halloween movies, or hollywood drivel

There are two franchises of horror movies that really don't have a logical conclusion and could be remade ad nauseum. The Saw movies, which were basically gore festivals and Final Destination movies. Both basically rely on very simple plots and very silly fears. Pretty much everyone is afraid of weird looking clowns, malfunctioning roller coasters or airplanes (all for no apparent reason). It's pretty boring predictable fare. I'm not quite sure how people fall for it every year. The flip side is to make movies which are basically torture porn, like say Hostel (Saw may have gone this direction, I only saw the first one, ha). These might be good for the squeamish, but it's basically boring for anyone else.

Fear, for whatever reason, is pretty predictable, meaning the movies marketed to it are predictable. Creative ways of killing people doesn't require us to flock to see people slaughtered in 'disgusting' means. And the creation of actual (lasting) fear requires imagination. Where people disappear and the causes of death are mysterious (and perhaps creative). One of the more terrifying movie characters is possibly Hannibal Lecter, but in the first movie only the death of a pair of guards is shown. The dismemberment afterward is not (though the results are). The fear is created through creepy behaviors and stares. Imagination provides the rest where we are left to wonder "what is going on back there?". The recent incarnation of the Joker was a similar disposition as there was a series of creepy behaviors or nervous tics that just were a touch off. Maybe this is just me, where fear is channeled by witnessing people that have a defined lack of rational behavior, but it seems to me that imagination is a sorely lacking tactic in film making. Or at least, it isn't all that common in horror genres anymore (see: Hitchcock).