imprison evil in some kind of an old artifact to finish off the story.

The nightmare might just suddenly end, without anybody ‘winning’. Like it happens in real life. And you will have to live with all the pain and suffering you’ve witnessed, and it’s not going away. Which is a horror in itself. Let the movie end abruptly, let us feel confused, angry or even fooled. I want horror, not some whodunit movie where you have to know the ending.” – u/ignoremynationality

Admit You Like It

“I suspect that many people who don’t like horror movies kind of think of them all as bad B-movie schlock so when a movie that they like is identified as a horror they are confused and they want to claim that it is a thriller or a drama or something else.” – u/SpookyRockjaw

No Ending = No Good

“Movies like It Comes At Night are good in their own way, but Id still like my slow burn horror with like an allegory or something to actually have a monster at the end. At least for the audience to see, maybe you can still interpret it as something else and that’s fine.

The Witch is great because it was intelligent and tense and horrifying and more than just the actions on screen but we also got fucking witches and evil goats and satan and that rocks.” – u/Lothric43

Okay, That Hurts

“The main characters of the movie should be positively traumatized by the end, if alive.

I really hate horror movies that have feel good endings where one or all of the main characters have the “we made it through this and everyone is okay!” moment. Not to say they shouldn’t survive, but if they aren’t going to be permanently scarred by the events that just transpired, was it really horror?” – u/Decrepitlamb

We Just Wanna Have Fun

“That all of the Dark Castle movies are brilliant and I miss going to the movies just to have fun with horror like we did with House on Haunted Hill, 13 Ghosts, Ghost Ship and House of Wax. We knew they weren’t “good” but they were SO FUN.” – u/chadstephen2005