I've been watching a lot of movies lately.
My favorite two genres are Science Fiction and Horror. Fortunately, Amazon Prime has a pretty good selection of horror flicks, which are mostly focused on the slasher subcategory.
Pixabay
Horror movies don't necessarily have to be scary in order to be good.
In fact, most horror aficionados aren't going to be scared by any movie in this genre because they become desensitized by their constant exposure.
There's nothing wrong with that. It's just a movie after all.
So what is it that actually makes a movie good?
Well, as I said earlier a horror movie does not need to be scary, but it still needs to have something to capture the viewer's interest continuously throughout the entire length of the movie.
Earlier this week I watched a three part trilogy.
Sleepaway Camp 1, 2, and 3.
Imdb
Apparently there is a fourth one also but it is just flashbacks and cuts to the other movies so I didn't watch it.
Sleepaway Camp 1 was horribly boring. It did absolutely nothing to capture the viewer's interest.
Sleepaway Camp 2, on the other hand, is one of the best slasher flicks that I've ever seen.
How could they be so different?
A lot of it comes down to pacing.
These days we live our lives at a fast rate of speed. Things happen quickly and we respond to those things quickly.
That doesn't necessarily mean that a movie has to move at a fast rate of speed, but it does mean that if we are going to wait for something to happen then whatever happens needs to be really powerful.
Pixabay
Sleepaway Camp only got one thing right. It had an ending that made you want to watch the next movie.
However, it did a lot of things wrong.
Let's take a look at some of the things that are important when watching a movie.
1 - Character development.
Do you care about any of these characters? Does any character stand out to you? Do you remember anything special about these characters? Is there any kind of emotional attachment?
As a writer, I can tell you that it's incredibly important to make your characters matter to the reader.
These characters have to be real people to you so that they become real people to your audience.
The same thing goes for a movie. Make the audience love your characters.
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2 - Suspension of Disbelief.
When it comes to horror movies this one is often tossed in the wind. I say this because I look on Netflix and Amazon Prime and see a lot of movies that are based around an idea that doesn't make any sense.
For example, a couple moves into a house only to find out that it is haunted by a spirit that makes their lives miserable. When browsing for horror movies sometimes I feel like this is the plot to 80% of them.
Unfortunately, it's very difficult to make this idea work. The spirit has to be believable, and the audience has to feel as if what's going on could actually happen to them.
I've only seen one movie lately that actually made me feel scared using this approach.
The Ritual.
It's available on Netflix. If you haven't seen it I would certainly check it out.
Having said that, if the situation that your characters are in is not one that you can imagine yourself being in, then you are not following the rule of suspension of disbelief.
Imdb
3 - Make it exciting.
Not every movie has to be exciting, but when I'm watching a horror movie, or almost any other genre of movie, I don't want to just see the types of things that I might be able to do in my daily life.
I'd like to see things happen that make me say Woah!
A movie about a guy that gets in his car and goes to work, works at a restaurant all day, and then comes home is not interesting to me because I already did that today.
Now there actually is a movie called Waiting that is exactly this movie. It's a great movie though because even though it doesn't really stand up to be suspension of disbelief test, it's still hilarious and exciting.
I think anyone will tell you that an exciting movie is way better than a boring one.
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4 - Get to the point.
Most of the movies that I can think of that are three or four hours long are actually really good movies.
Lord of the Rings, Das Boot, Ben-Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, Spartacus.
However, I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've watched a movie and halfway through thought to myself why they are continuing this particular subplot when there are aliens right outside the door waiting to burst in and kill the people in the room at any moment?
When a movie gets lost in it's own tangent and doesn't continue moving forward, then the audience becomes very bored.
That doesn't necessarily have to do with excitement.... it's just about momentum and pacing. Things have to move in a forward direction.
Some of the best movies I've ever seen are less than 90 minutes long. If I see that a movie is three hours long, I know that I'm making a real investment. Nobody likes to lose when it comes to investing.
Sometimes it's just about finding that perfect mix
The ability to get lost in a story.
Great acting.
Believable characters.
Exciting situations.
A well fleshed-out world that you would personally like to live, in or at least visit.
A plot that moves forward at a pace that keeps you engaged continuously.
A rewarding ending that makes you feel glad that you invested your time.
These are the things that make a movie good.