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Jason Blum has the nerve to state what makes a good horror film

Started by holyzombiejesus, May 06, 2017, 01:09:13 AM

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holyzombiejesus

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/05/get-political-and-have-great-scares-the-new-rules-of-horror-movies

From another interview...
QuoteWhen pushed about a lot of fans' distaste for the genre's apparent new obsession with jump scares, he was quick on the defence too, claiming that "it's not really a scary movie if you don't have jump scares". The alternative, to Blum is a lot less interesting, often too "gross" and nowhere near as "fun":

"The jump scares are the fun to me, and without that it's just bleak. There's a link to the audience with jump scares so almost everything we do has them. Otherwise it really is just something else, which I think works on TV but doesn't work very well in a movie theatre."

Jesus.

Catalogue Trousers

Jason Blum is clearly a wanker.

Especially since fright masks, scary dolls, slow-motion and jump scares are all about as fresh as a month-old dog turd in horror cinema.

Noodle Lizard

What a moron.  So much "shout FUCK OFF at your monitor" material in that article.

colacentral

Jump scares aren't a "new" obsession are they? If we're strictly talking about the fake-out jump scares, the earliest example I can think of off the top of my head is the first Halloween with that famous one where Jamie Lee Curtis backs into the sheriff. I expect if you're looking out for it you'd find plenty of earlier examples.

marquis_de_sad

From 2005, Adam and Joe's list of horror cliches that should be banned. They basically list everything in every crap horror film since. Number ten is jump scares.

Blum's comments about horror films being "bleak" without jump scares... he may as well just admit that he doesn't like horror.

Quote from: PlumThe great thing about Get Out is that, if you watch it with a mixed audience, when the movie opens, the white people are relating to Allison [Williams's character], and the black people are relating to Daniel [Kaluuya's character].

What the fuck is he talking about?

Namtab

I really like Get Out, but that interview is crammed with bollocks.

1. 'How a movie looks is secondary.'
Fuck off - fucking fuck right off. The main power of cinema comes from its look, it's a visual medium. And the look is so important to horror especially: Suspiria wouldn't be anywhere near as effective as it is if it wasn't for those beautifully garish colours and some frankly bizarre visual choices.

2. 'if Hitchcock were alive today what would he do? I feel like Get Out is the best example of that. It feels like today's Hitchcock.'
This one really irritated me: apart from being films reliant on suspense, there really is very little similarity between Blumhouse films and Hitchcock. This isn't an 'oh god, how could he ever compare himself?' thing either, they're just, stylistically... Not similar. (And Hitch would batter him for his quote about visuals being secondary)

3.  The aforementioned... 'The great thing about Get Out is that, if you watch it with a mixed audience, when the movie opens, the white people are relating to Allison [Williams's character], and the black people are relating to Daniel [Kaluuya's character].'
I mean, what? I... What???

marquis_de_sad

Quote from: Namtab on May 06, 2017, 09:24:19 PMI mean, what? I... What???

It's such a revealing comment. Apparently Blum is so mental that he "identifies" with any white character onscreen even if they're not the protagonist. Obviously he doesn't think this and it's just something that sounds right to him, but still, how thick can you get?

Bazooka

Quote from: marquis_de_sad on May 06, 2017, 06:08:32 PM
From 2005, Adam and Joe's list of horror cliches that should be banned. They basically list everything in every crap horror film since. Number ten is jump scares.

Blum's comments about horror films being "bleak" without jump scares... he may as well just admit that he doesn't like horror.

What the fuck is he talking about?

Yet the best horror films have quite a few jump scares,Halloween, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for example, however the way they are executed is supreme, Leather Face coming out of nowhere in the woods in front of Sally & Franklin. You wouldn't see that coming, but modern horror is saturated with jumps scares you expect, so not sure what he really means.

Mini

I agree with all the above. And being political is obviously not a new invention in horror movies either.

QuoteThe notion about doing a genre movie about race had never even occurred to me.
QuoteJohn Carpenter started a great tradition of politically themed genre movies.

It sounds like Jason Blum is unaware of Night of the Living Dead, The Last House on the Left etc. Hardly surprising when one looks at his lousy excuses for horror films, but wow this cunt is a cunt.

marquis_de_sad

Quote from: Mini on May 08, 2017, 12:14:51 PM
It sounds like Jason Blum is unaware of Night of the Living Dead, The Last House on the Left etc. Hardly surprising when one looks at his lousy excuses for horror films, but wow this cunt is a cunt.

Yeah I was going to mention this, but there's so much wank in that interview. He's clearly thinking of George Romero, isn't he?

marquis_de_sad

Quote from: Bazooka on May 08, 2017, 10:12:31 AM
Yet the best horror films have quite a few jump scares,Halloween, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for example, however the way they are executed is supreme, Leather Face coming out of nowhere in the woods in front of Sally & Franklin. You wouldn't see that coming, but modern horror is saturated with jumps scares you expect, so not sure what he really means.

You're right of course. Don't get me wrong, jump scares can be done well. But they aren't necessary like Blum seems to think. And like twists, they feel cheap if overused.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

No amount of crap horror flicks can lessen the power of that scene from Exorcist 3. You know... that one. Or that one from Mulholland Drive.

Mini

Quote from: marquis_de_sad on May 08, 2017, 11:21:50 PM
Yeah I was going to mention this, but there's so much wank in that interview. He's clearly thinking of George Romero, isn't he?

That would make more sense. It's depressing that the head of Blumhouse, one of the most successful horror studios around, doesn't know the most basic history of the genre. Bumhouse I call it.

phantom_power

I can sort of see what he is saying about the white/black audiences for Get Out seeing different things at the start, but only if they had no awareness of racial issues in America and the world in general. The film is definitely playing with how the white girl sees things as opposed to the black man regarding engagement with the police and how odd things are at the party, but that should be clear to anyone giving the film half a thought.

I will be generous and say that his statement there was badly worded rather than just crass and stupid. Then again looking at his resume, maybe not. Fucking hell he has produced a lot of films. He can't have had much involvement in that many

marquis_de_sad

But Daniel Kaluuya is very clearly the protagonist. We always see the world through his eyes. I think the only times we don't is when his TSA mate is investigating his disappearance, and the first scene when the jazz bloke gets abducted. So, two other black guys. I think the film deliberately sees things through the eyes of black people (and I thought that was uncontroversial). I see what you're saying about him and his girlfriend, but I don't think we're ever supposed to "identify" with her. Surely everyone's thought when she started getting cocky with the cop was "This is a bad idea".

phantom_power

Quote from: marquis_de_sad on May 09, 2017, 03:21:19 PM
But Daniel Kaluuya is very clearly the protagonist. We always see the world through his eyes. I think the only times we don't is when his TSA mate is investigating his disappearance, and the first scene when the jazz bloke gets abducted. So, two other black guys. I think the film deliberately sees things through the eyes of black people (and I thought that was uncontroversial). I see what you're saying about him and his girlfriend, but I don't think we're ever supposed to "identify" with her. Surely everyone's thought when she started getting cocky with the cop was "This is a bad idea".

Yeah "identify" is a bad word to have used, which is why I said I think if you were being kind you would say he used a poor choice of words. The tension between how the white character views things compared to the black character is definitely written into the film though, which may be what he was getting at, again if you were being generous. I think you can "identify" with more than one character at a time