Just wanted some opinions on this, since I can't really find out why this is happening.

About 12 years ago, I was heavily into the whole underground horror thing, travelling cross-country to small town videostores to get obscure stuff, tapetrading with lots of people to get that one uncut version and generally spending all my time watching horror and loving every minute of it.

I've never really given up on collecting horror, even buying expensive as hell Laserdiscs of really crappy movies, just to own them.

Thing is, I don't get a kick out of watching them anymore. Maybe I've seen too many of them, maybe I've matured to the point where I can seperate incredibly shitty movies from quality ones. I still want them all for old times' sake, but I never really watch them.

Last week I got really psyched about the release of Beyond Re-Animator and couldn't wait for it to finish downloading. After watching it, however, I was sorely disappointed and was wondering if I would have liked it 12 years ago.

Ofcourse I still enjoy the real classics (zombiestuff and slashers being my favorite genre) but I also remember loving Fulci's stuff, or Franco/Deodato/D'Amato/Rollin etc. These days, I can't sit through them anymore.

Anyone else have a similar experience? It pisses me off, because the memory of being a horror-afficionado makes it hard for me to believe that I can't be one today.

Oh well

I sorta feel the same, horror just aint the same as it used to be. Maybe we are desensitised, who knows? I dont like mopst of the new stuf ftho, always looks too tame.

Your're not alone mate!

I was the same! I still have my precious collection of laserdiscs and cld-d925 pioneer player.

And have stopped getting discs off ebay becuase I'm kinda bored of it.

But the day has to come where you've seen alot of the films you know about and want to see.

For me living in the UK, the recently revived VIPCO (which did stand for Video Instant Production Company) who have been releasing all the banned or well known horrors HEAVILY cut and avialable on mass!

So now they're a little less infamous when you can get em at your local blockbuster (all be it cut to shreds!)

But I will always love horror movies and watch one if it's uncut and gorey.

oh and don't get me started on Film2000 and Full Moon Entertainement with all their straight to video filmed on camcorder sh*te

yeah, personally my cinephilie started with horror movies, especially 70's movies, still the period i consider the heigth of the genre (and maybe american filmmaking in gereal).
but apart from that, horror has always been pretty infantile, a lot of movies are cinematically and storytelling-wise pretty inept and try to make it up with gore. that?s not necessarily bad, but to me it is very tiring.

kids, u grow up.
that's normal.

I tend to go through phases where I am really into horror movies, then other times I don't even think about the movies and I start to think about how much money I've wasted! Sometimes I'll have a bad run where I see a load of terrible movies, but then one nicely done film will put my faith back in horror movies!

At one point I was just buying old videos because it was a rare title or I liked the look of the cover - I'd even buy a video just because of the label it was released on! I have piles of videos lying around that I keep telling myself I will get round to watching, but in reality, why bother wasting time on some shitty film like 'The Fiend' or 'Triangle of Lust' when there are so many films about that I would rather see! You can get so involved in collecting horror that you stop paying attention to quality and get obsessed with rarity and completing your collection!

Don't get me wrong, I still love horrors but there are so many films that aren't worth reading the blurb on the back that you have to be careful or you end up wasting half of your life in front of z-grade rubbish wondering why the hell somebody thought that making this shit was a good idea. Horror films can be a real gamble.

I have been thinking recently about selling off a load of my videos, but I remember 5 years ago when I was going through another period where I was bored of horror - I threw away all my Dark Side magazines, a mistake I still regret to this day! But some of the videos I've got are 25 years old - can tape survive long enough for it to be worth hoarding my collection? Should I think about replacing my favourite titles with the DVDs or will I start worrying about them rotting away in another 25 years? Or will I sell all my tapes and then curse myself when that rarity never gets re-released on DVD and my super-rare tape is irreplacable?

Best just to hold on to them I guess and wait for that love of horror to return i guess....

I too was having that kind of a horror-downer before emule came along. Now I find it's a thrill to finally get to see all those I could never get my hands on... but still, I now have over 500 films which I haven't seen, and as you said, it's not often I choose some shitty predictable horror film when I can watch something else that shows much more pretention.

But in general I think the key is variation. I don't watch only horror anymore. Sometimes I pop in a drama, sometimes comedy and alot of asian cinema.

I also hate horor films that try to mess with ya head, all that psychological shit bores the hell outta me, I watch horror for the fantasy element to help me escape reality, not have to spend the whole movie thinking about why something happens.

If I wanna spend a whole hour and a half thinking I will watch Inspector fuckin Morse.

Glad I'm not alone.

I just miss the feeling of obtaining even the shittiest of Jess Franco movies and being entertained all the way through, no matter how crappy it was, because it was obscure and I was one of the few who actually watched it =]

I am very versatile when it comes to movies and have long since given up on watching horror exclusively. I watch just about anything, just to know wether it's crap or not. Last night, I even watched Hollywood Homicide. One tip : watch a Jess Franco movie instead, it's probably better.

It occurs to me, that only a handfull of horrorflicks jump out at ya, like the first Re-Animator, The Beyond, Night/Dawn/Day, Suspiria etc. At the end of it all, you can pretty much count on the recommendations of fellow horrorfans to be the only flicks really worth watching. The rest is just filler.

Still, my preference towards zombiemovies and 80's slasherfilms is still going strong, it's just the rest I don't care about, unless Savini did the FX or Bruce Campbell is attached (Bubba Ho Tep, come on!!)

I guess I'll call it a movielover's midlife crisis (at 28) =]

28 is twenty eight =]

I like just the oposite.

Jacobs Ladder
Death and the Maiden
Tesis
Cure
Angel Heart

all movies which rank on the very top of my list. I love the way things just make less and less sense untill the very last minute, when you get an 'AHHHHHH....' feeling, and you can decipher all the strange clues. Offcource some are just boring, and if the big climax is predictable (as in Cronenberg's 'Spider' for example) it's all ruined.



I agree and dissagree. Part of why I collect movies is kind of gold digger psychology. I'll watch tons of rare unheard of crap, and hate 99% of it, but when I find a hidden gem, something which almost noone has heard of, but is still very amazing, it's better than sex for me. (I'm not kidding)
And that's what it's all about for me.
It's the same reason why I'm not very interested in box-office hits. They might be amazing and cool, but if everybody has seen it, where's the fun in hunting it down? I'll watch it, and burn it, but it don't give me the same satisfaction.
I'm the same way with music too.

Pretty childish way of thinking probably, but I can't help it.

It's maybe because the hidden gem factor hasn't been exposed in years and years. I remember when I saw Reservoir Dogs on a cam version and jumped up 'WHOA! They can still roll one out every now and again'. Not a horrorfilm, but a good example nonetheless, because that was maybe the last time I was truly out of my skull with enthousiasm about a movie.

Music is also different for me. But also far easier to come by (Soulseek being a godsend for finding out about lesser known stuff) and I love finding out about a band pretty much no one else is listening to. Not 'because' no one listens to it, but because they deserve more recognition than what the 'mainstream' audience wants to give them. Makes me feel pretty l33t =]

have you tried getting another hobby, or just taking a break from movies? like watching too much porn, you eventually get desensitized, and have seen it all boring.

eh, your 28, go put a tie on, play golf and buy a mini-van.

I start loving movies purely because of Battle Royale and Ringu.
Before those 2 i just watch movies with not much interest, but after those i was like WOW, kickass, and i ran out to find out as much about japanese horror as i can, then i stumble on to other world horror stuff, then my love for movies kinda die down, just get bored after watch tons and tons of fake blood ozzing out of a human body in everyway it possibly can takes a toll on me. Then i find out izonews and eMule and i am now collecting world cinema. Mind you, i think i always have a love for these kind of movies cos I remember watcching Tetsuo (on Channel 4) and tons of weird stuff from spain/france etc etc back a good few years ago without really going out of my way to learn more about them till Ringu.

I think Apocalipstick has it spot on!

Interest comes and goes, and i think there will always be ground breaking films that can rekindle an interest and encourage film makers to continue producing good stuff... albeit - Rip them off eventually though

A year or two ago I thought that asia's film market was only Kung-Fu!!!!

But know I love all the horror / miike stuff!!!

And I can't remember what I did before emule

It will be a sad day on earth if emule dies! (unless something better and similar comes along!)

Congatulations
You are now Jaded
Pretty soon food won't taste the way it used to either..be on the look out

then get Scooby-doo cereal. i swear its made with crack or something, i go thru 8 to 10 boxes a day. i dont even bother with a bowl or milk, just a funnel and a box of No-Doze.

I tried that cereal once and it still tasted like ass.No-Doze puts me to sleep..personally I go for the entire box of dramamine...the world looks alot different at that point..although its a bit slanted, but still Jaded.

not totally on topic but here goes:

I'm still rather young but I watched A LOT of horror movies when I was just a kid. Some of those films have been available all the time in nearly every video rental store, and were immediately released on DVD. So there's been no excitement with those at all...
But some of the films just disappeared along with a local rental store around here (it was like 10 years ago) and I never saw or heard of those again. I met some people who had collected VHS horror and there were films that never were available for rent but some of these guys had copied on VHS. I was a fan of horror back then(as much as a kid can be).
But as time passed my interested in movies died, and it wasn't until now, about 8-10 years later, that I've got interested in the whole thing again, seeing some really good films like japanese horror (Ring(u), Dark Water etc.) and Jacob's Ladder and others and after my friend introduced me to Overnet, I found HHAH and ...

Well now I can watch all the stuff I loved back then, plus all the films I never actually saw ... I watched Child's Play a couple of days ago and I have to say it was a bit of a disappointment, as I had remembered it was a really good film. Maybe it was the sequels that rocked (or shocked) back in the day, I haven't completed those yet.
Now I also like to hunt used DVD's of movies that I've downloaded and really liked.
I just got hold of the Jacob's Ladder on DVD and it has some sweet deleted scenes material sadly no subs, though. I Also bought Angel Heart just the other day (haven't seen it yet)

I'm finding some really interesting stuff thanks to this forum and although not all of the old films are that scary anymore, I think the horror fan in me has been Re-animated!!

Not so much off topic as very late, autopsy.

Anyway, since the topic is here, I'll put in my two cents. There are about 5 truly great movies released every year, in my estimation. That includes all genres and all countries. There are signifigantly more good ones and more okay ones and all the way down to the crap. That's part of the reason that Hollywood is so easily critisized. With that many movies coming out, most are going to be crap. Anyway, my point is that, as a movie fan, I can't expect a new classic in my favorite genre (horror, bouviously) every year. So, I have to make do and watch the greats from other genres to fill the rest of the time. I would be a lesser person not having seen Ju-On, but the same is true if I didn't watch City of God.