I think the problem with a lot of these horror movies is the lack of making you care about ALL OR MOST of the characters -- especially in horror flicks, which are rooted in size to have an ensemble cast of characters. If we don't get to know the characters; understand them and why they are the way the way they are; spend time with them; and all that good character development stuff -- then when a character gets put in a nasty or bloody situation, how are we supposed to care if they are going to be killed in the most brutal manner conceivable?
It's a problem a lot of movies -- including the most recent Saw flicks.
Saw 1 Spoilers...
In the original Saw, it was pretty basic. You only had a few characters that you spent time with. You care about Cary Elwes's very flawed character still b/c you spent most of the flick with him -- so when he saws his foot off, you care. Sure, seeing someone saw their foot off is nasty and will get a reaction, even if you don't care about his character....but b/c he is a character you spent time with, chances are you'll care about him even more so if you got to know the character very well.
In many of the recent Saw flicks, these flicks are around the same length as the original -- but have way more characters. You can't do this, if you want us to care about big ensembles for casts. Also, we, the viewer, you wind up caring more about Jigsaw than anyone else b/c you've spent so many flicks already with this character and you've gotten to know him more so than anyone else, honestly....
Saw series spoilers on Jigsaw
...Even if Jigsaw is the "bad guy" and even if he is already been dead for a few films b/c they constantly keep revealing more and more about the character and his past.
Yeah, I feel you man. I've been done with horror movies for a long time now. Silent Hill (the games, not so much the movie) spoiled me on horror movies forever. I just don't really care anymore. Mindless gore doesn't do anything for me unless it's at the end of my boomstick in a game, and the fact that horror movies almost never do anything psychologically interesting just turns me off. They show you a creepy kid, a dog with an upside-down head, some dudes crawling around... and then that's it, you're supposed to be interested. News flash, directors: we're not!
I think the Silent Hill games work b/c -- by gosh, you spend more than 1 hour and a half (typical movie length) with these characters -- in what normally is a nice-sized emsemble of characters. In the game medium, you can take the time of 6 hours to 10 hours -- or more, if the designers feel so inclined -- and wind up caring about most of the characters in the entire game b/c it winds up feeling more like say One Season or More Seasons of some TV show.
Unlike some other games that are that (short game) length, SH is quite abundant with plot, story, and character depth. SH isn't going to waste that kind of time with letting things slide in those departments. SH was always very plot, story, and character focused -- and takes advantage of it in every regard.
About the over-used cliches in horror flicks -- the creepy kid, dog upside-down head, dudes with long blades wearing masks, and crawling dudes....yeah, overused cliches get tiring -- especially it's going to be retreaded without bringing anything new, different, or extra to the table.
