Happy HallowSTREAM! Q&A with Rotten Tomatoes EIC, Matt Atchity

Halloween – the yearly celebration when all things spine chilling and creepy are actually charming. There’s an addictive thrill that results from that first fright when watching a horror movie. And every year, filmmakers try to find new ways to hair-raise and shock audiences even more.

We wanted to take a deeper look at the genre to see what really differentiates the horrifying from the just plain horrible. We’ve chatted with Rotten Tomatoes’ resident film expert and Editor-in-Chief, Matt Atchity, to see what, in his opinion, really makes a horror flick tick. Check out the Q&A below.

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Q: What are some of the elements of a great horror film?

A: I think probably the most important one is tension. Anybody can do a horror movie that’s just gross – that’s the easy part. You can do stuff that’s disgusting and gory and while that has a place too, I think the tension and fear going into it is important – what you don’t see is just as scary as what you do see. A recent version of that is It Follows. It Follows is a terrifying movie and yet you never really see anything. The implication of what you see is as scary as what you don’t see. When you reveal a monster or show the gore, it’s the tension of whether or not characters are going to survive that gets people. You want viewers to feel as invested in the survival of your characters as anyone else.

Where to Watch

• It Follows (2014): Amazon Instant Video, M-GO and VUDU

Q: Why do you think horror films are so popular?

A: I personally find a really good horror movie is really cathartic. In modern society, we walk around with enough dread. We are all worried about a thousand little things everyday – paying the bills, worrying whether or not a girlfriend is going to break up with someone, etc. A good horror movie, especially if you have a big group of people with you, makes everyone jump at once. Watching a horror movie in a dark room with a bunch of friends is close to the theatrical experience and that fear is contagious. When everyone screams together and survives, that level of relief is like primal scream therapy. The feeling of dread and terror followed by that sense of relief could be really cathartic. Then you think paying the bills doesn’t seem so hard because at least I’m not running away from Freddy Kreuger.

Where to Watch:

• Nightmare of Elm Street (1984): Amazon Instant Video, CinemaNow, M-GO, VUDU

Q: Why do you think certain horror movies do better than others?

A: A lot of it is what are you bringing to genre that’s fresh. Audiences get tired of seeing the same thing over and over again. A good example of somebody to look at is Wes Craven. Wes Craven starts out doing a really low budget like The Hills Have Eyes. It’s a terrifying movie. He doesn’t do anything for a while and then does something completely different and starts this huge franchise – a supernatural movie about a guy attacking people in dreams [with Nightmare on Elm Street]. That kind of gets played out and a few years later, he comes into the Scream franchise, which is almost kind of this deconstructionist horror movie. There’s a guy who gets three bites to the apple because he kept reinventing what he was doing and he managed to stay fresh.

You look at something like Paranormal Activity and the way the story has been told entirely through the found footage trove and through the ideas closer to TV. They nail it. Then there’s something like Blair Witch Project, the idea that it’s created out of found footage. The conceit behind that movie really helps the audience enjoy the film.

Eli Roth does great work where he goes into Hostel movies and really gets into what’s the worst thing that could happen. He abandons the supernatural aspect of movies and gets to this almost gritty realism and he’s really good at that.

We all have our fears and at the end of the day, we can all list things that people are going to be afraid of and they are all relatively the same thing – I’m afraid I’m going to get hurt, tortured or killed. There’s so many different ways to get someone there. [A good horror movie] finds a new way to get someone there, using all the tools at its disposal to make a great movie that is tension-filled, exciting, good story, well-shot, well-acted. Audience likes to see something fresh and new and those are the ones that tend to be more successful than anything else.

Where to Watch:

• The Hills Have Eyes (1977): Amazon Instant Video, VUDU
• Nightmare of Elm Street (1984): Amazon Instant Video, CinemaNow, M-GO, VUDU
• Scream (1996): Amazon Instant Video, CinemaNow, M-GO, Netflix, VUDU
• Paranormal Activity (2007): Amazon Instant Video, CinemaNow, M-GO, VUDU
• Blair Witch Project (1999): Amazon Instant Video, CinemaNow, Hulu, M-GO, Time Warner Cable, VUDU

Follow:

• Wes Craven
• Eli Roth

Q: What are some trends we should expect in horror films to come?

A: I think that audiences are starting to get a little tired of the found footage genre. The studios like them because they are cheap to produce. I suspect someone will make a claim to make Vampires scary again. After the Twilight saga, people are ready to start seeing films that are a little bit more supernatural. We’re seeing a little of that with movies like It Follows and The Babadook – something supernatural, but in a way that we’ve not necessarily seen before. I think we’re going to have more undefined, evil supernatural force that can’t be reasoned with and maybe doesn’t have a character in it of itself, especially when you think about we live in age of information. The unknown is scary.

The ones to really watch are the well-reviewed, indie horror movies – one of those will blow up and every studio will want a movie like that. Something like Friday the 13^th or Halloween gets big and suddenly everyone wants a slasher they can franchise. When I say something like this unnamed, undefined horror that ties into people’s fear of the unknown, I’m looking at things like It Follows and The Babadook, which are getting more popular. You’re seeing a little bit of that in The Conjuring.

The other one to watch is Blumhouse Productions. Jason Blum is turning the business on its head, making these low budget horror movies with great margins. There are a lot of great filmmakers that got their start in horror. If you want to watch trends, watch what Blumhouse is doing and watch the undefined entity genre. Those are harder to market so I think the big studios will shy away from them until someone wraps their head around selling that to the audience.

Where to Watch:

• Friday the 13^th (1980): Amazon Instant Video, CinemaNow, M-GO, VUDU
• It Follows (2014): Amazon Instant Video, M-GO and VUDU
• The Babadook (2014): Amazon Instant Video, Netflix
• The Conjuring (2013): Amazon Instant Video, CinemaNow M-GO, VUDU

Follow:

• Jason Blum
• Halloween (1978)

Q: What are some of your favorite horror films and why?

A: I love Evil Dead 2. That’s one of my favorite movies of all time. I’m a Big John Carpenter fan. I love The Thing and Prince of Darkness. His Halloween is amazing – that’s a terrifying movie. Early Sam Rainey is also great. It might be a stretch to call Jaws a horror film, but Jaws is a terrifying movie. Another one I love is Arachnophobia.

Where to Watch:

• Evil Dead 2 (1987): Amazon Instant Video, CinemaNow, Time Warner Cable, VUDU
• The Thing (1982): Amazon Instant Video, CinemaNow, M-GO, Time Warner Cable, VUDU
• Prince of Darkness (1987): Amazon Instant Video, CinemaNow, VUDU
• Jaws (1975): Amazon Instant Video, M-GO, VUDU
• Arachnophobia (1990): Amazon Instant Video, VUDU

Follow:

• John Carpenter
• Halloween (1978)

Q: What are some horror films people should add to their My Feed?

A: Crimson Peak and Guillermo del Toro’s work in general. Crimson Peak is a recent film that I found to be very scary – it’s very atmospheric. It’s less about being gross and surprising you with monsters. It’s a ghost story but it’s got this sense of dread over it. Scary movies can come from anywhere; one of the scariest movies I’ve seen is this movie called Cop Car with Kevin Bacon. That movie was absolutely terrifying.

Where to Watch:

• Cop Car (2015): Amazon Instant Video, CinemaNow, M-GO, VUDU

Follow:

• Crimson Peak (2015)
• Guillermo del Toro
• Kevin Bacon

Q: We just announced the Roku 4, our new 4K player. What are your thoughts on 4K and how do you think it will affect the horror genre?

A: 4K is going to make everything pop. You’re watching something like Green Inferno, which is in theaters now. I can’t imagine what it’s going to look like watching at home – it will be terrifying! I watched Good Night Mommy at home with my hands over my eyes because there were things I was afraid to see in that move and I imagine 4K is only going to make it even more terrifying.

I’m always a big fan of better looking screens at home, especially with movies that have a really great cinematographer. There are certain movies that I always say you have to see on a big screen but with 4K, we are approaching a point where you can stay at home. When you really want to feel the terror of a horror movie, you have to have friends over watching at the same time. Scary movies are scarier the more people you have with you. If you’ve got 4K and there’s something scary you want to watch, get four or give people over and watch it together. Fear is contagious and you can show off that you have 4K to your friends.

Follow:

• Green Inferno (2013)
• Good Night Mommy (2014)

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Are you in the mood for a good horror binge? Be sure to check out these films as well as Roku channels like Shudder, Screambox, FrightPIX, Cryptic Television and Horror Hall on your Roku device. In the mood for something else but you’re not sure what? Check out Flixster for high-definition movie trailers from the latest blockbusters or classics.

Happy screaming…we mean streaming!