With most horror movies, directors often make the mistake of showing the monster(s). Rather than playing on our fear of the unknown, they make the source of villainy known for shock value.
Let’s face it, very few directors can get away with showing you the monster(s). For your frame of reference, monster refers to literal monster, demons or just the mere serial killer. John Carpenter can get away with it. He’s shown that he can do this with his remake of The Thing. He decided to show the monsters, which were plants, animals and people who were mutated by an alien force, breaking one of the biggest tenets of horror in a way that worked.
While he was showing the monsters, he used waves of heat for distortion and strange colors, as well as experimenting with harsh or soft lighting. Since normally seeing is actually more merciful than hearing and imagining, if you somehow distort the image or use strange colors with varying levels of harsh lighting (red, green or any other colors that you wouldn’t normally think of) the tension is restored. It plays with the perception and shadows. Light and shadow tend to be the strongest motivators of fear, as well as one of the best and cheapest tools for horror.
Wes Craven has also pulled it off with Nightmare on Elm Street. Freddy Kruger’s sardonic, sadistic wit was frightening to start off with. He was also horribly distorted through burning. So his look, especially in Wes Craven’s A New Nightmare, is frightening because of how dark his look and attitude are.
Clive Barker did it with his movies in general, since most of his monsters were distortions of humanity. Also, what makes Barker monsters interesting is the fact that they usually don’t end up as the villains. The villains end up being the relentless killers who would attempt to see the actual monsters purged from the face of the earth (an example is Nightbreed). Either that or they were clearly human in form (Candyman, Hellraiser, Midnight Meat Train, etc.) However, in aura, they are noticeably damned. Their ability to merely exist is monstrous and frightening.
A lot of horror directors forget the fact that they are making horror movies and go merely for shock. The original Psycho, which wasn’t even a true horror movie, was more frightening than most of the meaningless drivel that gets labeled horror nowadays. The only groups that do horror with monster the right way now are foreign, usually British or Asian in general. Either that or they are featured in the After Dark Horrorfest: 8 Films to Die For annual event. Oddly enough Horrorfest 2008, also known as Horrorfest III, will be held on Jan. 9-15 2009.
Remember to keep your monsters human or hidden. If you hide it, they will scream. Enjoy the varying accounts of “OH MY [expletive] GOD! WHAT IS THAT THING!?!”
If you would like to know more about the monsters in the dark, the dark force known as Jonathan Gronli can be summoned at jon.gronli@gmail.com