If you have enough spare time to read a lot of my reviews, you'll find that one of
the drums I really enjoy beating on this little website of ours is my hate for a certain
word that starts with a T. I haven't been able to nail down all the reasons for my
reaction to "Thrillers," and the people who use that term, but in the following twelve
hundred words, I'll try to shed at least one ray of light on why I feel the way I do,
and why I feel so strongly about it.
Yesterday, I was talking with one of my roommates, and he and I got talking about
movies. He told me he didn't care for horror movies, but much preferred Thrillers.
I had heard this junk before. Still, I asked him what the difference was, and when he
defined it, I said, "But you liked The Others, and that was Horror." He said,
"No, that was a Thriller too." I always suspected the guy of being an idiot, but when
he didn't consider a haunted house movie with candlelight, fog, and ghosts to be
Horror, well, simple suspicion was no longer necessary.
I hate the word "Thriller." I HATE it. I'd better, if I'm worked up to write an entire
essay about it.
One of the most vile developments of my lifetime has been that of Political Correctness.
We live in a society where you can no longer call someone who refuses to work a bum,
someone who gorges themselves fat, and someone who yammers publically on a
cellphone an asshole. This attack on free speech and free expression has added an
element of mistrust and paranoia to every conversation and anchored an invisible manacle
on every single American. Two hundred year old words are no longer considered safe
even between friends. Terms such as "Indians," dating back more than five hundred
years, are now considered inappropriate for everyday dialogue. It's due to political
correctness that the word "Thriller" exists, a cowardly word if I ever heard one.
Thriller is an all-encompassing genre, which can be used to describe everything from
Speed to Psycho, from The Wicker Man to Treasure
Island. Out of morbid curiosity, I grabbed a handful of movies off my shelf, just
to see if I was crazy or not. "A hip and edgy thriller!" one says, "A crackling thriller
from beginning to end!" reads another. "The most exciting thriller in years!" a back
cover boasts, while the front of another is, "A first class edge of your seat thriller!"
One is "A mind-shattering, suspense-filled thriller," while another is "a stylish and
intricate thriller stocked with powerhouse performers." "A clever thriller!" reads the
simple quote on one, while "A pistol-packing, snap-crackling thinking-man's thriller!"
writes a reviewer who must get paid by the hyphen. "A Suspense-filled Twilight Zone
Thriller!" one raved, and right next to it in the alphabet, "The #1 Thriller of All Time!"
shouts the infamous front cover of another film. It's disturbing, really.*
So, the word is as widespread as Taco Bell, tattoos, and herpes. That doesn't make
it okay. To call a Horror movie a Thriller hurts me. It insults my favorite genre and
demeans us both. If a movie is good, its quality will shine through, even if you dare
damn it with the designation "Horror film." And the reverse is true; as a brilliant
writer once said: "A dead dog by any other name would just as stink."
Horror wasn't always as frowned upon as it is today. Celebrities based their whole
careers around it, studios were saved from financial ruin thanks to it, and MILLIONS
of people (young and old), have put away their worries/real-life fears and delighted in
it. I'm not sure when it became such an awful thing. Probably in the Seventies, if I
had to lay my money down somewhere.
But perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps there always was a stigma attached to the genre,
perhaps the ultra-religious always decried this form of entertainment as evil and
perverse, perhaps the most self-respecting moviegoer steered clear of "Creature
Features" or "Spook Shows." Maybe there's nothing new under the sun.
Horror is nothing to be ashamed of. Not in the days where they can win Oscars, and
not just in makeup or bloodletting categories. But people still are ashamed, aren't they?
The term Thriller is something invented to make it acceptable to go to a film where a
man goes insane and kills his wife, or a scientist creates a dangerous form of life, or
where something that was dead gets up and walks around again ("and uses a knife,"
I originally wrote, just to be cute). But hey, if you need to invent an excuse (for
example, I had a friend who used to say he only saw R-rated movies as research,
and never for pleasure), then it's clear you think you're doing something wrong.
These are the same people who feel dirty when they realize Shawshank
Redemption or Stand By Me were based on Stephen King books.
The same people who gasp and run to wash their hands when they find out
Road To Perdition was based on a comic book.
Which reminds me, in a conversation with another friend this week, he told me that
famed comic creator Will Eisner so hates the medium of comic books as it is, and is
so ashamed to be associated with the likes of Stan Lee, Frank Miller, Bob Kane, and
Jack Kirby, that he doesn't call comic books "comic books." No, he's come up with
the lofty moniker "sequential artwork."
This is the same thing. A pretentious, embittered misanthrope, Eisner has snapped at
the hand that feeds him and shamefully turned his back on the non-shameful medium
that he helped create. What a sad comment on his own life mere moments away from
the end of it.
Something tyranist and I have discovered in our five years of maintaining the HFC is
just how many different kinds of Horror there are. Broad classifications can be made,
like Monster Movies, Ghost Stories, and Slashers, or very narrow filings, such as
Holiday-Themed Slashers, Giant Bug movies, and Cannibal Exploitation films.
But they're ALL Horror, folks.
But Uncle Rish, I hear you say, some Thrillers are not Horror! Okay, okay, then call
them Mysteries. Or Action. Or Porn. The only movies where Thriller adequately
applies are ones where you've got Shannon Tweed or Andrew Stevens in them, and
even then, they should be preceded by another word ("Erotic" or "Sexual"). In fact,
I'll amend my rule and say the term "Thriller" is okay if preceded by a modifier such
as "Medical" or "Political" or others. I guess there's even such a thing as a Psychological
Thriller, but you're treading on thin ice on that one.
I suppose it can go the other way too. Tyranist and I have rented films that were
marketed as Horror, only to find that they were Mysteries (such as Too Scared
To Scream or The Cat o' Nine Tails), Suspense films (Road
Games), Dramas (Freaks), or just plain misfiled by a lazy video store
employee (The Journey of Natty Gann). We still reviewed them though,
didn't we?
Sigh. Why do people hate Horror so much? Why does it have such a negative
reputation? Well, I'm sure there's an essay in that too, but let me simply say that Horror
is visceral and exploitative, often juvenile and lowbrow. Most of the time it appeals to
the young, the uncouth, the lowest common denominator. And I'll admit it: for every
good horror movie, there are two bad ones. So filmmakers try to justify their works,
try to put a wig and some earrings on it, and call it something else to avoid the stigma
of The Most Hated Genre.
But they don't have to. Horror is fun. It's a release. It's entertaining and disturbing
and shocking and exploring our dark sides help us understand who we are and who
we do not want to be. I love Horror. You do too (otherwise, why the devil would you
be here?). It's helped shape who I am and helped me forge lasting friendships and
fueled my creativity. That's why it bothers me when people hide behind the T-word.
There's no shame in Horror. It's not a dirty word.
Rish Damien Outfield
September 2000 - October 2003