I watched a horror movie the other night. I won’t mention the title because I’m taking a broader view than one movie here. Suffice it to say, it was a recent horror movie; it got decent reviews; it used a lot of practical effects, which was nice; and it paid a lot of homage to older horror movies.

Homage is a tricky thing to pull off. Does a filmmaker really want to make a movie and then remind viewers of better movies when watching their movie? It seems counterproductive, unless the homage can somehow have a point within the story. In the case of the movie I watched, the homages did not have a point within the story. They reminded me of better movies.

The movie I watched actually started out somewhat promising, but it lost steam big-time and limped to a vague finish. What I was most struck by was how empty and hopeless the movie was when all was said and done. The story had nothing to hang its hat on, other than maybe love. Maybe…

I find this to be a common trait of contemporary horror movies. Admittedly, I don’t watch a lot of new ones, but I read about them because I am interested in the genre. When I do watch one, it is usually the result of research with the hope that lighting might be captured in a bottle.

How did things get to this point? My theory is that older storytellers believed in something (let’s call it looking-without horror). Today’s storytellers were taught to believe in themselves (let’s call it looking-within horror). Hence, you get horror movies that are basically a bunch of sadistic things happening to selves, rather than characters. Everyone dies, or, at best, arrives at an ambiguous conclusion. Maybe the one thing they can cling to through it all is love. Maybe…

When one looks within, horror ends up being, life is meaningless and then one dies, really painfully or scarily in the worst-case scenario. The best one has to hope for is that maybe they will find someone to share the meaninglessness with (and who wants to be with someone who makes a person the only source of meaning in their life anyway?).

When one looks without, horror ends up being scary stuff happens, but it can be overcome. Plus, hope remains because there are truths greater than the self. Finally, love is selfless rather than selfish. It’s not about using someone as a shield against bad things.

John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness is perhaps a good example of a horror movie that straddles the line between looking-within horror and looking-without horror. The horror of Prince of Darkness (if I remember right, it’s been a long time since I saw it) has a science-based angle, which I’d consider looking-within horror. Yet, it also has a religious-based angle, which is looking-without horror. It has a vague conclusion, but you get the sense there is maybe more to cling to through it all than love. Maybe…

Another horror story exists alongside looking-within horror and looking-without horror. I call it just-looking horror. That’s probably how I’d categorize popcorn horror movies. People watch them to have fun being scared. These movies can be good or bad, but it is easy to see they are only going for entertainment. They aren’t trying to answer any real questions about life.

The movie I watched tried to answer questions, and that’s where it went off the rails. It looked within, and there was nothing there. It would have been better served to be just looking. Another thing I am tired of in recent horror movies is the ambiguous or downer ending. Ambiguous or downer endings used to be special things that did not show up a lot. Now every contemporary horror movie seems to have an ambiguous or downer ending. It has ceased to be shocking and is now frustrating. I watched the movie, tried to care and then they send me out the door with nothing for the effort.

Going back to John Carpenter, he was good at pulling off open endings. With his open endings, one got the sense that things would go on. Modern open endings are like, nope, no hope. Sorry folks. Enjoy your popcorn with your empty, meaningless life. Thanks for the box office money. At least the filmmakers can now buy love. You, however, you are on your own…

To counterpoint this, I sometimes peruse the blogs of other horror writers. One such blog offered advice on how to be a better writer. The advice essentially boiled down to…experience yourself, which is going to lead to more looking-within horror. I can imagine the stories that stem from that directive, a story like the movie I watched that reminded me of other better movies and had no answers.

There’s another guy with the initials of J.C. that could tell a good looking-without horror story. Check out the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus. In the end, that is maybe the ultimate horror story — that life does indeed have a great deal of meaning and everything matters in the end.