Appreciation of Horror Movies – Between Subjectivity And Objectivity

We are sure that everyone heard about horror movies. Most of us have seen already several movies belonging to this genre. If you haven’t seen yet, we are sure that you have seen commercials that are announcing new horror movies releases in the cinemas or on television.

Opinion

Asking the public about their opinion regarding a movie, you will find that there are many opinions. There are opinions ranging from excellent to horrible. But what is a good movie? A good horror movie is that film that has mostly favourable reviews, a lot of appreciations and an important box office. Even in the horror film industry there are many awards that are “telling” us which the best horror films are. In horror films genre we may speak about the “Saturn Award” or the “Empire Award”. Even if the public appreciation is most valuable, these awards given by experts in the film industry are very valuable for the producers and actors of the horror films.

Best horror movies

The best horror movies may be given by the awards that were received or the box office. “The Exorcist” won the “Saturn Award” in 1973. After 10 years, the movie “The Dead Zone” was the winner of the “Saturn Award”. Other movies that have won during the time the “Saturn Award” are “Interview with the Vampire” (1994), “Final Destination” (2000), “Drag Me to Hell” (2009) and “Crimson Peak” (2015). Another important award in the horror film industry is the “Empire Award”, which has been won by films such as “The Descent” (2006), “Hostel” (2007), “Eden Lake” (2009), “The Last Exorcism” (2011) or “The Hallow” (2016). Among the horror movies with the highest box office income we may mention “The Exorcist” (1973), “The Sixth Sense” (1999), “Young Frankenstein” (1974), “Gremlins” (1984) or “The Amityville Horror” (1979). You can notice that not always receiving awards means also high income from the box office.

Horror movies – subjective appreciation or objective appreciation

In the previous section, we have mentioned some of the best horror movies during the time in the film industry. There are both appreciations and critics for horror movies and most of them are based on subjectivity and objectivity. How we could avoid subjectivity in the films appreciation? It is not very easy to do this. If we are not experts in the film industry, then for sure we are guided by our life principles in judging a movie. But how horror films may be close to our principles, if horror movies promote violence, crime and fear? Well, in the case of horror movies we consider that subjectivity is always present. All of those that love watching horror movies are subjective in their positive appreciation. Maybe the objective appreciation in horror movies is the task of film experts and critics, but not for the general public.

Looking at the reviews received by a horror movie, you will find clearly that all the appreciations are based on subjectivity. But it is normally to be like this, even for horror films appreciation.