Monday, November 04, 2013

Ask JKM a Question: What kind of horror film would I like to see come back from the dead?


A regular reader named Jason writes:

"I read your Horror Films FAQ book and your descriptions of all the different types of horror movies. My question to you is: what form of horror film would you like to see revive or rebound today?”

Jason, that’s a terrific question about the horror genre and its current direction.  

My answer is simple: I’d love to see a revival of the rubber reality horror film.

I’m talking about films like Phantasm (1979), Altered States (1980), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Hellraiser (1987), or Candyman (1992), specifically. 


In horror films of this type, the villain is able to rewrite reality as we understand it, and the barriers between realities seem to fall all around us.   I love this type of horror film when it is done well, and I think all the above-listed films manage that feat.  Even Wishmaster (1997) was entertaining as hell.  

In particular, I enjoy the imaginative nature of the rubber reality films (and productions such as Craven’s The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) and Shocker (1989), because I think they capitalize on the link between horror films and dreams/nightmares.  Phantasm, after all, plays as an adolescent boy’s dream about death.  Altered States is like a drug trip gone wrong, and so forth.

Unfortunately, I don’t believe that rubber reality as a horror sub-genre is going to make a comeback anytime soon, and that’s because -- as I’ve written before -- the general movement of film history is from the theatrical or artificial to the realistic or natural.  

You can detect that trend in the kind of horror films made today, mostly of the found-footage genre.  I happen to love and adore the found-footage horror film, and think that it has a lot of life in it (particularly in films such as The Bay, or REC, Lovely Molly, or BWP). 

But because horror movies are trending more realistic, a step in the opposite direction -- back towards “rubber reality” -- doesn’t necessarily make a lot of sense. Rubber reality isn’t really “where we are” in terms of the Zeitgeist. 

Some clever writer out there would need to “re-imagine” the rubber reality film for our era today in a fashion that resonates the way Wes Craven’s Elm Street resonated in 1984.  I’m not sure I see that happening…and believe me, I’ve tried!

For example, I wrote a rubber-reality script some years back called The Dead Side of The Street, and it had some (little) interest from agents and producers, but ultimately nothing happened with it.  And I think that has to do with:  a.) my own failures as a writer, but also b.) the fact that nobody is making rubber reality films anymore, especially ones that boast the kind of jaunty humor we see in the Elm Street sequels, or Phantasm sequels.

So, I would really love to see more of the rubber reality I loved as a teenager and college student, but, frankly, I don’t see how it would fit in with today’s culture.  

My only take on the material now would be to consider how nobody sees facts or "truth" anymore, but rather facts and truth through the prism of a pre-existing world view.  In other words, many Americans tend not to believe facts if they come from a political person/party they don't agree with.  Hence, many of us live in very different realities from our neighbors.  A good rubber reality horror movie might find a genre-specific way to take into account that uncomfortable premise of modern life, and twist it into something truly terrifying.

What we need, frankly,  is for someone to do for rubber reality what Kevin Williamson did for slashers in the mid-1990s. The whole approach needs to be re-imagined for the 21st century in a way that we all “get” immediately.

think it’s do-able, but again, not terribly likely.


3 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:30 PM

    Here here. This is a favorite subgenre for me as well. I'm especially fond of the first two Hellraisers, the Phantasms, and Videodrome would fit too, I think.

    Seems like I heard somewhere that Mr.Craven might be going for a remake of his own Hellraiser film - and that Doug Bradley was on board with the idea. I'm not sure if I'm excited (as resistant to change as I can be), but if it's a thing, it at least has the right credentials.

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  2. Anonymous12:08 PM

    I don't think it would be too hard to do, actually. Presenting the person who refuses to believe facts because they don't fit his world view, when plainly the world view is in error, would make for a very entertaining film.

    Even better would be the somewhat stereotypical ensemble cast, where the final girl isn't necessarily the good girl, but the one who accepts what is and deals with it, while her friends refuse to see what is and are punished, would be a decent fusing of the old and new.

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  3. Anonymous12:33 PM

    This genre will come back it just has to be done well and also do well at the box office. Horror fans had their shot with the grand daddy of all rubber reality films in the Elm Street remake...and the ball was dropped...badly. Is Evil Dead considered rubber reality??? Scream and BWP did crazy box office while simulataneously getting great reviews and we have not seen the end of the slasher/found footage rebirths as of yet. (Technically found footage is a rebirth if you consider Cannibal Holocaust as being the original entry in this genre).
    But there is still hope. Hellraiser and Phantasm will undoubtedly be remade. However....I truly think that the OJ Simpson trial killed the Candyman franchise and I think Tony Todd's iconic character will never come back.

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