Quote:
Originally Posted by Fledermaus
And it entirely depends on what you mean by "scared." There's fun-house type teen slasher movie, the gross-out HOLY **** that guy is SAWING HIS DAMN LEG OFF shock... but even that can get old. The kind of truly deranged psychotic horror that blossomed in the seventies I think owes a lot to Hitchcock. He had a lot of guts as a director in his time, exploring elements that, because they were so rooted in reality, felt all the sicker.
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Well that's what I said. His films were revolutionary for the time period, because no one had ever seen anything like them before. Their impact can't help but shrink a bit after forty years of continuing development of the genre, don't you think?
And don't tell me he was above using cheap shock tactics in his films; Psycho is full of them. The final "shocking" reveal at the end of the film (of the mother's skeleton) comes to mind -- as if that moment wasn't entirely predictable. Frightening and unprecedented during its release, maybe, but it comes off as laughably executed nowadays. I've seen better cheese scares in William Castle flicks, to tell you the truth.