Scary Tales and Movies Aren’t That Scary Anymore
With Halloween coming up, we like to tell scary stories around the campfire and watch scary movies with friends. However, these traditions have been getting worse as of late.
The many years of horror have made us practically turn the scary into the mundane. Sure, the younger generation may still have their own scares and spooks, but the same cannot be said for the older generation. Any scary story we tell is either false or not even totally scary any more and is more of just fascination than actual fear.
The movies are worse as their many tropes have gotten stale and they are relying more on quick, off-the-wall jump scares, rather than building up the tension. It’s as if we’ve forgotten how to make good ghost stories. Classics such as The Blair Witch Project or “Call of Cthulhu” are good for a reason as they understand how to make scares actually work.
Heck, even with the younger generation nowadays, while still getting scared, that kind of content is being toned down for them and being heavily monitored, which is a major shame, considering that they need to feel that way and understand what to do in certain situations. Even telling old legends to make sure they don’t go out wandering in the middle of the night would suffice as good lessons to teach. Yet, we’re in an age where kids are protected from the most mundane horror flicks, and the genre as a whole has gotten stale.
October is a good year for ghost stories and fantastic horror movies, and Halloween is a highly regarded holiday. To see it turn out like this is simply saddening. We must try to make these scary tales scary once more. Otherwise, there would be no point in Halloween itself.
