The Insidious movies too
You’ll have to define “mainstream”.
Because if you have a hard time thinking of any good horror movies from the last 10-15 years then I can’t imagine you watch very many movies in general.
You’ll have to define “good” then.
Honestly, I probably don’t look hard enough. Could you list some recommendations?
(Yeah, we would have to define what “good” means to us individually. That’s always difficult to do.)
As for “mainstream”, that’s far easier. Anything mainstream to me is something that got at least a moderate amount of advertising before it before it came out–or sometimes after the fact I guess–and wasn’t developed as an “indie” film with perhaps a few exceptions. So the aforementioned Insidious and The Conjuring films would count, though I haven’t seen the former.
After thinking on it a bit more, I can still think of a only few horror movies post-2000/2001 off the top of my head that I’d both count as mainstream and that I thought were good, though I can think of far more that I wouldn’t qualify as mainstream and ones I’ve heard that were good but haven’t seen:
- The Ring American remake [already mentioned; too bad the second one sucked]
- The Conjuring [already mentioned; don’t have any interest in seeing either Annabelle or The Conjuring 2]
- 28 Days Later [hated 28 Weeks Later when I watched it and I still do despite getting to watch it for free; my best friends like it though]
- Shaun of the Dead [significantly a comedy movie in part though]
- Audition [not sure if it was mainstream before it came out since I’m not sure how Japan’s movie releases work, but it’s well-known now]
- Cloverfield [not sure if I’d say it was good if I saw it again, but it’s not like I saw it in theaters when I saw it first and it better than I thought it would be]
- Drag To Me Hell [EDIT: yeah, if we’re counting it as a horror movie, then I’d put it here]
Everything else I want to say here that I would count as “good” is either something that’s not mainstream, like Frankenstein’s Army, or that I’ve only heard were good, like The Host. Shrug.
I suppose if all you want to do is go to the theater to see horror movies, then yeah, you’re less likely to find something you might consider to be good.
Horror itself is a pretty niche genre nowadays that doesn’t get a lot of wide releases as the R ratings tend to limit the audience. They’re hardly flooding the theaters like they used to.
It’s hard to qualify as “mainstream” outside of obvious studio pictures that go to a wide number of screens like Scream, Saw, Paranormal Activity, Purge, Sinister, Conjuring, etc.
Usually there’s 1 or 2 a year that get people talking like Babadook, The VVitch and It Follows.
I think what people think of as “Mainstream” can be expanded now-a-days to include on-demand platforms such as Netflix.
LOTS of people have Netflix. More and more shows/movies are becoming exclusive just to that platform.
Many horror movies see their most growth and exposure after they’re on Netflix like Starry Eyes, The Taking of Deborah Logan, Last Shift and recently Hush.
@chadouken! “Good” is obviously subjective, but if you want recommendations I can do that…
Spoiler
Starry Eyes
Last Shift
He Never Died
Spring
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
Tales of Halloween
Holidays
Southbound
The VVitch
Intruders
Creep
It Follows
Deathgasm
Hidden
Final Girls
The Shrine
Pontypool
Stoker
We Are What We Are
Trick R Treat
Let Us Prey
We Are Still Here
You’re Next
The Guest
A Christmas Horror Story
Krampus
Evil Dead/2/AoD/Remake
Drag Me To Hell
Nina Forever
Feast
The Hallow
Inside
Martyrs
Let The Right One In
I can continue on if you want, but that should keep you busy.
Cujo Remake now
Thanks man. I’ve seen some of them, and some are already on my to-watch list, but there are a lot of movies I haven’t considered and I’ll add them…
(Oh, I forgot about Drag Me to Hell despite mentioning Shaun of the Dead. Huh. Edited that in.)
True enough, Apathy-Inc. I don’t have Netflix, so I wouldn’t know. I’ve only been able to stream things for about a year, which is part of the reason that I don’t have it.
I’m curious, given it’s not on the list, what are your thoughts about V/H/S if you’ve seen it?
I thought V/H/S was a mixed bag like most all anthologies.
I liked Amateur Night (the first one). The rest were crap to okay.
2 had Safe Haven and others were a little better than the first.
3 was all around garbage. The wrap around and last story being almost unwatchable.
I thought Southbound and Holidays were a lot better in terms of anthologies.
Southbound doing a great job of transitioning from one story to the next.
Holidays goes to some unexpected and pretty disturbing places.
Tales of Halloween had a lot more shorts (around 10) and some were kinda meh, 1 was bad, but overall I enjoyed it a lot with Sweet Tooth and Grim and Grinning Ghost easily the best.
Planning to go see conjuring 2 alone… also planning to go to a further theater so I have a longer drive home.
Apathy is a man after my own heart. I can list some films later, I’d actually like to do research and stuff.
I’ll agree mainstream aka theater wide release horror films have steadily declined and are rarely good, but independent or VoD releases are strong as hell, and has that sense of freedom in the genre the 70s/80s did for exploration.
Few movies i need to check up on
Ooooh I want to see that second film you listed, loved Drive. That dude builds a great looking atmosphere.
Yes this is a real trailer ring vs the grudge
Has anyone read Stephen King’s IT?
I have the movie with Tim Curry as Pennywise, and I remember starting the novel years ago when I was in middle school, but I never made it far. Many SK fans regard IT as one of his best. I think I’m going to give it another try because the new movie is coming out next year in September (and that is probably exactly how long it will take me to get through it, lol).
I read a lot of SK when I was younger, my favorite being The Stand. Dude has over 50 novels out now!
It is pretty good, book delves into a lot more territories than the mini-series did for sure, and had some uncomfortable moments as well. Its long as hell though and hard to power through.
Rewatched Phantasm I-IV and got around to seeing Wes Craven’s Shocker.
Phantasm still legit, was pretty impressed by how they held up and recapped the story when the sequels are so far apart. Phantasm: Ravager is also suppose to debut this year as the final film to wrap things up.
Shocker was pretty surprising, I remember as a kid seeing ads for it all the time but never managed to see it. Borrows a lot from Wes’ other work of NOES, has a male protagonist which is a rarity in Horror, and some comical scenes that didn’t get to cringe.
I feel the middle drags on to long, could have shaved some of that off. The beginning and end though is pretty great on action and entertainment.
Phantasm I, III, IV remastered (II is owned by Universal so isn’t apart of it) and Ravager are all coming out on October 7th and getting some special screenings on September 24th in select theaters.
That’s awesome sir, will see if screenings are taking place here.
So…the new version of Pennywise from the IT remake…nigga looks like Syndrome from The Incredibles. The costume itself looks like shit. Childhood horror just getting crapped on over here.
His facial expression and make up look fine from stills. The outfit would take some getting used to.
I’m in wait and see on that one, can really go either way.