A lot of people are surprised when they hear that I am writing a horror movie (well, someday I'll get back to it after we get settled). That's because the latest string of scary stories on film are full of slashing, blood, gore, and torture. In fact, on the writerly message boards and film related articles, the business refers to movies such as Saw and Hostel as "torture p*rn".

That is not the movie I'm writing. I detest slasher flicks and cheap thrills. A scary movie should be scary, not gross.

Last night we watched 1408, a horror movie. It was very good. There were no naked people. There was no drunken priest having a crisis of faith. There were no angels, good, fallen or in-between. Santeria, Voodoo, and witches are thankfully absent. Nothing melted upon the application of holy water. There was a Bible, but it only appeared incidentally.

It was scary. Suspenseful. Sad. Different. A few pictures of dead people. Also, there were some bad words. (It's horror, not rated "G"!)

The plot was more in the vein of Hitchcock or Ray Bradbury. It's about a hotel room, and an author who writes books about haunted hotel rooms. He's cynical and doesn't believe in the paranormal, but that hasn't stopped him from writing book after book about haunted stops.

If you want a good, scary movie I recommend 1408 with John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson. John Cusack is one of my favorite actors - and so is his sister. I've never seen a movie he was bad in (although I have seen some bad movies he was great in!)

Labels: movies