Why Bad can make Good
Stand-up comedian and horror movie mega-buff, Barry Dodds writes exclusively for BadMovieBlog.com on why low-budget gorefests are usually better than big-budget effect-filled extravaganzas.
My name is Barry, I’m 28 and I love horror films. Every kind of horror film – good and bad, and have been a collector of such movies for years. I love everything from the slick Hollywood productions of the “Final Destination” movies, the violent so-called “torture porn” flicks “Hostel” and “Saw” , right down to the uber-shite films like “Street Trash” and “Body Melt” .
One of the things that all these films have in common is special effects. They vary in their quality, execution and imagination and I have always been a bit of an effects nut – collecting books on legends like Tom Savini, following the work of the late Stan Winston and getting excited when I read on IMDB that the blood and splatter on the latest gorefest that I intend to see have been produced by KNB effects or Greg Nicotero himself.
Effects make or break a horror film. Do it well and you will be a hero amongst horror fans and have the honour of scarring many a 13 year old’s brain when they stumble upon it at a sleepover at their mates.
There are the classics: The splinter in the eye effect from “Zombie Flesh Eaters” , the lawnmower massacre from Peter Jackson’s classic “Braindead” and the wince-inducing Achilles tendon cutting of “Hostel”. Things can go wrong though. I could sit here for hours and list all the bad effects I’ve seen in horror movies but there is now a sure fire way to make myself and thousands of other horror fans dislike, nay hate, your efforts.
CGI.
Now, I understand some people love CGI effects and get a bit giddy when they see a car that doesn’t exist flying toward Bruce Willis at high speed and missing by an inch. That’s their call, I don’t have a problem with that. It just doesn’t excite me in any way. Yet I can see the need for a bit of PC-generated magic when it comes to making Wolverine jump about the place. Hell, I’ll even let “Final Destination 3D” get away with it as the 3D wouldn’t have happened without it. But as a rule, CGI has no place in horror at all. Ever.
I recently watched a very well-reviewed movie called “Dead Snow” , a great unknown film about a group of medical students who manage to awaken a legion of zombie Nazis from beneath the snow of a Norwegian mountain. What follows is 60 minutes of fun, “Evil Dead” style slapstick horror, which is as big on blood as it is laughs and scares. Then the final 30 mins start and someone gets ripped apart, on-screen, blood spraying everywhere, hungry un-dead Nazi’s looking very pleased with their efforts.
Except they shouldn’t because it didn’t happen. There was a blue screen somewhere and many months later the blood effects were added by a fat computer geek who I imagine looks like the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons. Sat in front of his PC – mouse in one hand, pair of his mother’s used underwear in the other. It looked crap. All CGI gore looks crap, it just doesn’t work and it can be done very easily with just a bit of imagination.
Getting to the point, this is why I believe a bad, low budget flick can be better than a slick, rich production. Anyone can make something happen on a PC, it’s too easy. Simply give up your social life, get some flashy software and away you go. To create an effect on the cheap, that will work, quickly and effectively requires imagination and flair and a love of what you’re doing. And probably some tubing and a bit of fake blood. This is what modern horror is missing in so many examples. Peter Jackson made his feature “Bad Taste” over 4 years with a group of mates and every effect you see is real, it happened. Quick cutting, miniatures, tons of passion and it looks fantastic.
Look at the effects in James Cameron’s “Aliens” ; did the creatures look as good in “Alien Resurrection” ? Was the Alien Queen anywhere near as impressive in the CGI laden “Alien vs. Predator” ? Of course not, because you could see they were real in Cameron’s movie. Bishop being ripped in two by the Queen is one of the best effects I have ever seen in a movie, yet it was done with string and clever camera angles. If it was done today, without a doubt it would have been done using a CGI effect and instead of the audience being wowed, there would be a collective yawn of “Oh, that was done a computer”.
Bad low budget films cannot afford CGI so the film makers have to use their hands to create gore and exploding heads and god bless ‘em, sometimes they get it wrong but it doesn’t matter. A shit effect with a some latex and a bit of tubing will always be better than a flashy blue screen effort and always more horrific. And that’s what horror is about.
Bad, cheap movie makers, I salute you and would love to shake your fake blood covered hands. Keep keeping horror real, even if it looks rubbish.
Barry Dodds is a stand-up comedian and performs regularly throughout the UK. Check your local comedy club’s listings to see when he’s in your town.
Spot-on article here. At best, CGI effects will make people say “Wow, that’s some impressive CGI!”, it’ll never get people believing what is happening.
It’s true in Sci-fi too – The later Star Wars films have some amazing CGI space-ships and battles, but in 2001: A Space Oddessey everything is done with models and looks all the more real for it.