[Cali Panthers Fan]

I actually think horror films use camera work, lighting, makeup, and sound better than any other genre. The main point of these is to elicit an emotional response: Fear. They accomplish their goal so effectively through the use of the tools of the trade that having an actual acting performance is superfluous. All we need is someone that we can relate to as the main character, and this is why you see so many female leads in horror films now, to get that extra scare out of the female audience.

The problem these days seems to be that the same tricks are used over and over again to get a visceral response from an audience. The last new idea brought to the game was Blair Witch Project, which has been repeated ad nauseum ever since. Genuinely creepy horror films have gone away in exchange for more gore and quick scares. There was a time when Hitchcock was considered the master of the scare, and his films look relatively tame compared to modern films, but his mastery is still there for anyone that cares to watch someone truly understood how to get a reaction from his audience.